Bijou Patio

The Exchange District Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) unifies the people and organizations within its neighbourhood around a common vision to promote, advocate for, and actively advance the area’s distinct community spirit, its historical role, and its ongoing significance to the city’s cultural, economic, environmental and social prosperity. Our 2021 award entry is for Bijou Patio, an outdoor licensed patio in Winnipeg’s downtown heritage district.

The space formerly inhabited Bijou Theatre, which opened as a vaudeville house in 1904 and later became one of Winnipeg’s first movie theatres. The building burnt to the ground in 1979 leaving a vacant lot in its place which then evolved into a public park. The space has since been used as for pop-up events, and we launched Bijou Patio to harness the potential of this space for our community during the uncertainty of COVID-19.

Bijou Patio operates in the summer months and offers drinks from Exchange District breweries and distilleries, and simple and safe access to food from a variety of local restaurants delivered right to the table via an innovative online ordering system. Mike Del Buono from one of our participating restaurants King + Bannatyne researched and put together the food ordering system that was a perfect solution for those who couldn’t access Exchange District restaurants. As a restaurant owner, Mike understood the need to provide additional onboarding support to restaurant partners to support the initial time investment. By providing one of the few large outdoor patio spaces in Winnipeg during summer 2020, it allowed the residents of the neighbourhood and citizens of Winnipeg at large to experience the Exchange, a National Historic Site, and its unique local businesses safely during the pandemic.