Black Duck closes Oysterhead, no plans for cafe space in foreseeable future
It’s not a good year for Bridge Street restaurants. In addition to the ongoing closure and unknown future of Mel’s Tearoom, Oysterhead Tavern, formerly Moot Point Tavern and the Black Duck Cafe, has closed for the time being. Co-owner Al Barbour says he and his partner Sarah Evans are continuing to operate The Black Duck Bakery next door, which offers grocery items, baked goods, coffee and takeout meals. But Barbour says the couple doesn’t have any plans for the cafe space next door.
“Plans are kind of useless at this point,” says Barbour. “We’ve been operating for 10 years, various cafe, bistro, bar type operations. But we’ve come to the point now where we just can’t hire anyone.”
Barbour says he and Evans have shifted their business to a state where they can mostly run the Black Duck Bakery as more of a “mom and pop” shop, as opposed to the bustling cafe they once ran. The cafe space does not fit into that scale of operation, however.
“It’ll be mothballed,” says Barbour. “We might do something with it for fun in the future but as for the time being, it’s just going to sit here, unfortunately.”
In addition to issues finding people to work in the cafe and tavern businesses, Barbour says there have been other problems “snowballing” and compounding each other. He cites the ongoing pandemic, high rates of inflation, and supply chain issues.… Continue
The latest offering from the Black Duck team, Oystërhead Tavern, opens today
The Black Duck on Bridge Street in Sackville has gone through a number of changes over the course of the pandemic, as co-owners Al Barbour and Sarah Evans tried to adapt to the steady stream of changes in public health rules and people’s habits. And today, the popular eatery reopens anew again, this time as Oystërhead Tavern.
CHMA dropped by the restaurant this week to find out what’s in store from Barbour himself:
Barbour says that Oystërhead is run by “the same Black Duck team, working out of the same building,” just under a new name. With asthetic changes inside the restaurant, the name Oystërhead—part homage to English heavy metal band Mötorhead, and part nod to the fresh oysters on the menu—seemed more fitting that the Black Duck, says Barbour.
There won’t be significant menu changes since the cafe moved to lunch and evening service earlier this year. “It’ll be a similar menu to what we’ve been running,” says Barbour.
“We’ve been operating for 10 years and the pandemic has made us rethink some of the things that we were doing,” says Barbour. “We decided to concentrate more on bespoke food, as opposed to things like sandwiches and fast grab and go sort of stuff.”
Barbour says the restaurant will still use food from the Black Duck garden and other local suppliers. Meals will be more elaborate than what was on offer at the old cafe, but also “approachable and not particularly expensive,” says Barbour.… Continue
Cafes and restaurants are at the front line of possible “vaccine theatre”
New Brunswick’s new vaccine passport system came into effect Wednesday, meaning that people are now required to be fully vaccinated before entering non-essential services like cafes, bars, restaurants, gyms and cinemas.
Indoor concerts, sports events, and organized gatherings like wedding and funerals will have the same stipulation. Churches and faith-based groups are exempt from the rule, instead being required to prove that they have surveyed their members, and achieved a 90% vaccination rate among them.
The system is not honour-based, like current border rules, which require people travelling into New Brunswick to register in advance, but with no enforcement or government presence at border crossings.
In the case of vaccine passports, businesses like Sackville cafe The Black Duck are being asked to actively screen their customers, requiring a government issued ID and a proof of vaccination.
That has Black Duck co-owner Al Barbour concerned about a few things: training his employees to do the screening, having enough staff to do it, and also the possibility that even vaccinated customers will be discouraged from stopping in for coffee or a meal.
Barbour says he’s been trying to prepare the Black Duck for their new obligation to screen customers, but feels the process is still unclear.
“It’s one thing to say we should be checking for that people are fully vaccinated,” says Barbour, “but how do we do that?… Continue
Sackville Food Bank finds a temporary home courtesy of The Black Duck
The Sackville Food Bank has found a new, temporary home after a flood forced it to move out of its current space at 9B Willow Lane.
Food bank president Heather Patterson says the group was able to move in Monday morning to 21 Bridge Street, right beside the Black Duck Cafe, courtesy of an invitation from cafe owners Al Barbour and Sarah Evans.
“We’ll probably be a month before we can move back into our normal space,” says Patterson. “So Alan and Sarah have given us the storefront for as long as we need it, bless their hearts. I don’t know what we would have done without them.”
Al Barbour says once he heard about the flood (while listening to Meg Cunningham on Tantramar Report), he thought immediately of the empty storefront next to the Black Duck.
“It’s just sitting there empty, full of fridges and freezers,” says Barbour. “So we just inquired if they needed a space… We offered it up and they accepted it. And they’ll be there until they can go back to the other space.”
Patterson says the Black Duck space is a bit smaller than the food bank’s permanent location, but with two freezers and two fridges there, it’s a “wonderful solution” to the rather immediate problem they faced.
The Willow Lane location flooded due to a water main break last Wednesday morning, forcing the food bank to cancel its regular pick up day and go into emergency recovery mode.… Continue