Quote:
Originally Posted by TorqueDog
Much of the reason I stopped going surrounded my move away from the area. When I first moved to Calgary, I lived in Tuscany from 2006-2007. After I moved to Thorncliffe-Greenview, I went less, and shortly after stopped going altogether. I had pretty much zero reason to go to Crowfoot at all anymore except to BMW Crowfoot for servicing my car.
Then again, I noticed that the place was getting less and less busy, while the turnover of the wait staff became more rapid. Service suffered, food got worse. This of course all coincided with the Flames playing like a bag of ass and the O&G boom fizzling out.
It's weird now to think back to those days. Maybe it was the veneer of being a young 20-something in a new city, but the energy and feel of this city in my first few years was unreal. With everything going on in the world economically and politically, I don't know if a place with such a feel even exists any more. I love this city but man, Calgary lately just feels like today's weather; grey.
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I think what you're saying here is hinting at some underlying issues that Schanks had.
First of all, you only went there when you lived close, i.e. when it was convenient for you. It's telling that when you moved a little further away—only an extra five minutes' drive, mind you—you stopped going. Schanks was not worth the extra ten minutes worth of driving to-and-from. It wasn't good enough to draw you there after it became only
slightly less convenient.
Second, you were a twentysomething when you went there often, and stopped going as you got a little older. You stopped going because it didn't have the appeal to bring in an older crowd. Pub grub at a sports bar gets old. I bet this also coincided with you and your buddies having long-term relationships, getting married, etc. and the significant others didn't want to go to Schanks.
Third, businesses that had to rely on spendthrift O&G goofs were doomed to failure. They were passively bringing in more revenue through no work of their own. The underlying fundamental interest in the business was masked by "over-spending" from a temporarily cash-rich clientele. They were always going to be the first to lose revenue when O&G took a downswing.
For myself, I never went to Schanks often, but in retrospect I mostly went in my 20s, mostly with friends who lived in Tuscany/Arbour Lake/Citadel. After those friends moved elsewhere, and after we all got older, we just stopped going. It held no great appeal anymore.