Hull's Brasseurs du Temps has served its last pints

A restaurant owner has closed up for the last time after 15 years as a fixture in the Hull sector of Gatineau, Que.

Alain Geoffroy, one of the owners at Brasseurs du Temps, said Saturday was the last day of operations.

"We had a lot of nice words about what we did for these years and helped people enjoy. … For us we have to focus on these good moments," he said.

"It's a sad situation right now for the employees, for everybody and we have to face that. Nobody wants that but it's a tough reality that we're in right now."

Geoffroy said when the restaurant opened in 2009 it was one of a few craft breweries in the area.

A server at Les Brasseurs du Temps checks a customer's vaccination certificate in September 2021. (Olivier Plante/CBC)

"It was something new for people to taste craft brewing. … It was kind of huge and popular."

But what he described as a perfect storm hit, first with the pandemic and rolling closures of the business, which led to workers losing confidence in the restaurant industry.

"To make sure to retain our staff we had to increase our salaries," he said, adding that meant thin margins were made thinner.

And then the state of the economy came into play.

"Going to a restaurant was becoming a luxury that people couldn't afford anymore," he said.

"No one is really to blame but the situation was, like I said, a perfect storm."

For Geoffroy, it's a difficult end to the journey, but one he is happy he took.

"I've done it. No regrets," he said. "We'll see what's in the future, but not restaurants."

A file photo of the building that hosts the British pub and hotel in the west end community of Aylmer in Gatineau, Que. (Michel Aspirot/Radio-Canada)

British Pub also closing

A pub in a landmark complex in the west end of Gatineau, Que., is also closing, according to its ownership.

British Pub owner Mike Clemann wrote on social media Sunday the bar on rue Principale in Aylmer will become an event space, citing rising costs and interest rates.

It's business as usual for the attached café and hotel, he said.

According to its website, the hotel was built in the 1830s. Back then the pub space was a stable and people would keep an eye on their horses through windows from a social space in the hotel itself.

That space was renovated to become a different kind of watering hole in the mid-1950s.

It became a draw for country music and hosted stars such as Charley Pride, Carroll Baker and Ian Tyson, according to a 1994 pamphlet from the Historical Society of Ottawa.

A look at a bar inside the British Hotel in December 1955. (City of Ottawa Archives | CA035852)

The building had another restoration about a decade ago.

Early prime ministers such as Sir Charles Tupper stayed at the hotel, while the future King Edward II went to a ball there in 1860. During the same trip, the then-teen laid the cornerstone for the first Parliament building in Ottawa.

"It is the linchpin of Aylmer's early history and it is one of the oldest and most durable buildings in Aylmer," reads the society's pamphlet, which mentioned a time when Aylmer was vying for prestige with Hull and the soon-to-be-renamed Bytown.

It goes on to note in its early days, "no other Canadian hotel of the era could compare with it."