FRIDAY MAY 26, 2017 VOL. 43, NO. 19
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Saving the cottages
More from Bowen Heritage
Run, salmon, run
Made-on Bowen app, launched
Local golf dynasty
Bowen Island Community Cup sees repeat winners
Green Man wins again
In the annual battle of spring versus winter, the leafy Green Man (Doug Elliot) and his young supporters beat-out the long-reigning Ice Queen )Sarah Cormier) and her little warriors. May Queen Annabelle Koon led revelers in celebration afterwards with a dance around the May Pole. Thanks to Rich Ralph and Murray Atherton for photos
Summer arrives with a bang for local businesses MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Robin McMillan and Branch Freedman say their first four weeks of business as restaurant owners was not too hectic. The couple, who have expanded their business (Branch 01 gift shop) at Bowen Island’s pier to include the new restaurant Branch & Butter say that this weekend, with the sudden heat and a holiday Monday, brought a serious change of pace. “It was bananas,” says McMillan. “It was a lot of fun, and getting all that good energy from the tourists is part of why we opened, but I’ve never seen the pier like that. On Saturday
we sold out by 4pm. Our baker in Gastown brought us a new shipment of bread Sunday morning, and that day we sold out by 2pm but scooped ice cream until 8pm, and Monday we sold out again. At one point we thought we had too much food, but ingredient by ingredient, everything just kept disappearing.” Up at the four corners, Zoom Zoom Bowen had scooters booked back to back throughout the weekend. “Every single rental was pre-booked online,” says business owner Jamie Woodall. “I don’t want the business to get too big, but I am considering adding two more scooters to our fleet just because I had to turn so many people away.” She adds that business is definitely weather dependent, and her theory is, “people are just chomping at the bit to get outside.”
CALLING ALL GRADS! It’s time to start thinking about being part of our 2017 Salute to the Grads. E-mail a short bio and your favourite grad pic by 4 p.m. on June 9th, to ads@bowenislandundercurrent.com
The rush of business did not stop in the lower Cove. Julie Cree, manager and co-owner of Artisan Eats says the restaurant had the busiest day in its existence on Sunday. “We managed to stay open for our regular hours,” she says. “But we ran out of absolutely everything in our cooler. It was an epic weekend.” Last week was the first week of the season that the Visitor Information Centre took statistics. Bowen Tourism Chair Murray Atherton says that numbers are definitely up. “Last week we had roughly 15% more tourists than the same time last year,” says Atherton. “Every business person I ran into this week was smiling, last weekend was great for the local economy.”