Kim Thorbourne-Whalen is the vice-chair of the Liverpool Championship Host Society. (Rick Conrad)

As fans rallied behind their favourite curlers in Liverpool last week, local businesses were also cheering for the post-holiday bump in sales.

Restaurants, bars and other food-based businesses in downtown Liverpool stayed open to try to capitalize on the influx of fans and curlers in town for the Canadian mixed doubles curling trials at Queens Place Emera Centre.

Some businesses traditionally close during the week between Christmas and New Year’s to give owners and staff a break after a busy holiday season.

FULL COVERAGE: More from the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials

At Main and Mersey Dining Room and Coffee Bar, co-owner Shani Beadle said the event helped perk up a slower time of year.

“I think when Christmas is winding down, it really helped bring more people into town and and lengthen the Christmas season, which is always helpful,” she said. “We had a lot of people from the curling here to lunch, for coffee, staying in our accommodation. So, everything’s helpful.”

Melanie Perron, co-owner of Hell Bay Brewing Company, said they saw more customers as soon as the curling event began on Monday.

“The week’s been great,” she said.

“We’ve definitely seen some new faces that we haven’t seen before come through the brewery and it’s just nice to see us in the bar as well at the Emera Centre, because it’s been a while since we’ve had our product for sale there directly through us. So the region has been definitely pushing local this time, which is great.

“It’s wonderful, especially this time of year because so many people are going into ‘Dry January’, so any beer sales that I can get any way is definitely a bonus for us.”

At Five Girls Baking, co-owner Leanne Arnott said they had planned to close from Dec. 25 until Jan. 2, but decided to reopen on Dec. 30. 

“We were going to be closed and and get a few more days of rest and when we found out about the curling event, we thought, oh no, we better open. And we’re really glad we did.”

They baked special cookies decorated like the red and blue curling rings to celebrate. And Canadian curling legend Colleen Jones even dropped in to sample them. She had also visited the bakery in 2019 when Liverpool hosted the World Junior Curling Championships.

“I was hoping she would show up. She showed up (Friday) and I was tickled pink.” 

Other businesses also stayed open or extended their hours, like Memories Cafe and Eatery and Route 3 Cellar Taproom and Grill.

Kim Thorbourne-Whalen of the local organizing committee said she believes the curling event helped inject $1.5 to $2 million in spinoff business for hotels, restaurants and bars in the Liverpool area. It’s also been a boon for the local Kiwanis Club, which provided canteen services at Queens Place for the whole week.

“The restaurants have been full, like the Cellar, Memories, they’ve had curling teams in there and curling families in there all week,” Thorbourne-Whalen said. “So it’s been felt throughout the community, not just with the hotels, it’s been all over.” 

Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian said he’d like to see more big events like the curling trials come to Liverpool.

“I think everybody’s blown away by how many people have been out for it. Main Street’s been busy. … I think that it should generate some good momentum to try to attract events like this in the future. 

“I know this council has got big plans for Queens Place, doing some revitalization work and to make sure that we make best use of these facilities here. We’re looking at how can we make sure that we make use of this beautiful facility because you can see we can host top-notch events here.”

Main and Mersey’s Shani Beadle and other business owners say that bringing more events to town in the slower winter months would be a boost for businesses.

“I think that would be brilliant, because the summer is already quite busy, so having events like the Lobster Crawl, like curling, hockey, et cetera, is always really helpful.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Melanie Perron is the co-owner with Mark Baillie of Hell Bay Brewing Company in Liverpool. The craft brewery recently celebrated 13 years in business. (Rick Conrad)

They started out small in a barn in Cherry Hill, and have survived an early cease-and-desist order, floods, a pandemic and just recently celebrated their 13th year in business.

Hell Bay Brewing Company in Liverpool marked that milestone on April 1. 

When Melanie Perron and Mark Baillie began their craft brewery in 2011, they were one of only five or six in Nova Scotia. Now, there are more than 50 craft brewers, from nanobreweries to brew pubs to microbreweries.

“That was a nanobrewery then,” Perron said in an interview at the brewery on Thursday.

“We didn’t know where to start or how to start, so we just started very small in our home and quickly grew out of that space and moved here.

“We were just doing it as a hobby, so it was just for fun. And I was on maternity leave at that time. And Mark was always brewing beer and sharing it with friends. And he was to the point where he was brewing so much that we couldn’t consume it all, we couldn’t share it all. So, I just thought, ‘What would it take to do this as a business?'”

Back in 2011, they were known as Rusty Anchor Brewing Company and started out with an English Ale. But three months after they started labelling their beers, they got a cease-and-desist letter from Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, telling them they couldn’t use the word “anchor” in their name.

So, the former husband and wife team had to come up with a new name and Hell Bay was born. 

A couple of years later, they moved into the old Hoggie’s Buy and Sell space in downtown Liverpool. At that time, Perron says, they were focused mainly on selling kegs and bottles to bars in Halifax.

“When we first started out, it was just so busy because we had full reign of everything. It was easy to send 80 kegs to Halifax in a week and then the NSLC, we would send them three or four pallets of beer in a week. So at that time, we were employing probably six or seven staff.” 

As more craft breweries opened, however, the market changed drastically. And Hell Bay had to change with it. 

“When you think of all these breweries fighting for the same tap space and then the NSLC there’s only so much shelf space there. That’s why we had to put more concentration into our store and our pub and doing music and trying to attract more local people.” 

While Nova Scotia craft beer sales increased overall by 6.1 per cent over the past three months, many breweries say the past few years have been a struggle. 

In early March, FirkenStein Brewing in Bridgewater posted on its Facebook page that it was having trouble paying its rent. The brewery said if business didn’t pick up, it may have to close.

Other Nova Scotia craft breweries have closed or announced they will restructure. Uncle Leo’s near Pictou, Serpent Brewing, Off Track Brewing have closed or announced they’re closing. Brightwood Brewery in Dartmouth is closing its tap room, while Harbour Brewing in Musquodoboit Harbour is selling.

Perron says she hates to see other breweries in trouble.

“It hurts my heart because I know we’re in that boat every day. We’re just like, ‘Do we keep going or do we just sell out and close’, just because it’s not as profitable as people think. I always think it’s a good thing that I’m not a person who needs a lot in life. I don’t need a paycheque. I survive off very little. I have two staff who work here. So, my goal is to get my staff paid first. And my paycheque comes after that.

“It’s a hurting industry and I knew there was going to be a bubble. Everybody thought it was a multimillion-dollar business, adn I’m sure it would be if there were only 20 of us. But the market right now is just so saturated.”

Perron says that like with other businesses, Covid changed the landscape for microbreweries in Nova Scotia.

“Everything went to hyper-local. We lost all our accounts in Halifax, so all the bars dropped us. … So as of now, all of the bars we do have are on the South Shore.”

Perron says they’ve worked hard over the years to keep on top of what customers want. She says that’s why they started making more ready-to-drink beverages, like their popular hard lemonades, which often outsell their beer in the summertime. 

And they recently made rum for the first time. It was a small batch but sold 72 bottles in two weeks.

She says that even though the past few years have been “up and down”, they’ve had great support from the local community.

“We wouldn’t be here without them, 100 per cent, especially since Covid. … So I am relying a lot on local business.”

Perron says she’s looking forward to the summer, when tourists return. The brewery plans to bring back its hot dog cart and offer some specialty hot dogs, and maybe even some food nights.

“I’m excited for the summer because I think it’s going to be super busy. I just have this feeling especially with all the new people moving here. The South Shore, it’s so beautiful and people are finally discovering it.”

In the past three months, sales at the brewery are more than double what they were this time last year. 

Perron says the secret to their staying power is pretty simple.

“My perseverance. I’m not a quitter. I live a lot on hope. You know, next year can only be better. Since Covid, things are getting better.

“Just staying true to what you believe, I guess, and what your passion is and lots of hope.”

And that San Francisco brewery that sent Perron and Baillie that cease-and-desist letter 13 years ago?

It closed last year, but Hell Bay is still going.

“We try to keep our beer natural and true to what beer is. Just keeping the hops and barley and water. We don’t use preservatives. It’s all unpasteurized. It’s just the way beer should be.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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