‘Gastro-style’ pub opens near UW

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Photo by Will Huang
Photo by Will Huang

A new restaurant has opened up in the university area. The new restaurant, named Heaven Gastro Club, is located at 160 University Avenue, and is a spin on the traditional public house.

“It’s a gastro-style restaurant,” said general manager Scott Dwyer. “Gastro is basically a really nice food pub, except we’re a club, to make it feel like our guests are members here.”

Heaven fits the traditional pub description with a menu of bar favourites, an assortment of draught beer, a collection of televisions tuned to sports events, all within a welcoming atmosphere. However it deviates with foods that are not typically found at a pub.

“We have handcrafted food: hand-pressed burgers, fresh cut fries and scotch eggs, which is a unique one,” said Dwyer.

“It’s an independent restaurant, so we were able to choose any beers that we wanted on tap. So we have Sam Adams, Peroni, and in the summertime we’re going to have Kronenburg Blanc and Somersby.”

Heaven is not targeted at a specific demographic, but rather is open to catering to various kinds of customers in the university area.

“We cater to everyone, so it’s family friendly. We’re also in between the universities, so we’ve definitely had lots of students in here,” said Dwyer.

“But there are also tons of new offices in this area, so we’re definitely going to cater to the professionals in the area as well.”

Heaven is currently in what’s called a soft opening, where the restaurant is available to serve the public, but is not advertising or operating on a full-scale basis.

“It’s practice for us, and then after the grand opening we’re going to do some advertising and try to get the word out,” said Dwyer.

Heaven will have its grand opening on April 25, where it will officially be unveiled to the public and begin advertising as open for business. This will mean an end to the soft-opening phase and a push into full-time service.

Until then, the goals for Heaven are quite simple.

“We want to develop regulars, connect with the community, we want to sponsor teams and we definitely want to be part of the area,” said Dwyer.


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