Guests at the Red Deer Lodge Hotel and Conference Centre are once again able to sit down to a full meal.
Hotel manager John Mytz announced this week that the hotel’s kitchen and restaurant are back in business, almost three months after the roof caved in over the adjoining banquet area.
Full-service meals are now available and buffet specials will resume on May 22.
While the entire hotel was shut down for cleanup after the collapse, which occurred on Feb. 12, some areas have slowly been restored.
All guest rooms are now available, the pool area is open and meeting rooms at the north side of the hotel are back in service.
The hotel’s tavern, Shark’s Garage, remains closed, although there are no problems with that area of the building, said Mytz. Most of the staff who worked there have found other employment and since this is a slow time of the year, hotel management decided to leave the tavern closed for now.
The area encompassing the Waskasoo and Piper Creek banquet rooms has been demolished, but hotel management has not decided what form its replacement will take.
The hotel is performing a study to determine what sort of facilities would best fit the Red Deer market, said Mytz. He expects it will take another two to three months to make a decision on whether to continue with a banquet area or build something more oriented to conferences.