As the old saying goes, the best ability is availability.
Stratford city council made sure that would be the case when they approved a request from Destination Stratford that would allow them to offer the popular Al Fresco program year round after councillors voted unanimously to amend the city’s bylaws that help govern the program.
The bylaw (Consumption of Liquor with Food in Designated Public Places) now allows liquor to be consumed from Sunday to Thursday between 11 a.m.-8 p.m., and from Friday through Saturday from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Liquor must still be purchased from city restaurants registered in the Al Fresco program and consumed in permitted spaces, and done so in a responsible manner in compliance with all applicable laws.
Originally created in 2020 in response to pandemic restrictions on dining out, the Al Fresco program now enters its fifth year. Zac Gribble of Destination Stratford said food is no longer required for Al Fresco take-out orders and there are no restrictions on the type of beverage or container.
“For last winter’s Lights On winter festival of lights, council approved a Winter Al Fresco pilot program which allowed local participating restaurants to provide a variety of warm beverages for patrons to enjoy as long as they explored the Light Trail connecting Market Square to Tom Patterson Island,” Gribble said. “This is just one example of what’s possible, and as we continue to have increased winter programming in our outdoor public spaces, we’ll also see new and creative culinary experiences flow directly from this program.”
During his presentation at council on Tuesday prior to the vote to amend the bylaw, Gribble talk about how the program helped to activate public spaces and that by further relaxing the liquor requirements it will allow local culinary businesses and food producers to have the freedom to be truly creative for both regular operations and during special events.
“Stratford is fortunate to have such an incredible downtown park system, as well as public gathering and event spaces like Market Square,” he said. “But these areas also require a lot of intentional cultural activation in order to remain vibrant and welcoming. Just today, I walked through Market Square and it was filled with visiting students eating take-out lunch from a variety of local restaurants before heading to a matinee theatre performance. Outdoor public dining spaces help increase quality of life for our community in so many direct and indirect ways, and having Al Fresco grow to be year-round will definitely provide more opportunity to support new cultural activations and provide joy in our public spaces.”
Gribble had referred to the program’s humble beginnings by saying that started out at a crawl before learning to walk and then run – he can safely now say they’ve reached the last stage of their progression.
“With council’s approval, we’ve definitely reached the ‘run’ stage for the original Al Fresco vision,” he said. “This year was the fifth implementation of the program and it has changed a lot since it was introduced in 2020 with the ‘crawl’ phase as an economic recovery initiative in response to the pandemic. Initially, there were a lot of restrictions which made the program complex for us to run and communicate with restaurants and patrons. Moving forward, the city has embraced a much more relaxed European approach to outdoor dining in public spaces, and I’d argue that Stratford has one of the most progressive approaches in the province.”
The program currently has 12 active participants, including some newer restaurants to more established ones, and Gribble said they expect this to increase substantially with the newly amended bylaw.
“Destination Stratford also leverages the Al Fresco program with our popular Savour & Sip Trail, which allows people the opportunity to curate their own perfect picnic with locally produced and sourced food items, including alcohol options if desired, to then enjoy in our Al Fresco areas,” he said. “Destination Stratford looks forward to continued collaboration with the city, local restaurants, bars, food producers and cultural event organizers to create and incorporate dynamic Stratford Al Fresco experiences.”
Find out more about the program by visiting the Destination Stratford website.
