Ресторан Fable Diner закрылся на Бродвее из-за многолетних задержек строительства метро

The Broadway Subway isn’t finished, but Fable Diner is Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter. In January this year, I sat down with Fable Diner owner Ron MacGillivray to talk about what years of Broadway Subway construction had done to his business. At one point, he said something that stuck with me: “I don’t think I’m going to make it by the time this is finished.” Seven months later, we know he was right. Fable Diner announced this week that its Mount Pleasant location will close after its final service on August 23, ending a run of just over a decade at Broadway and Main. The restaurant said it was unable to secure a favourable long-term lease or negotiate its ongoing financial obligations in a way that would allow it to survive current conditions. It also pointed directly to the delayed completion of the nearby Broadway Subway station. For anyone who has followed what has happened to businesses along Broadway over the past several years, none of that should be particularly surprising. When I spoke to MacGillivray earlier this year, he wasn't simply complaining about inconvenient construction. He was describing a business that had spent years trying to survive one disruption after another. Fable Diner opened in 2016. Then COVID arrived. During the first summer of the pandemic, MacGillivray said Fable couldn't add a patio because of upcoming construction. Bus stops that once brought commuters past the restaurant were rerouted and the diner built its own delivery and pickup system, only to later lose access through the alley it was using. Then, as pandemic restrictions faded, Broadway construction intensified. “We never sort of recovered from COVID,” he told me. By this past January, MacGillivray estimated Fable's guest count was still down roughly 50 percent from before the pandemic. The consequences had also become deeply personal too. MacGillivray told me he sold his family home in 2022 to keep the business going. “I would have gone bankrupt if I didn’t,” he said. The calculation was that the money from the house could provide enough runway to reach the expected end of construction. Instead, the project was delayed again. “And now that money’s almost all gone,” he said seven months ago. MacGillivray had also spent about a year trying to sell Fable Diner. Despite believing the corner will eventually become an exceptional location once the subway opens and development accelerates along Broadway, he said prospective buyers weren't willing to take it on amid construction. When we spoke, he was describing Fable as a “zombie business”: still operating, employing people and paying taxes, but no longer generating enough for its owner to make the equation work. What made MacGillivray's frustration more complicated was that he never argued the Broadway Subway itself was a bad idea. Quite the opposite. He believes Broadway will be transformed when construction finally ends. More density will come. More businesses will open. More people will move through the neighbourhood. His question was always about who would survive long enough to benefit. “What’s there for them?” he asked of the businesses that had endured the disruption. “How do you survive through something like this?” For Fable Diner, we now have the answer. “We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported Fable Diner over the years—our staff, our regular guests and everyone who has walked through our doors,” MacGillivray said in announcing the closure. He has also left open the possibility that Fable Diner could eventually return elsewhere, or even as a food truck. Fable Kitchen on West 4th Avenue and Fable Bar & Grill on Richards Street remain open. But on Broadway, another business that spent years trying to reach the other side of construction won't be there when the ribbon is finally cut. Located at 151 E Broadway, Fable Diner will welcome guests through its final service on August 23.