A Winnipeg brewery's attempt at maintaining a longtime Christmas tradition has been Scrooged thanks to a technicality.
One Great City's Tim Hudek says his brewery's replacement version of the iconic Route 90 “humbug” sign was up on the roof for only a few days before it had to be taken down as it violated some building policies.
The original sign was displayed prominently on a nearby apartment block for almost half a century, but the humbug tradition looked likely to end this year, as the apartments are undergoing renovations.
The Ness Avenue brewery, which can be seen from the sign's original balcony location, noticed the construction happening across Route 90 and decided to step in to keep the tradition alive.
The iconic ‘humbug' sign on Route 90 in Winnipeg, as seen in 2020.
Submitted @den_74
While One Great City had to remove the sign from the roof in order to be compliant with the building's regulations, the sign is now on display inside the brewery itself.
The policies, Hudek said, included the need for any signage to be directly connected to the business's name, as well as avoiding anything that could be seen as recognizing any type of specific holiday.
“We had a really positive response to it,” he told 680 CJOB's The Start, “but we had a couple of conversations with our landlord — who's been terrific overall — and they just said that it violated a few of their policies.
“We worked with them and what we're going to do is move the sign inside — so now, instead, we're going to have it in the restaurant, so people can come in and they can take a photo with it.”
Hudek said, in a way, this situation works out in everyone's favour, in that Winnipeggers will have a chance to see the sign up close.
“It's something we were just trying to do to brighten people's holiday season. The roof doesn't work, but putting it inside, bringing it up close to people … hopefully it just makes the legend grow, and next year when it's back up on Route 90, hopefully people have an even better identification with it.
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