Casualties II: "We did our best."

Today, the Storm Crow Alehouse posted the following on their Facebook™ page:

This isn’t the letter we wanted to write to ring in the new year.

2021 has been hard for everyone, but it was exceptionally brutal for restaurants.

We did our best to weather Covid, lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, staff shortages, the Skytrain construction on Broadway, and now Omicron.

But it wasn’t enough. With great sorrow we must announce that the Storm Crow Alehouse will close its doors permanently in January.

It’s been nearly 10 years since the Storm Crow Tavern first opened in Vancouver on Commercial Drive, and we want to thank everyone who patronized the Tavern and later the Alehouse. The Storm Crow has always been more than just a bar to us, and we hope that it’s been special in your lives as well.

It’s not all doom and gloom… across the country, the Storm Crow Manor survives to carry on the nerd-bar torch in Toronto! Be sure to visit when you can. (And our online store remains open for all your geek merch needs.)

We will be open for a few days in January, public health orders allowing, for fans to have one last drink and say farewell. We've also created a silent auction at shop.stormcrow.com of some of our favourite memorabilia from the Alehouse, with the proceeds going to our staff.

Thank you, Vancouver, for an awesome decade, and thank you to all Crow employees past and present. They’ve seen things, things you people wouldn’t believe. And who knows? Like a different mythical bird, perhaps one day we will rise from the ashes in a new form, more powerful than ever before!

With love,
The Storm Crow team

Sad news for West Coast gamers and geeks - it's only been eight months since the original Storm Crow location announced that it was closing, and now this.  I can't say that I was a frequent flyer at the Storm Crow (no pun intended) but as a science fiction geek, I considered myself to be a part of its membership: a place where I recognized the jokes on the menu, knew what they were playing on the TVs, and felt a need to defend it from people who mocked people like me.  As I've said before, it felt like home, and I'm sorry that it wasn't able to survive the current circumstances.  

To paraphrase Douglas Adams, so long, Storm Crow, and thanks for all the fish.  And, as you said, who knows what the future may hold?

- Sid