Owners of a downtown ѻý pub are celebrating their ninth anniversary by announcing plans to open a new establishment in Vernon.
Itѻý a homecoming of sorts for Kyle Nixon, who played for the Vernon Vipers junior hockey team some years before he opened the BNA Brewing Co. and Eatery on Ellis Street.
“I have fond memories of this place and made great friends in Vernon,” Nixon said in a release. "The people have always been so supportive of BNA, so we can’t wait to bring what we do to town and hopefully make an impact in a positive way.”
The Vernon establishment will be inside a transformed 50-year-old industrial property, known to locals as the old Finning building, on Kalamalka Lake Road near the north end of the Okanagan Rail Trail, the long-distance cycling and hiking path.
“We love the buildingѻý two levels and the industrial roots of this building, as it provides a completely different, yet somehow familiar feel and experience to the brick and timber we have in ѻý,” says Carolyn Nixon.
Plans are to open the Vernon establishment this fall. Like the ѻý pub, it will have a craft brewery, large restaurant, 10-pin bowling lanes, and retro arcade games.
The Nixons opened the BNA Brewing Co. and Eatery on June 1, 2015. Its name comes from the brick buildingѻý original purpose in the early 1900s as a warehouse for the British North American Tobacco Company.
It was a fairly short-lived concern that owned tobacco fields in the Mission district. Over the years, the large building was also used as a cannery and for other industrial and commercial purposes.
The Nixons other businesses include Skinny Dukeѻý Glorious Emporium, the Bohemian Cafe, Bernieѻý, Public Liquor, and Snowshoe Samѻý at Big White.
Kyle Nixon is the son of Jim Nixon, who owned and operated the Eldorado Hotel on Lakeshore Road for many years before selling the business in 2014.