On April 12th Chris travelled up from Calgary. Connie was unable to make it as she had to work, but she would catch up with us the next day. Margarit wanted to see a show at the New Moon Folk Club so she did that. Chris and I headed out together for another episode of the Beer Parlour Project.
This time around we would visit the Warspite Hotel.
The hotel is the last surviving business in the town that has perhaps 50 to 100 residents. It has had many different owners over the years, and for a while it was closed. Several months ago it was purchased by Sunny, an immigrant from India. He now runs the place with the help of his brother in law. Sunny was amazingly friendly and super supportive of our project. Along with his brother in law Milan they were very gracious hosts, and welcomed us to their establishment. The locals are very grateful that their town focal point has re-opened and strongly support the business.
Many of them were there at the time of our visit and we got to meet with most of them. I managed to take portraits with my big camera, of those that were interested.
As is always the case with the Beer Parlour Project we met a lot of really interesting people. There was a young lady, out for a beer with her grandmother. A middle aged guy that had been born and raised in the area, and knew much of the history. There was a couple that were not from the town but from the immediate area, and they made a point of touring around to small town hotels, just like we do. Their's was just a personal interest and they visited places just to experience the vibe. They were able to give us suggestions on a bunch of other places that we could consider. And they graciously bought us a couple of rounds, before inviting us to their upcoming wedding, later this summer. I even met a lady who was a painter. She lives in Edmonton a few blocks from my house and frequents Mimi's Pub. She has friends in the area and uses studio space in Warspite for her painting. Its such a small world. A long time resident purchased the old auto dealership in town and uses it to store his classic car collection. The list goes on and on.
A few weeks back I made up some stickers for the Beer Parlour Project. The Warspite Hotel was the first recipient of one of these and Sunny proudly displayed it on his beer tap.
I only captured a couple of phone snapshots while we were there, and these are included here. I did expose a lot of film with the big camera and once I get around to processing that, the resulting negatives will eventually be displayed here on my blog. They will also be added to the project website, which is now up and running at... beerparlourproject.com
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