After nearly five years, a longtime Queen’s service is making a comeback.
Following the official reopening of the JDUC on May 5, where it now occupies space on the first floor, the Queen’s Pub will return on June 3 for the first time since its 2020 closure. Relaunched as the Queen’s Pub Restaurant and Bar, the AMS-run service now features a renovated interior, updated menu, new staff, and two permanent hires—Restaurant Manager Jordan East and Head Chef Rick Doucett.
Over the summer, it will operate Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with patio service available from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. During the school year, the patio will close, and the operating hours will extend to midnight. While open to all of the Kingston community, the pub will be student-only after 9 p.m., aside from the guests of students. The space has also transitioned to a fully cashless system, accepting only debit and credit payments.
First opened in 1969 as “The Quiet Pub” on the second floor of what’s now the JDUC, the venue gradually evolved. Over the decades, it’s changed names and shifted locations, now ending up on the first floor of the JDUC with the patio facing the University and the Union.
The Journal sat down with the pub’s new Head Manager, Greyson Martyn, Sci ‘25, to talk about what students can expect from the pub’s food, drinks, and events.
When it comes to the menu, Martyn explained that they wanted to pay homage to the old pub while still offering new dishes.
Martyn specifically pointed out his excitement for the returning items such as the “Original Honey G” which includes hot honey garlic strips with green onions, lettuce, cheese and cucumber aioli in a tortilla wrap.
Martyn also touched on whether events, such as live music, will be hosted within the pub, explaining that they “ want to pay homage and do events similar to what was done in the past but our main priority right now is seeing if we’re able to host these events and seeing what events we’re capable of hosting […] we really want to be able to walk before we can run.”
Martyn also touched on drinks that will be offered, adding that they’ll provide hard alcohol, including shots and cocktails, along with non-alcoholic drinks, like mocktails.
As for how the pub will manage distributing the drinks that the pub will offer, Vice-President (Operations), Elena Nurzynski, who oversees the pub as part of her portfolio, spoke to their plan.
“The pub is food-focused first, so while it’s a space that has alcohol, food is the number one priority. Staff also have their smart serve certification, so they’re trained on how to monitor alcohol consumption, look for signs of intoxication, and they also have the knowledge and the ability to know kind of when to stop serving alcohol, if necessary,” Nurzynski said.
Nurzynski also pointed out that the pub will have a ban list if needed alongside Stucons, the AMS security service, will be at the pub after 9 p.m.
As for the pub’s financial health, Nurzynski explained that the introduction of the permanent staff aims to ensure the pub breaks even to deal with the projected deficit that was associated with the reopening of The Brew, the sister location of Common Ground Coffeehouse, and the Queen’s Pub.
READ MORE: AMS consolidated budget for 2024-25 academic year presented at Corporate General Meeting
“We added those two permanent staff to ensure that consistency and ability, so] the pub is a financially sustainable operation. In this case, this means simply breaking even. the AMS is a nonprofit organization, so breaking even is the ultimate goal, and the restaurant manager’s job is more to ensure that the pub doesn’t really fall back into a cycle of losing money,” Nurznski said.
Nurzynski later clarified that despite having two permanent staff, the student head manager will have equal authority as the permanent head manager and will ensure the student voice is being amplified through The Pub.
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].