One Sydney restaurant temporarily reopens on Canada Day weekend, another temporarily closes
CTV
It was a tale of two restaurants in Sydney, N.S., on Saturday as one popular eatery reopened for a couple of days, while another has temporarily closed.
It was a tale of two restaurants in Sydney, N.S., on Saturday as one popular eatery reopened for a couple of days, while another has temporarily closed.
JJ’s Plant-Based Eats, Sydney’s only fully plant-based restaurant during its three years of operation between March 2020 and March 2023, came back with a two-day ‘pop-up’ event on the Canada Day long weekend.
On Friday and Saturday, the restaurant’s signature dishes were served out of a temporary location at Branch 138 Ashby Legion.
“Well, we’re back, kind of,” said James MacDonald, co-owner of JJ’s Plant-Based Eats along with longtime business partner Joseph Matheson. “We decided to do a couple of pop-ups, so this is episode one. We decided we were going to do a bit of a limited series, kind of like your favorite streaming show or something on Netflix and put out a few limited editions.”
The restaurant, which originally opened just days before the COVID-19 pandemic came to the Maritimes, developed a cult following despite the closures and cancellations that resulted.
The owners of JJ’s decided to close the restaurants doors in March 2023, but despite the more than year long hiatus MacDonald said sales went well during the two-day pop-up on Friday and Saturday.
"It's great to have a great day of sales, sell a lot of food, bring in some money which was a big factor and a big reason for doing this,” MacDonald said. “But it's also not too often that you get to be a part of something special like this and put out news that you're doing a little pop-up and have so many people kind of radiate that news around and just be so thankful and grateful and happy to see us come back."
