Paris Pub
Bar of all trades: Paris Pub
For owner Dave Evans, the Paris Pub is so much more than a pub. It’s a comedy venue, concert hall, art gallery, drag show stage, karaoke bar, and–if he has his way–even more than that.
When Dave Evans was young, pubs were the place to be. “Every bar had bands on the weekends,” he says. “Thursday, Friday, Saturday night."
In his early twenties, he tended bar at the Queen’s Tavern in Ayr – a downtown watering hole with a local crowd – as a side gig to pay the bills. He was transfixed by just how many people came out on a Saturday night to see the shows and spend time with friends and their community.
Now in his sixties, he’s the owner and operator of the Paris Pub at 44 Grand River Street North – where he’s trying to build that same sense of community he felt at the Tavern.
Evans wants the pub to be about community more than anything else. That’s why he and his staff have been hosting a wide variety of public events over the past few years.
From comedy, karaoke and trivia nights, to drag shows and live book readings, the Paris Pub has seen it all, and Evans only wants to do more.
The Paris Pub is a place for everyone, he says. The baby highchair that sits by the entrance – which according to him, gets a lot of use – may well prove this.
Evans bought the bar in May 2018. He was looking for a money-making opportunity that could tide him over while he winds down to retirement. A bar, he thought, would be perfect.
Evans works from 8 AM to 5 PM as an engineer at an automation company in Cambridge that builds custom machines. He’d never owned a business before the pub – “I’ve been a desk jockey all my life,” he says.
“I bought it turnkey – I hired the employees that were here and figured I could learn the business.”
Evans did just that; he learned to run a pub.
“I had many people advised me not to do it, but I’m stubborn, so I did it anyways,” he says.
Before he bought it, Paris Pub was Cafe Europa – a bar which opened as a Cafe in 1986, but after a change in ownership, quickly became not a cafe. It was certainly a popular spot for a drink but was far from the spirit that Evans wanted the place to embody.
Before making the purchase, Evans stopped by one evening to see what kind of state it was in. He entered through the front door between the two large planters that used to sit in front of the entrance, made his way through a maze of empty tables and took a seat on one of the highchairs towards the back of the room. The Cafe was completely empty apart from a man slumped over the bar rail, sleeping with his glass still in hand.
Evans was sure the place needed work but had misjudged just how much. Nearly every surface, particularly the ceiling - which had been stained a dark brown from years of indoor smoking – needed to be replaced or repainted.
Both large glass windows at the front entrance were broken in the first few months of his ownership – one during a barfight, the other by a man who discovered the front planters had been removed when he went to sit down on one and fell backwards, straight through the glass.
Evans decided the bar needed a rebrand, and employed the help of Heather Adele, a Paris local who works in filming and media production and is much savvier with event planning and promo than he is.
“She started out doing my social media,” says Evans. “And she kind of became HR.”
Today, Heather is the General Manager of the pub – a role that she puts an incredible amount of effort and passion into.
The vibe of Paris Pub – as they decided to call it – would be a comfortable and cozy place to enjoy some pub grub, maybe a beer or two, and some community, Evans says.
If you drop in on a weekend, it’s clear that this vision is being fulfilled.
“We’ve done summers where we did open mics on Sunday afternoons, and we’ve had families in here with little kids,” he says. “We’ve had little old ladies from Toronto that got up and sang songs.”
Downtown Dig construction meant they couldn’t set up their usual front patio, so Evans and his team decided to install a new patio out back – a quiet nook with outdoor seating, string lights, all overlooking Sales Decorating Centre’s brand-new mural next door.
The mural is titled “Wet Paint” and was commissioned by Sales Decorating Centre. It was painted by local artist Erin McFadden, whose work has been featured elsewhere downtown, including the walls of the Paris Bakery.
Evans is hopeful for the future of Paris Pub, especially in a revitalized downtown Paris.
“Paris is touristy,” he says. “People, since COVID, are doing more day trips rather than getting on a plane.”
So, if you’re a tourist on a day trip or a local looking for a good night out, make sure to put the Paris Pub at the top of your list.
Paris Pub is located at 44 Grand River Street North in downtown Paris, Ontario. Visit parispub.ca to view the menu and upcoming events. Follow Paris Pub on Facebook @theparispub.