EDMONTON — The Strathcona Hotel hasn’t been serving up any drinks lately, but in a few months that is set to change.
The hotel has been a fixture along Whyte Avenue for around 130 years, for most of those years a bar occupied the main floor.
For some people the building known as ‘The Strat’ was a popular stop on a Whyte Avenue tour.
“It was pretty close to 40 years ago, when I was in university. A lot of young people, university-aged people were there at that time,” said Kim Kissell.
In recent years the bar started getting a different reputation.
“Just like fights outside of it and stuff, lots of police cars outside of it before,” said Morgan, a passerby on Whyte Avenue.
The hotel was bought in 2018 and the bar shut down while renovations got underway.
The exterior renovations to the building are complete and crews are currently stripping the interior of the building down to the frame.
“It's very critical that we keep this building relatively intact,” said Christ Dulaba with Beljan Developments. “So it still has the same presence and feel.”
The upper floors of the building are being converted into office and retail space.
The new tavern taking over the main floor of the old hotel will be Leopold’s, the company has locations across western Canada and they are excited to get into The Strat.
“We love going into these old, kinda divey buildings and coming in and kind of putting our spin on it,” said David Sauve with Leopold’s.
The new tavern will have plenty of local decorations, some a tribute to the old Strat, and one that old-time patrons will recognize.
“We will have pickled eggs,” said Sauve.
Leopold’s, and the rest of the building, is expected to open later this year in July or August.
