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Function restaurants gear up for the Games

Millar Creek Café expecting athletes, sponsors and family members

When relating the types of opportunities that exist with hosting the Games, the story of the small pub across from the athletes village in Torino has been brought up time and time again. By the end of the Olympics the pub had more than tripled in size by taking over businesses next door and was running 24 hours a day as a convenient place where athletes, family members, media and the public could hang out together.

Whistler's eating and drinking establishments are also anticipating huge crowds through the Games with virtually every room in the resort booked. Those anticipating include a handful of licensed establishments in Function Junction. With the athletes' village across the highway housing over 3,500 athletes and officials, businesses are expecting to be busier than ever.

Marie-Hélène D'Anjou, the owner and manager of the Millar Creek Café, said they have already obtained a liquor licence for the Games and are now looking to extend their hours from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.

"It's a little bit hard to know what to do because we don't really know what's going to happen. But right now we're expecting to be open at night seven days a week, and we're asking about being allowed to open to 1 a.m.," said D'Anjou.

"We've also been approached by some groups, like one representing the parents of athletes because we're right in front of the athletes' village, although we don't know what will come of that."

The cafe is also undergoing some renovations to change into more of a restaurant before celebrating their one-year anniversary next week. D'Anjou said they are also looking into enclosing the patio if it makes sense with their budget.

"We don't know if it will happen, but it may be part of the plan as we go forward," she added.

They will also put in a television so athletes and visitors can watch the Games. That's something the café has never done before and that will likely be temporary.

"We're not going to fill the room with TVs or anything like that but it's a big project to get a flat screen in there for people looking for something to do during the Games at night."

The Millar Creek Café will also start to open one or two evenings this winter, based on demand. And that will be increased to at least three days a week by January as officials begin to arrive at the athletes village - something D'Anjou says locals living in Spring Creek and Function Junction have requested as well.

The one-year celebration is on Friday, Nov. 20, and may also include dinner service.

Just down the road, the Wild Wood Café is also planning to extend hours, although there are no plans to apply for an Olympic liquor licence.

"We are staying open for regular business and serving our locals and anyone else around who wants to come and see us," said Sam White. "Right now we're just working out where we're going to extend our hours, if it makes sense.

"We made a conscious decision to stay open for locals because we'll be closing down at the tennis club for our VANOC contract and we wanted to stay open down there and at Elements for our locals and the tourists in town."

The Wild Wood has also been approached to host groups, but has not signed any contracts yet.

"What it really comes down to is demand, and we just don't know what the demand will be," White said. "If there was enough business to warrant opening later into the evening then we would definitely look at that. We're open in the morning and afternoon, and may extend into the dinner time period so people can get a good meal... but in terms of liquor licence we're not going that route."

The other licenced establishment in Function Junction is the Whistler Brewing Company, which is in the process of opening a brewery in the former Whistler Transit space on Millar Creek Road. The construction of the brewery is wrapping up and if the licence is approved after an inspection they could be brewing beer within weeks in preparation for a grand opening.

However, Whistler Brewing has not applied for a restaurant or liquor licence above and beyond their licence to brew beer. They can offer product tastings and tours and sell product the exact same way as a winery, but president Bruce Dean has no interest in competing with his best customers - the local bars and restaurants that stock his product.

"We're not set up to be a restaurant or a bar and we don't want to be competing with our customers, that's a cornerstone for us - we're a beer manufacturer and not a bar," he said.

That said, Dean is hoping that athletes and officials will wander in during the Games and learn about the product.

"We do have limited space for 50 to 60 people, and we're in a convenient location (to the athletes village), so it may be that some athletes will drop in for a tour and a pint during the Olympics," he said.

Whistler Brewing also has the ability to extend tastings into the brewery area itself and has been approached about hosting at least one event for an Olympic sponsor, but Dean says they aren't planning to do that on a regular basis.

On learning that there could more than 3,000 athletes and officials across the road in February 2010, Dean could only laugh.

"We hope to handle a few of them, but we can't handle that many," said Dean. "We're not a restaurant or a bar and aren't configured for that kind of thing."

Whistler Brewing is still working out its hours of operation, but will likely be able to host tastings from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week. They hope to have a sign on the highway advertising brewery tours and hope word will get out to the athletes in other ways.

"We're not advertising or taking out ads, but on one hand we are hopeful that athletes will pay us a visit and sample our beer... but our main activity will be supporting our bars and restaurants with kegs of beer, that's what we're here for."

There will be a licensed area within the athletes' village, but otherwise athletes are not permitted to bring liquor into the village.