The Bridge Drive-In’s cereal milk swirl. (TWITTER)
WINNIPEG — The Bridge Drive-In has closed its drive-thru after only two days, following an overwhelming response that caused traffic congestion in the area.
The iconic ice cream joint on Jubilee Avenue opened Friday afternoon with a drive-thru system in place but didn’t anticipate the response it would garner.
Some area residents took to social media to complain about the increase in traffic, as well as not being able to enter their own driveways. Photos on Saturday showed dozens of vehicles lined up along Jubilee waiting to get into the BDI parking lot.
Due to COVID-19, BDI thought a drive-thru would be safer to allow customers to remain in their vehicles to place their ice cream orders. In a non-pandemic world, BDI would have normally opened about six weeks ago for the season.
“At our time of opening every year, there is a lot of excitement and media attention. We tried to deal with this as best we could in the drive-thru scenario,” BDI said in a statement posted to its Twitter account on Sunday.
The statement went on to say BDI would reevaluate the situation and potentially reopen to pedestrian traffic with proper social distancing measures in place. They also apologized if the drive-thru affected anyone negatively, as well as to anyone who had hoped to enjoy an ice cream on Mother’s Day.
— Bridge Drive-In (@bridgedrivein) May 10, 2020
Hey @bridgedrivein @cityofwinnipeg I like ice cream as much as the next person but this drive-thru ice cream idea is blocking driveways & disturbing the neighbourhood…really hoping there isn’t an endless lineup of idling cars in our neighborhood all summer ? pic.twitter.com/Y1yBi3rrFf
— Lindsay MF (@linzzzzzzzzzzz) May 10, 2020
Day 1 @bridgedrivein success!!!! ? ?? ? They did a great job navigating the cars and taking the orders. Very safe social distancing. I got the Cookie Monster ?? #Winnipeg pic.twitter.com/MlOj2Mi6I0
— CarChen (@CarChen) May 8, 2020
