The Vancouver Sun is reporting today that the success of Kit’s Watermark is the key reason for English Bay getting it’s own beach-side restaurant.
The success of the Watermark Restaurant on Kitsilano Beach is a key reason the Vancouver park board is proceeding with a new bistro on English Bay. Park board special projects director Jim Lowden said developing the Kits restaurant was “like birthing a brick” because of initial neighborhood opposition.
But the Watermark has done a brisk business and been accepted by the community, said Lowden. “So with that in mind, we are saying: Okay, we will proceed with our food plan.” The bistro project stems from a decision by the park board in 2006 to redevelop its concession food services to create new food services that would offer both table service and take-away facilities at prime locations in city parks.
The English Bay bistro is expected to cost between $5 million and $6 million and is being built adjacent to the bathhouse at Denman & Davie. The proposed 387-square-metre restaurant and concession would seat 118 outdoors and 75 indoors and include a take-out window.
Hopefully the City of Vancouver realizes the importance of picking the right private sector restaurant partner this time around. Considering the historal significance of this English Bay location, the obvious choices is Bud Kanke’s group. They’re responsible for Joe Fortes, which is named after English Bay’s self-appointed unpaid lifeguard that patrolled this same beach in the 1890s.
