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Moving on

An owner with a face gets a proper send off What: Farewell to Ben Horne featuring Soulstream Where: Boot Pub When: Saturday, Oct.

An owner with a face gets a proper send off

What:

Farewell to Ben Horne featuring Soulstream

Where:

Boot Pub

When:

Saturday, Oct. 18

Tickets

: $15

Just over a decade ago a British dive instructor who had been working in Australia came up this way, as so many before him have done and so many continue to do.

The difference in Ben Horne’s case however, was instead of simply bedding down in local budget accommodation, he bought it.

The real estate in question was called the Fitzsimmons Creek Lodge at the time, what Horne describes now as two star accommodation built circa 1966 with a rather sleazy bar attached on six acres of land at the intersection of Highway 99 and Nancy Greene Drive. But Horne and his Canadian partner knew that the place could be a backpacker’s haven in the rapidly developing resort community.

"We both thought it would be an excellent thing to turn into a budget resort based around the backpackers’ idea, having a place where you sell accommodation by the bed, by the night, as opposed to by the room," says Horne in animated Britspeak. "It had a bar and a restaurant and with those facilities it meant we could establish it as a sort of ‘budget resort’ as opposed to a hostel.

"Whistler was a new resort, expanding, and all the hotels that were being put up were destination hotels. There were other hostels, but we recognized that people do go skiing on a budget and they can’t afford to stay in the kind of hotels Whistler had to offer. That clinched it, seeing there was a hole in the market and a viable business opportunity there."

The viable business opportunity became known as the Shoestring Lodge. The property also included a restaurant, liquor store and a small, unassuming bar with an abnormally large stage. Renamed the Boot Pub, in honour of the lodge’s original name, the Ski Boot Motel, and spurred on by Horne’s interest in hosting live music, the bar re-emerged as one of the most active venues in town.

Over the past decade scores of touring bands, many on the cusp of superstardom, have taken the Boot’s stage, resulting in the type of quirky character that bar-in-a-box franchises attempt to copy with pre-fabricated pieces of decorative flair. The wall of fame has too many autographed faces on it to list. As Rich Martin of Vancouver jam band Slammin Jack so eloquently put it before a Monday Madness performance last month: "It’s not the biggest place but there’s something about it. You know there’s been some serious players up on that stage. You can kind of feel it. The walls definitely have a lot of stories."

Every story, however, has to end, and the Boot/Shoetring’s denouement began two months ago when Horne sold the property to Vancouver-based Cressey Developments. While Boot manager Paul McNaught says the complex retains their lease for at least the next 18 months, the end is near.

Horne maintains that he simply feels it’s the right time to move on, to Vancouver.

"Ten years in Whistler is a long time," he says. "I never went to Whistler as a skier. I went really for business. I do ski but it’s not my passion. I recognized that I had six acres of land there that had undeveloped bed units attached and I’m not a developer, I’m not going to partner up with a developer and try to raise $50 million to put up a five star resort, that’s not my game either. So the real reason behind my decision to go at this time was that I just didn’t see myself doing it in five years."

But instead of moping over the loss of their employer and the inevitable future loss of their place of employment, Horne is being sent off in true Boot style – with a big party this Saturday evening featuring live music by Vancouver groove collective Soulstream, a Horne favourite. It’s a party that’s being billed as a "farewell to our friend Ben," and not a "cordial reception to mark the departure of our employer Mr. Horne." In a town living in the shadow of corporate ownership, "Ben" has been an owner with a face.

Horne modestly dismisses the familiarity of Saturday’s billing.

"I think it’s because I’ve been personally involved throughout the entire time. It’s only in the last couple of years I’ve started to step back from the day to day management of the place," he says in an attempt at explanation. "My personality is pretty much stamped on every aspect of the operation. They’re under new management now and they miss me."

McNaught, who has worked for Horne for the past seven years, as bar manager for three, is more forthright in his admiration of his former employer.

"He’s one in a million men and we’re all sad to see him leave," says McNaught.

The decision to sell to the same company that put up the mammoth Westin Resort and Spa doesn’t bode well for a backpacker-and small-time touring band-targeted budget resort, but Horne says he has come to grips with the property’s eventual transformation.

"I already miss it, but there’s an inevitability about progress and change," he says. "Older buildings have to come to the end of their lives and get torn down and replaced with newer ones, especially when there’s that much available, buildable land there that is much better utilized by expanding and doing other things. Obviously from a personal perspective I would hope the developer would build something that will enable some sort of continuity in the bar and restaurant there, but I have no control over what that decision will be."

But Saturday night won’t be a night to talk real estate. It will be a night to give a proper Boot Pub send off to an owner with a face. Horne will be coming back from England to attend and jokes about what jet lag may do to his party endurance.

"I hope I can keep awake on Saturday," he laughs. "I know I will. I’ll tear it up and be very rude and obnoxious to everyone and have a great time."

Come by the Boot Pub this Saturday night to toast the departing or groove to the urban soul-funk-jazz of Vancouver 10-piece band Soulstream. Tickets are $15, available at the door.