Social Setting

The Social Opens in Dawson Heights

“Aplace where people feel like it’s their second home” is how Theresa Stewart describes what she wants her new venture to be to her patrons. Stewart is a veteran Thunder Bay bartender and bar manager, having worked in the local scene for years (alongside her day job as a dental hygienist), but is now trading that in to strike out as a first-time pub owner, purchasing the former Melizana Mediterranean Restaurant in Dawson Heights and reinventing the space as The Social, a casual pub with an urban flair.

“I love the bar industry. I love the people you meet,” she says. “The customers kind of just become a little family and I just wanted to recreate that in my own space.” Stewart says she’s been eyeing such an opportunity for a while and when the opportunity came (Melizana closed up shop in September), she took it.

In the meantime, there’s been “a lot of long hours,” in getting The Social up and running, and turning the space from a sitdown restaurant into more of a bar setting, Stewart says. That has involved removing many (but not all) of the existing booth-style tables and replacing them with more pub-like seating, installing televisions and a karaoke stage, changing some of the lighting, and significantly updating, enlarging, and reconfiguring the bar area—specifically the installation of a large, liveedge wood and galvanized metal bar structure. The overall urban-industrial look of the space, however, remains intact. “Given the name of the place, it’s about being social,” Stewart says of her vision of the bar and its renovations. “So opening up the space, making it more inviting, [means] you get to chat with everybody. Anywhere that we did keep the partition walls, we just raised the tables up so people can still see each other and chat.”

As far as what’s on tap, Stewart says it’s a place where anyone can grab a beer after work, but also one where there’s a variety of wines available, as well as a specialty cocktail menu. For food, she says she wants to keep the menu to “pub food”—things like burgers, wings, poutine, and nachos. Karaoke nights run Fridays and Saturdays, and Stewart says she’d also like to start booking smaller musical and other entertainment acts; the pub, she adds, accommodates party bookings too.

“It’s just always been a big interest,” she says of running her own establishment—specifically one with a strong communal vibe. “It’s just about being social.”

Find The Social on Facebook or visit thesocialtbay.com.