A new golden age?

A couple of years ago I wrote a tongue-in-cheek column about how Wellington would soon be discovered by continentals raving about the charms of the hip cafe culture of “Vellingtunne.” Now I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t coming to pass.

My wife had gone away for a few days with the car and I explored Wellington Main Street on foot and bike. In the sultry June dusk, candles flickered inside the Pomadoro and East & Main restaurants, beckoning you with their intimate charms . Just down the street at the Tall Poppy Cafe, pedestrians wandered past an obviously packed house and peered in upon a rapt audience, asking whether the restaurant was really closed (Conrad Beaubien’s play “Stringman” was being staged). Too bad, they said, we would have loved to hear about something like that taking place in Wellington at night.

Now I’m not saying this is Paris, or New York or even Roncesvalles Avenue, but you could be forgiven if you dared to utter the words “Wellington” and “nightlife” in the same breath. Let’s take stock for a moment.

Our friends from the Drake Hotel in Toronto are poised to open their Devonshire hotel location next spring (assuming they start putting up something to replace what they have taken down), and with that will come a loyal cadre of customers expecting the same entertainment cachet as in their original location. Our harbour continues to attract boaters from all points on Lake Ontario. We have a multiplicity of wineries within spitting distance, many of which are now transforming themselves into entertainment multiplexes, with festivals, theme days, concerts and the like.

Our newly published, and eye catching, Wellington and District Business and Services Directory lists nine bed and breakast and another nine cottage and furnished suite establishments, meaning there must be at least 50 accommodation rooms in the immediate vicinity of Wellington, several of which are new to the market in the last year or two. When they stay here, they’ll want to do something here.

My view, in an unscientific nutshell, is that Wellington is becoming a ‘destination’. It is about to enter a new golden age.

But before you rush to open that martini bar or late night jazz lounge, there are two points to consider. The first is timing. I might be right, but I might be off by a year or two, as a result of which you could drop a fortune. For instance, the new golf course/residential community in our northeastern sector is going to be started at some point, but I would wait to see a shovel in the ground before lining up to buy wedge futures.

The second is the annual cycle. Few businesses here can afford to operate anything less than 12 months a year. Now this may not hold back those who would open a gas station (although something has), but our year has more than one phase. There’s summer tourist season; the two months on either side, which can be busy if tourism officials come up with enough catchy special events; November and December, during which its just us locals; and then January, February and March, during which it feels like about half the population has disappeared. No wonder most of our businesses just provide the basics.

So to stay afloat year-round, you have to be an entrepreneur who can do at least two things well. If you want to run a ferry over to Sandbanks Park, can you hold your head above water through the lean months operating a local taxi service? If your forte is fresh 24-hour worms, can you bring sufficient skill to operating a rest-of-the-year all day breakfast joint? If you want to operate a tattoo parlour, can you operate a print shop to keep from starving in the off seasons? (If your client is Quinte Recycles, the answer would appear to be an obvious yes).

However, the entrepeneur with the big vision will not be deterred by these risks. And those with a single vision and who are prepared to share it may find partners with complementary plans. Anyone want to open a summer T-shirt shop to go along with my Main Street winter bowling alley concept? Why not go public with your hole-by-hole winery tour mini-putt concept, and see who bites? A golden age awaits the adventurous.

David Simmonds’s writing is also available at www.grubstreet.ca.