On Thursday, management of the downtown bar Whiskey Dix sent out a message informing their customers of the planned closure of their popular outdoor patio. The reason? Parking is hard to come by — especially downtown.
“With downtown parking at such a premium, and with our growing staff finding it harder and harder to locate safe and convenient parking, Whiskey Dix Night Club has elected to permanently remove our outdoor patio and re-purpose the space to create additional parking on the south-west corner of Main and McDermot,” the message stated.
There are currently 12 available parking spots at the club, and the creation of a parking lot will make room for 32 spaces, according to staff.
The notice states after Saturday, April 3, the patio will no longer be available.
If Whiskey Dix does in fact plan to scrap the outdoor party portion of its establishment, the City of Winnipeg hasn’t been informed. A spokesperson told us on Thursday that the owners have not filed paperwork to rezone the property as of late Wednesday.
A call to the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission also didn’t provide insight into any changes to the bar’s liquor license.
Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. In January, the rumour of a planned parking lot surrounded the Windsor Hotel, which turned out to be false.
The proposed plan doesn’t sit well with patrons. A Facebook group has already been launched to save the bar’s patio. As one user writes, “This has to be an April Fool’s joke.”
Management was unavailable for comment on the issue.
