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Website helps patrons find patios for dining on Vancouver Island

Indoor dining closure and the onset of spring created a need for a patio locator
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Find a sunny spot for a rosé. (Zoë Ducklow/News Staff)

Fancy a bevvy in the sun somewhere that isn’t your patio or a park?

While indoor dining is on hold for a few weeks due to record-breaking spikes in COVID-19 cases, a new website is helping patrons and patios find each other.

The site, victoriapatios.ca covers Vancouver Island restaurants, and also identifies places open for take-out or delivery. Information is submitted by restaurants themselves.

READ MORE: B.C. stops indoor dining, fitness, religious service due to COVID-19 spike

The site was started by IT provider Blackfish Networks, a company with a lot of restaurant clients, after all indoor dining was shut down last week, and will stay off-limits until April 19.

“It’s very important to us that this industry survives,” Bill Speta with Blackfish said. A local leader in the hospitality industry called him after the restrictions were announced, asking how quickly Blackfish could get a website built. The answer: 48 hours.

The directory went live April 2 with more than a hundred manually inputted restaurant listings, and is now accepting submissions from restaurant owners.

READ MORE: B.C. sets two new daily records with latest COVID-19 cases


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