The Black Duck is back

The Bridge Street cafe will reopen Monday, says co-owner Al Barbour

A beloved Bridge Street business that closed shortly after the pandemic shutdown will be back as of Monday: Black Duck owners Al Barbour and Sarah Evans have made the decision to get back into business after nine long months.

Here’s co-owner Al Barbour in conversation on Tantramar Report:

“We were trying to keep it a secret around here, that we were going to reopen on Monday, but we’re having a hard time keeping it under the radar,” says Black Duck co-owner Al Barbour.

Barbour says that the cafe is pretty much ready to go, as he and partner Sarah Evans have been in and out over the summer and fall. “We have been coming into the shop and just fixing things up, getting to projects that we had put off for a long time,” says Barbour. “So we’re pretty much ready to go. We just had to get an order of coffee and shine things up.”

The cafe will not be back to its full power right away. Barbour and Evans will run the place along with one employee, returning daytime barista, Jaden.

Barbour says that the usual pandemic protocols will be in play at the newly reopened Black Duck. “Obviously, we’re going to be wearing masks… and there will be less seating by quite a bit. We’re probably just going to use the front of the building and not use the atrium right away, because we’re going to do some painting back there.”

It will also take awhile to get the full menu back, says Barbour, as they wait on supplier deliveries to fully restock their kitchen. “It’ll take a while to get all that up and running,” he says. “And we have to sort of judge what the demand is like. I don’t think it’s very busy in Sackville right now, so we’ll see.”

Barbour says that the decision to reopen was made after considering a number of factors, not least of which was the state of the pandemic in the region.

“At this point in time, it looks like the Maritimes might make it through the pandemic without a major outbreak. So that’s a big deal,” says Barbour. “And then, of course, there’s the vaccine rollout. So, we think that by the time the spring hits, there would be an opportunity to run the business sort of where it was before.”

Barbour is hoping that by spring the demand will be back, and by then the Black Duck will be ready to handle it.

“It’ll actually take us about four months to restart the business and grow it to the point that it can meet that demand, when that demand is there. So this is kind of like warming up the engine,” says Barbour.