CORNER BROOK, N.L. — Corner Brook developer and businessman Greg Penney is taking a walk down memory lane.
Penney is opening a new restaurant and patio bar at 33 Broadway called The Garden, a business that will bring back memories of the popular club the Rock Garden that Penney opened in 1987.
The entire front of the new Garden restaurant and patio bar will be all-glass garage doors, featuring a large garden between the fence and patio.
“As you’re inside, if it’s a nice day, the garage doors will be open and you’ll be looking out beyond the garden which is going to be lots of plants and trees with tables and chairs. If it’s a bad day, you pull the garage doors down.”
Because of the glass, he said, patrons can still enjoy the lovely view.
Penney ran the Rock Garden for about three years. The business continued to operate for another three years or so, when Penney rented it out to devote more time to his photography business.
By the time the bar business slowed, Penney needed more space for his photography business, which was operating in the same building.
The Rock Garden closed and he took over that space to expand his other pursuit.
Penney sold his photography business about seven years ago, and is now doing renovations to the building in preparation for his new endeavour.
Penney has partnered with the owner of a restaurant in his building, J & M Diner, which serves soups and home-cooked meals.
Once renovations are completed, club patrons will have access to the restaurant, including its restrooms. The partnership means Penney can offer food without having to install a kitchen or restrooms in his business.
Contacted about her restaurant’s partnership with Penney, J & M Diner owner Gladys Barter said she is hoping the initiative will bring in more customers.
“I’m hoping this is going to do really well. I figure we will help one another in bringing in business,” Barter said.
Penney is also partnering with Z’s Fast Pizza to sell pizza and donairs in his new establishment.
“It’s a win-win-win situation,” he said of the partnerships between the three businesses.
Memories of the Rock Garden
People who frequented the popular night club, the Rock Garden, decades ago will be flooded with memories at the new establishment, The Garden.
Penney recently hung the iron gate he had built in 1987 for the original Rock Garden at the entrance to the new club.
“For the Rock Garden, I had a huge patio... my main part of the new bar is underneath that patio,” Penney explained.
There are other nods to history within, he added.
“The old Rock Garden had a very unique hand-made door. It’s doesn’t go anywhere now, but the old doorway is still there in the middle of the bar.”
The bar area will also have a bandstand, where patrons will be entertained by various musical groups several nights a week.
Penney’s plan is to have The Garden open by mid-June, certainly in time for Corner Brook Come Home Year in July.
Many of those who are coming home for the celebrations will remember the original Rock Garden, he said. And there will be old pictures both on the wall and in albums to help them do just that.
“A lot of people will be in those pictures,” he said.
