Two major renovations to two separate buildings on Lakeshore Drive were approved during a regular meeting of Town Council on Monday evening.
Both 4603 Lakeshore Drive, home to the Big Moo and Nomads, as well as 4903 Lakeshore Drive, former home of Beach Burgers and future home of Viva La Serena, a family friendlySpanish tapas restaurant are both set to undergo major facade improvements.
Viva La Serena, owned by Kjeryn Davis who also operates Buckwildz across the street from her new restaurant, will feature a unique open concept European design. It will also feature two glass garage style doors with an outdoor patio area to the north and east to be fenced off by rope.
Due to liquor licensing restraints and the high volume of the traffic on the corner where the restaurant is located, Town Council discussed at great length whether they felt the patio should be enclosed by glass. However, due to the restaurant having plans to be family focused, they felt there was no need to have the six foot high tempered glass walls as seen on other patios along Lakeshore Drive.
Viva La Serena, which Davis explained translates to ‘Long Live The Mermaid’, is set to open this summer with Davis explaining the design isn’t the only European inspiration.
The menu will feature a wide range of fresh seafood and a wide variety of tapas, which are sharing plates featuring an array of appetizers and snacks. The serving of tapas is designed to encourage conversation between those eating the meal together.
“I flew to Barcelona and Paris for inspiration. I looked at architecture and design then had the chance to eat more amazing food than I ever thought I would be capable of,” explained Davis. “It’s an open concept because I want people to be walking down Lakeshore, see the patio and the people on it, then see through the open garage doors to all of the people mingling over the tapas and smell from outside the food cooking inside through those doors.
Davis added the entire process of getting the development permits felt very welcoming and she commended Town staff from the Planning and Development department on their helpfulness and work in making Sylvan Lake an attractive place to do business. She added she was also happy with Council’s decision to not enforce glass walls around the patio.
“The Town planning staff gave me so many great suggestions and I’m very appreciative of all the hard work they have done,” said Davis. “A roped patio versus a glass patio is way more inviting – if you go to downtown Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, Canmore and in Europe especially, there is no glass. They all have open patios.”
The iconic Big Moo and Nomads building also got approved for their renovations during Monday night’s meeting which are set to include a unique ‘watch tower’ façade on the corner of the building with the addition of a roof top and main level patio and was designed by Sherri Turpin, an architect out of Red Deer.
The new building design incorporates three glass garage style doors on the north side of the building and hardy board style siding with metal fascia band along the top with a proposed red, white and black colour scheme.