{"id":671027,"date":"2026-05-15T11:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/671027\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T11:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:22:10","slug":"winnipegs-suboptimal-spring-putting-a-chill-on-patio-gardening-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/671027\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg’s suboptimal spring putting a chill on patio, gardening seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

\"APromenade Brasserie owner Jay Lekopoy is looking forward to warmer weather, when he can boost his bottom line by serving more customers outdoors. (Tyson Koschik\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Winnipeg restaurant owners say a cold spring is having a chilly impact on their businesses.<\/p>\n

Jay Lekopoy, owner of Promenade Brasserie, says customers are still refraining from sitting in his patio even though it’s mid-May and the restaurant would normally have seen several busy Friday nights by this time of the year.<\/p>\n

“It’s set up, but I mean no one wants to sit over there,” he said Thursday. <\/p>\n

“I think we had one brave table try out there [on Mother’s Day], but I mean it was cold. It was miserable. We did our best.”<\/p>\n

Lekopoy says the patio increases the restaurant’s capacity by about 30 per cent, with the restaurant normally adding staff going into the summer months \u2014 but that’s not happened yet.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to have it, you know ready to go” ahead of the May long weekend, Lekopoy said. <\/p>\n

“We’ve changed the menu to all the nice new summer, spring fresh flavours.\u2026 I just need the weather to start co-operating.”<\/p>\n

\"ATommy’s owner Thomas Schneider says the pizzeria usually opens its patio in late April, but the cold spring weather delayed things this year. Schneider said his business needs the extra capacity in the spring and summer months to survive. (Kevin Nepitabo\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Thomas Schneider, owner of Tommy’s Pizzeria, said the cold temperatures “definitely cuts the hours of staff” at his restaurant. <\/p>\n

He said so far this season, he’s probably had three or four busy days at the patio, which typically opens in late April or even earlier.<\/p>\n

“We rely on our patio season in Winnipeg. It’s very short,” Schneider said. <\/p>\n

“Our winters are really long and our business gets cut in half or even worse. So we really rely on our summer to retain enough money to get through the winter.”<\/p>\n

Sales down as green thumbs delay spring planting<\/p>\n

The late start to spring is also hurting business at the Ron Paul Garden Centre, where sales are down 40 per cent year over year according to owners Ray and Jeanne DuBois.<\/p>\n

“We’re watching the numbers daily and it’s stressful,” Ray DuBois told CBC Radio’s Up to Speed Thursday. <\/p>\n

LISTEN | Chilly spring hurting garden centre as Winnipeggers hold off on planting:<\/p>\n

Up To Speed9:44Chilly spring throws a wrench in May long gardening plans<\/p>\n

The co-owners of Ron Paul Garden Centre, Ray and Jeanne DuBois, join guest host Chloe Friesen to talk about how the cool weather is affecting their business, and their advice to people trying to make plans for their gardens.<\/p>\n

“Some people just want to come in and get into a green environment \u2026 but people are holding off. Pretty inclement weather. So they’re holding off their purchases.”<\/p>\n

Ray said the business has had to cut shifts, saying they’re working at about 80 per cent capacity.<\/p>\n

The owners said they’ve never seen a spring like this in the 17 years the business has been open.<\/p>\n

“[Wednesday] night was actually the only night in the last eight weeks we’ve been able to leave doors open in the greenhouses to cool things down,” Jeanne said.<\/p>\n

“Normally, we would have been able to do that several times before now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-671027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}