The Port Moody Legion’s Club 119 bar and restaurant may be one of the city’s hidden culinary and social treasures. It could stay that way if more people don’t discover it.
Officials from the Legion are worried the facility will have to close — at least temporarily — if more customers don’t pop in for lunch or dinner, or stop by for a drink to watch the hockey playoffs.
Branch 119 president Brenda Millar said the restaurant has been losing $1,000 a day — or $20,000 a month — since it reopened June 18 following an initial closure because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said revenues can’t keep up with ongoing costs like the mortgage, utilities, food supplies as well as wages for the six servers and two kitchen staff.
Rebecca Hope, the restaurant’s general manager, said even a recent change to its licence that allows people who aren’t Legion members to enjoy a meal or drink at Club 119, hasn’t provided enough of a boost.
“We haven’t been able to tap into that so far,” she said.
Millar said many of the Club’s regulars are also staying away because they’re elderly and more vulnerable to serious illness if they’re exposed to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
“They’re not ready to come out and socialize.”
Club 119 opened in May, 2019, on the ground floor of a new condo development at 2529 Clarke St. Its integration into the project after the original branch facility was closed in 2015 and the property sold for redevelopment was heralded as a template for other Legions across the country facing the dual challenges of increasing costs and declining membership.
Millar said the restaurant was just starting to break even when the onset of the pandemic forced it to shut down. And while its current financial challenges haven’t yet had an impact on the services the Legion is able to provide to Port Moody veterans, like helping out when one needs new teeth or another requires hearing aids, it doesn’t help either.
“It’s socially irresponsible for us to spend our capital to stay afloat when we can see that we’re losing money every month,” Millar said. “This isn’t a good financial plan for any type of longterm venture.”
Millar said the restaurant is not really equipped to do takeout service like many other food service businesses have been doing during the pandemic to keep the cash registers ringing. Instead, the Legion is looking at making the facility available for small socially-responsible gatherings like family birthday parties and celebrations of life. Although those likely wouldn’t be enough to keep staff consistently employed, Hope added.
“It doesn’t meet our costs, but it helps,” she said.
In a notice sent to Legion members on Aug. 11, branch trustees Peter Salmon and David Fletcher urged them to help spread the word about the facility’s reopening. They’re also putting up posters around the community and distributing flyers by mail.
Hope said regularly filling the more than 100 seats inside the restaurant and the additional 20 available on the outdoor patio is imperative.
“It really is a great gathering place, a great spot for the community to come together,” she said.
Losing that, even just for a stretch, would be “heartbreaking,” Hope added.
“So much work went into it.”
