Help the Prairie Dog Brewing team survive COVID-19

Help the Prairie Dog Brewing team survive COVID-19

 

Who are we:

 

Prairie Dog Brewing is a small family-owned and operated craft microbrewery and barbecue restaurant based solely in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Ever since our founding in early 2016, we pledged as a business to do things differently, considering our impact on people and the planet as much as profits. We proudly employ 40-50 Calgarians during regular operations with 43 livelihoods currently in the balance. 

 

We could talk forever about who we are, but why not let one of our staff team members tell you.

 

“When reflecting on Prairie Dog Brewing, two words immediately come to mind: comfort and inclusivity. We have comfort in abundance between our spacious dining area, the spectacularly friendly staff, our brilliant beers, and our belly-warming BBQ. Even though we’re a brewery, we offer quality wines, some unique cocktails, and several gluten-free options for the myriad of different tastes that walk into our building. Our menu boasts several gluten-free options and vegetarian options so that no one at any table will feel left out or unwelcome. Inclusivity extends far beyond the food or drink options. We pride ourselves on ensuring we make all individuals feel comfortable during their visit, providing a safe space for members of the LGBTQ2S+ community. I genuinely enjoy sharing comfort and inclusivity with our guests and the many family members and friends I routinely bring in. I take pride in knowing I work for such an inclusive and forward-thinking company that works at length to ensure our clientele have a comfortable and fun experience at our restaurant. I am proud to be a member of the Prairie Dog Brewing team.”

- Cam Rice

 

With the tagline “Beer, Barbecue, Friends” we have aimed to become a renowned destination that would be known as an integral part of our community which people would aspire to be a part of. Opening our doors to the public in June of 2018, we created our conversation- and family-friendly space to bring people together to connect over beer and barbecue.

 

In our three and a half years of operation, we have experienced tremendous success in that vision with support from Calgarians, as well as the greater Alberta community and beyond.

 

We have put our hearts, souls, and a lot of blood, sweat and tears into our small business, and it means the world to us to have gained the love and support of our community; now we need to lean on that love and support heavily, as Prairie Dog Brewing is in serious jeopardy and we need your help to avoid another round of team layoffs and to survive this pandemic.

 

 

The Situation

 

We first closed our doors to the public for all dine-in services on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, and within a week flipped entirely to takeout and delivery service (we hadn’t offered delivery services prior to this). Circumstances at that time required us to make the extremely difficult decision to temporarily lay off the majority of our staff. After remaining closed a few extra months in 2020 (in hopes to avoid multiple closures and reopens… little did we know!), we first reopened for dine-in again at the end of August 2020 and we rehired the majority of our previously laid-off team! 

With the support of our loyal community, careful cash flow management and the judicious use of government subsidies, we’ve avoided another mass layoff throughout the many rounds of pandemic closures and restrictions, keeping our doors open until this fifth wave (Omicron), which came just at the right time to create a perfect storm for our industry. January and February are usually the slowest time of the year for restaurants, and we use the busy holiday season to build up a financial buffer to help us get through this challenging period, but we were still reeling from the Delta wave and the impacts of the vaccine passport when Omicron swooped in and toppled all our plans for holiday events, decimating business levels. Furthermore, changes to government subsidies meant that we lost most of our subsidies in mid 2021. Now, with January 2022 sales being half of what they normally would be at this time of the year, we find ourselves in an even more perilous situation than we ever have been in before.

 

We remain confident we have a business that will be both sustainable and impactful to our community once we get to the other side of this pandemic, but like many other small, independent businesses, we continue to face an unpredictable, volatile, and potentially very grave future!

 

We need your help.

 

Simply put: without your support during these times, Prairie Dog Brewing will likely NOT survive and our team will be placed in a very vulnerable financial position.

We created this GoFundMe page because we believe in the power of our community; with your support we will achieve our goal of disrupting the hospitality industry for good! 

 

 All funds raised through this campaign will be used to support our team (not owners), whom we consider family. We want to do everything we can to support them while we continue to deal with the effects of the ongoing pandemic. If possible, we may use funds to cover additional overhead costs so that we can continue to schedule our staff for predictable hours and continue to provide you with delicious Prairie Dog Brewing beer and BBQ!

 

At this point, we understand that many others are facing similar uncertain times and we are truly moved by the community’s supportive patronage of our local businesses. We are humbly encouraging everyone in our community and beyond who is able to and who want to play a part in safeguarding the future of Prairie Dog Brewing to please donate generously to this fund. 

 

 For more details of how COVID has impacted our family-owned business, and the nitty gritty details, see our blog post from last year: Blog Post Prairie Dog Brewing Survive 3rd Pandemic

 

We are tremendously appreciative of donations of as much or as little as you feel comfortable with–every little bit helps!

 

In return we will be offering Prairie Dog Brewing Member Rewards   and other incentives.

 

 

Other Ways to Help:

 

You can also support us by getting out of that stuffy isolation-ward of a house and taking a trip to Prairie Dog Brewing’s spacious dining room for some BBQ and beer (or other beverages). With our high ceilings and lots of makeup air units pushing fresh air into our space at all times, it’s almost as good as being outside (but without the negative temperatures!)

 

If you’re not ready to dine-in at a restaurant yet, ordering beer or barbecue for pickup or delivery through our commission-free delivery partner website   is also a great way to support us and keep our team working.

 

And finally, a very effective way to support us is to purchase our newly launched digital gift cards here . That means money in the bank for us right now, when we need it the most.

 

Sharing our GoFundMe campaign to keep our staff is really appreciated too!

 

We are so grateful for this community, and all of the support, encouragement and well wishes – we will get through this together, and we can't wait until we can all raise a glass together again (in person!) Cheers!