A pub set to open in May in Esquimalt’s budding town centre will mark the end of a dry spell for the municipality.
“We’re fortunate to have a number of wonderful restaurants here in Esquimalt, but a classic pub house has been missing from the township for some time,” Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said at a news conference Monday where the pub’s opening date was announced.
The 90-seat Saxe Point Public House is expected to open May 1 in Esquimalt Town Square. It joins a coffee shop, library and art gallery that have all been built in the past five years in the development owned by Vancouver-based developer Aragon Properties.
Michael Lowe, vice-president of acquisitions for the company, said at the news conference that Aragon had received a number of offers from national and regional retailers that wanted to take up the commercial space in Esquimalt Town Square. “Starbucks, they were very serious about taking the whole retail space and doing a Starbucks superstore.”
But ultimately, the developer decided to find local operators for its commercial spaces.
Saxe Point Public House is owned and operated by Demian Merino, the current general manager for the Bard & Banker in Victoria who has also worked at the Irish Times and the Freehouse Collective, a Vancouver-based restaurant management company formerly known as the Donnelly Group.
It will be the first independent venture for Merino, a born-and-raised Victorian. “This opportunity came around and I couldn’t pass it off,” he said.
The new pub, which is located at 101-505 Park Place, will have 30 outdoor spaces in addition to its indoor seating, he said.
Desjardins told the Times Colonist that “weird circumstances” had left the municipality bereft of a pub for some time.
The only drinking establishments in the townships are currently run by members-oriented organizations such as the Fraternal Order of the Eagles and the local Legion branch, which plans to reopen at its old location next year now that The Vista, a 11-storey seniors residence has been built.
When the century-old Tudor House on Admirals and Esquimalt roads burnt down in 2013, it was replaced by a liquor store. Plans for a 500-seat Irish pub to replace Tudor House were floated in 2019 but did not materialize.
The Gorge Point Pub, the last pub in the community, closed in 2021 and has since been torn down to make way for a six-storey apartment.
Esquimalt Coun. Duncan Cavens said during his bid for election last year, the most consistent request he heard while door knocking was for a new pub.
Some 30 people, including four Esquimalt councillors, attended the news conference on Monday afternoon.
“The level of excitement for a pub [opening] is much higher here than anywhere else,” Cavens said.
The pub will be an additional amenity in an area that is increasingly densifying.
In addition to several townhouse and apartment projects that have already been built or are under construction, the municipality is considering a 16-storey apartment building named the Lincoln on Grenville Avenue as well as three five-storey apartments on the block of Carlisle Avenue that borders Esquimalt Town Square.
