St. Andrews Anomaly: How Some NB Businesses Thrive Through COVID-19 – New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca

While many communities struggled to keep businesses open COVID-19 varying levels of restrictions and lockdowns, the city of St Andrews, new Brunswick Most have managed to maintain the status quo – and have even seen new businesses open.

Known for its seaside cuisine, famous golf courses, and historic Algonquin hotels, the city generally attracts tourists through the summer and the banks on it.

So when COVID-19 hit, the business community wasn’t sure what to expect from the 2020 summer season.

Local BIA vice president Kevin Simmonds, owner of the Red Herring pub and co-owner of two other restaurants, says it was a coin flip.

“We honestly didn’t know what was going to happen,” he says.

“Everyone was like, ‘Let’s do the best we can to survive and see where this takes us.'”

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Travel restrictions meant that seasonal visitors likely would not return that summer, but they also meant that more New Brunswickers would not travel outside the province.

The rise of migration, the Atlantic Bubble and the city’s reputation as a tourist destination prompted many locals to spend time and money there.

Simmonds says people were coming in from New Brunswick, which was enough to make it almost feel like normal summer weather.

“It was amazing,” he says.

St Andrews Mayor Brad Henderson says the city pulled that heat by about 90 percent of what it would have in a pre-COVID summer.

“We were extremely fortunate if you look at the pandemic and how other communities have fared,” he says.

He says 2021 was even better.

Henderson says the city lost a business, but it may reopen at some point. At least three others have opened, including St Andrews Brewing Company in 2022.

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“The support has been incredible,” says co-owner Jess Doucett.

Douquet says he and two other co-owners may have opened up sooner, but the unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic made him hesitant.

She says she finally felt ready and that her colleagues talked her into opening up.

She says a lot of her clients have told her that they explored or rediscovered the area because of the pandemic.

“It is rediscovering their province. I think it came from the pandemic, but I think it will continue,” says Dockett.

“I think they’ve found a new love.”