River’s Reach Pub is reopening – with a new (but familiar) owner.
Peter Saran, who was a managing partner at the pub from 2002 to 2015, is finalizing a deal to purchase the pub from George Petropavalis. Saran is working to reopen the local pub in mid-November – and to bring it back to the way it was when he oversaw the pub at a time when it was ranked among the Top 10 pubs in B.C.
“It's a new group. It's a new old group; we're the familiar group that was here in the past,” Saran said. “Having this opportunity for me was very close to my heart. New West and River’s Reach is my heart, and I'm going to treat it the same way I always did. We're going to take care of New Westminster; we're going to bring this place back to what it was.”
Saran said his first day back inside the building was Oct. 17, and he’s excited about reopening the pub. His phone was “blowing up” after the plan was announced on Twitter.
“It's where everybody meets, where they always did meet,” he told the Record. “And it's more than just a pub. We're a part of the community, and we want to give back to the community.”
During his time at the helm of the pub, Saran said River’s Reach was involved in many facets of the community from supporting sports teams to providing food to a local shelter. His plan is to make the business the “centre of town” and to give back to the community like it did in the past.
When the pub’s doors reopen in mid-November, it will essentially look the same, with a few enhancements.
According to Saran, Petropavalis closed off one small section of the pub (at the end of the bar) to create space for a new cannabis store that will be located between the liquor store and the pub. Saran said he’ll own the pub, while Petropavalis owns the cannabis and liquor stores.
Saran said Petropavalis made some improvements to the space, including new lighting and enhancements to the patio.
“It looks fantastic,” he said. “We have bought new tables, and we've painted it, we've cleaned it up. It was already really nice, but now it's just enhanced.”
In an Oct. 17 interview with the Record, Saran said the sale of the business will close within a week or two. He said Petropavalis made some improvements to the space, with a plan of reopening the pub himself, until Saran and his partners came in and made a deal with him to buy the business.
The new owners are planning to make a few changes to the pub’s menu.
“We're going to be enhancing it,” he said. “My partner is from the WINGS franchise. The integrity of the menu will be the same. We're just going to update it and enhance it, both the food menu and the liquor menu.”
After leaving River’s Reach in 2015, Saran bought a pub in Langley called the Rendezvous.
“I always missed River's Reach,” he said. “We live in New West, my kids go to school here, and I really missed it. We're New West people. We're local.”
Saran said he’s tried to contact his old staff, but given that it’s been seven years since he ran the pub, the majority have moved on.
“If I can bring back some of them, I would absolutely love to do that. I just don't know if that's going to be a possibility at this point in time. Today's my first day back, and I'm just starting to reach out and see, you know, what we can get as far as staff is concerned,” he said. “I always like to hire local, though. I like to hire people from New West because this is really a community pub.”
A long time coming
In March 2020, River’s Reach joined businesses across B.C. in closing its doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While other pubs have reopened in the two-and-a-half years since the initial COVID-related closures, the doors at River’s Reach have remained shuttered.
“We have received an incredible out pour from the community – excitedly inquiring about a re-open date. Our goal is to re-open when the time is right,” said a May 18, 2020 posting on Facebook. “Exceeding health and safety measures for our staff and the community is our top priority. Stay safe!”
In September 2020, the owner of River’s Reach received the city’s in the Sixth Street space that’s also home to the pub. At the public hearing, some people raised concerns about supporting the application when it had yet to reopen its doors.
At the September 2020 public hearing regarding the cannabis store, Janet Andrews, secretary-treasurer of the New Westminster and District Labour Council, expressed concern that River’s Reach pub had yet to reopen, as other pubs had done, under regulations set out by the provincial health officer. She said entries on the pub’s Facebook page provided “vague” answers that didn’t provide reassurance that the pub intended to reopen or to re-employ the unionized workforce at that location.
Rumours have been rampant on social media that the reopening of the pub was intentionally delayed as a union-busting move.
In May 2019, UFCW 1518 announced that about 35 workers at River’s Reach Pub had voted in favour of joining the union.
In March 2022, a spokesperson for UFCW 1518 said River’s Reach employees held a decertification vote in July 2021 and had decertified from UFCW 1518. She had no details on the vote as it was conducted by the Labour Relations Board.
“The members would have actively had to vote to decertify. I won’t speculate on whether the pub delayed reopening, but everyone who was laid off during COVID would have had the right to vote,” said union rep Eva Prkachin in an email to the Record. “Decertification does not occur when businesses temporarily shut down. If a business folds completely, then technically there is no longer a union there, but we would not describe that as a decertification. If someone else were to buy the business, future employees would still be unionized. This is known as successorship rights – an important piece of legislation that has protected workers’ rights in the janitorial sector.”
Saran said he couldn’t say why it took so long for the pub to reopen, as he was running his own pub and wasn’t in contact with Petropavalis at the time. He said he’s focused on bringing the pub back to what it was when he was at the helm. He’s aiming for a Nov. 15 or 16 reopening date.
“It's the Reach the way that it was,” he said.