Bulwark Expands Spring Garden-Area Taproom
HALIFAX – Bulwark Cider has expanded its Spring Garden-area taproom with a new lounge and event space on the second floor of a historic Halifax property.
The Bulwark Cider House expansion comes as the company aims to solidify its presence in the city and carve out a new event space downtown.
Bulwark is based out of New Ross and has been around for more than a decade. But the cidery recently made an ambitious expansion into Halifax with its new taproom.
The company opened the Bulwark Cider House in mid-2020, in the middle of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. It sits in a historic house on Dresden Row, just off of Spring Garden Road.
Jesusa Hunt is Bulwark’s sales manager. She says the pandemic and a massive construction project on Spring Garden Road had, until recently, conspired to keep the space a relatively hidden gem.
“We find a lot of people still don’t know that we’re here,” she said.
However, now that road construction is over and the pandemic is waning, customers have started coming back. That has coincided with Bulwark finishing renovations on the upstairs space.
Bulwark Cider House is somewhat unique because it operates out of the historic Richard O’Neill House. The house was built in the 1850s by a wealthy grocer who later died in a shipwreck off the coast of Sable Island.
According to Hunt, the building has over the years housed a dispensary, a salon, a guest house, a Turkish restaurant, and two different Chinese restaurants.
Bulwark founder Germain Bergeron says when he first opened the cider house he was forced to gut the first floor to comply with city codes.
“But the second floor, I refused. I said I’ve done enough gutting and destruction so I’m keeping it the way it is,” he says.
Instead, Bulwark incorporated many of the building’s historic elements into the new space. The lounge has the building’s original hardwood floors, stately fireplaces, and more. Those features have been incorporated into a space equipped with sofas, chairs, and other rustic but comfortable furniture.
“Anybody who walks in here feels like they’re walking into the living room, which is the objective,” Bergeron says.
Hunt says he’s now booking the space for events like corporate meetings, rehearsal dinners, and receptions. Bulwark will also use it as an overflow space on busy days when the downstairs taproom hits capacity.
Bergeron even hopes to host cozy jazz or acoustic music nights in the space.
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].