End of the Rainbow: Ottawa staple set to close if new owner isn't found

Ottawa's legendary live music venueRainbow Bistro is set to close for good due to pandemic-related struggles unless a new owner steps forward.

"We're at the end of our rope," said Danny Sivyer, Rainbow's long-time president and CEO, who will close the venue on Sept. 18.

"We've been living on government money for a year and a half. It pays some of the bills, but not all of the bills."

The Rainbow Bistro opened 37 years ago and quickly became a musical landmark in Ottawa's ByWard Market.

The venue served as a mainstay for local musicians, but alsohosteda steady stream of blues and rock-and-rollroyalty including Bo Diddly,Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Dr. John and Albert King, to name a few.

The Bistro was also the home for ayoung Canadian band's first string of gigs outside their hometown of Kingston, Ont. That band wasthe Tragically Hip.

Sivyersays the up-and-comers were paid in beer:a case of 24 nightly.

Crowd limits imposed by the pandemic put an end to live music indoors,and profits dried up withcurrent rules allowingfor only 40 patrons at one time, according to Sivyer. The venue's capacity is 148 people.

"It just wasn't enough to pay to open the doors because we had to pay the band and a sound man and the doorman and the bar staff and everything else." said Sivyer. "We've just been waiting and waiting for the rules to change."

WATCH |Danny Sivyer, president and CEO of the Rainbow Bistro, on closing the venue:

Were at the end of our rope: Ottawas Rainbow Bistro to close before the end of September

3 years ago

Duration 2:43

Danny Sivyer, president and CEO of the Rainbow Bistro, says the 40-year-old blues venue has been hit hard by the pandemic and will close before the end of the month unless a last-minute buyer is found.

'Learned to play at the Rainbow'

Veteran Ottawa bluesman Tony D was 22 when he took the stage for the first time.

Now the lead guitarist with Juno award-winning band MonkeyJunk, he is slated to perform solo for two final showson the club's last night.

"It's been 37 magical, mighty, musical years," said Tony D.

"I learned to play at the Rainbow by watching all the players and getting all the musical opportunities of playing so many times there."

The musician says he's sad this musical legacy has to end, but he gives kudos to the Sivyer family for trying to holdon to thebusiness during tough times.

Among the memorable nightshe's experiencedas an audience member,Tony D recalls watching a young K.D. Langat the start of her career almost bringthe house down.

"She had the place in a frenzy." he recalled."For the encore, people were just stomping, they're banging their feet and pounding on the table and the whole building was shaking."

Sivyer launched the Rainbow Bistro in 1984 with partner Ron Knowles, Knowles returned to New Orleans in 1991 leaving Sivyer and his family in charge.

He says a new owner is the only way for music to play on at the Rainbow, including paying off all the debts so Sivyer and his family won't have to "leave with our tail between our legs."

• 'Big and brash and bombastic': Rainbow Bistro's Ron Knowles dies at 72

The bar owner says without the crowds and the party atmosphere, the Rainbow has been a mere shell of its former self during the pandemic.

"When you look around the room, when you had a live band playing and nobody on the dance floor and just 40 people sitting quietly, it really wasn't the same vibe or experience that people were expecting," said Sivyer, who has accepted this could be the venue's final note.