River Café: Calgary restaurant reopening after evacuation and closure
River Café, the award-winning and top-rated restaurant in Canada, made the difficult decision this week to close because of the weather.
Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms brought a prolonged and significant rainfall with 75 to 125 mm of rain (Environment Canada); the popular restaurant wasn’t going to wait to see what happened.
Thankfully, no damage was done, and the River Café is reopening for service this weekend.
“River Café will open its doors again on Saturday, June 18, 2022 for full dinner service after evacuation and closing to ensure survival as flood waters were rising,” the restaurant stated in a media release.
“Lessons learned from 2013 made the decision to step aside until the water was no longer a danger.”
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The staff stayed busy and moved all the perishable food and the extensive wine collection to a safe place.
“The proactive approach is to mitigate any potential losses that a flood would cause,” read a press release sent on June 13. “Staff will evaluate as the week proceeds and react accordingly.”
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After the City of Calgary activated a state of local emergency, the decision to close the restaurant was an easy one for Sal Howell, Proprietor of the River Café.
“After two damaging floods we couldn’t just wait and see what happened,” said Howell.
“Our friends in the food industry came through in a big way to help keep our business going by storing our perishable food for us until we could return.”
Princes Island was officially closed for 24 hours to allow the danger to pass without endangering lives, with a tiger dam installed to protect the restaurant. Enmax even had to turn the power off to the business.
The island is officially open, and power has been restored. The staff at the restaurant will be hard at work today and tonight, bringing everything back in to open tomorrow for full service.
If you’re looking for a place for lunch or dinner, support this iconic Calgary restaurant.
River Cafe
Address: 25 Prince’s Island Park SW, Calgary
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