Little Italy eatery Pubwells has expanded with a second location on Sussex Drive and the owner says he hopes it will benefit from strong business during the summer.
Little Italy eatery Pubwells has expanded with a second location on Sussex Drive and the owner says he hopes it will benefit from strong business during the summer.The English-style pub soft-launched at the end of July, taking over the former location of the Earl of Sussex Pub at 431 Sussex Dr., which closed its doors on the last day of 2022. Hamid Tolue, who took over as owner of Pubwells in 2019, said the opening of the new restaurant is set for Aug. 22. “The location is really great and it has a great patio,” Tolue told OBJ on Monday. “I didn’t need to rebuild the bar or do a lot of woodwork. It was all there and resembled what we already have at Pubwells.”An immigrant from Iran, Tolue said he came to Canada and took over Pubwells from the previous owner, who’d run the Preston Street pub for 30 years. Pubwells was well-established within the neighbourhood by the time Tolue stepped in, but was hit hard by the pandemic, which began just months after he took over the business. As a result, he said, he was forced to learn quickly. “I didn’t have any experience in the industry and I was on the verge of bankruptcy,” he said. “But COVID, in a way, gave me some time to learn how to do this, how to cook, how to make a business successful. It was a learning curve for me, for two years, to be able to make Pubwells what it is now.”Now on steadier footing, Tolue said it's the right time for the brand to expand. The interior of the new Pubwells location on Sussex Drive. SuppliedThe opportunity to lease the building on Sussex, which is designated as a heritage building and owned by the National Capital Commission, came up last year. In addition to its traditional English charm, he said the new location is ideally situated to give the business more stability year-round. “Right now, most of our business is done during the colder months,” he said. “On Sussex, most of the business is going to be during the summer. So I can send people around and give more opportunities to full-time staff with both locations. It’s hard to find staff if you have limited time. If you’re not busy, you need to lay people off and it’s hard to get them back.”Tolue added that he wanted to establish a second location now, before age catches up to him. “I’m at that age where I’m in my forties and I thought, okay, if I don’t do it, I might not have the opportunity, mentally or physically, to do it when I’m older,” he said. “You don’t want to take risks with stuff like that. So, personally, I was like either take this or that’s it. That’s why I took it.”The new location will keep many of the design elements of the former Earl of Sussex Pub. In fact, Tolue said most of the renovations completed over the last few months — including a new dishwasher, upgraded plumbing and a pizza oven in the kitchen — won’t be visible to customers. Since the pub is in a heritage building, he said getting approval for the work took longer than expected. “It’s always a challenge in the restaurant industry,” said Tolue. “It doesn’t matter where you are or what you do. Even if you’re operating at 100 per cent, there’s still some kind of challenge every day.”Though the staff are still working out the best ways to handle big summer crowds, Tolue said the new location will be equipped for more diners for drinks, food and events after the grand opening later this month. “We’ve had a lot of great feedback,” he said. “The atmosphere inside that we’ve made is unique in town. It’s just really cozy and charming.”
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