Ship Happens: One-time car ferry sets sail as bar and grill in Port Dalhousie

Hamilton Spectator

5 days ago

If the Normac, a boat moored at Port Dalhousie Pier Marina that recently opened as the Ship Happens Bar & Grill, were an animal, it couldn't be anything but a cat.
What else on the Seven Seas — not to mention, the Great Lakes — has nine lives?
Before it opened in 1970 as the first floating restaurant in Toronto Harbour, the 130-foot vessel had already served as a fireboat for the Detroit Fire Department and then as a ferry on Georgian Bay, hauling cars between Tobermory and Manitoulin Island.
It was docked along the Cleveland Flats and was about to be put up for auction when Nino Donatelli, the owner of Port Dalhousie Pier Marina, purchased the boat and brought it to St. Catharines through the Welland Canal.
He wanted to return the Normac to its former glory as a restaurant.
Since 2002, he has been accomplishing that goal, overcoming such obstacles as extensive — and expensive — as dredging and rebuilding the boat following a fire 10 years ago.
Permanently moored at the marina, the Normac ceased being a boat in everything but its distinctive shape long ago. Donatelli pointed out that it became a building subject to municipal regulations after it hooked into such services as water, sewer, and electricity.
Donatelli never ran the Normac as a restaurant himself, but leased it to a succession of tenants 'as opposed to building a restaurant' at the marina. He considered the marina as the venture's primary catchment area.
'There are 400 boats and figure two people per boat,' Donatelli said. 'Just serving them was all I was concerned about.'
Before reopening as Ship Happens after being closed for several years, the boat-turned-restaurant operated as the Thirsty Cactus and Taco & Tequila, perhaps enjoying its greatest success under the latter.
Reinhold and Trish Pentzek, who own Riverbank Tavern in Welland and, for the past two years, have had a boat at the marina, never thought about running another restaurant until Donatelli opened their eyes to the possibilities by giving them a tour of the Normac.
They came away impressed.
'It seemed doable,' Trish said. 'We didn't do it last year.
'This year we said we would try and do it.'
It hasn't been smooth sailing by any means for the Pentzeks.
'Lots of hiccups because it hasn't been opened for so many years,' she said. 'Some people just wanted us to open right away, so we did.
'We're working on it, constantly working on it and making sure for next year it's going to be absolutely perfect.'
Ship Happens had a soft opening about three weeks ago, and business has been 'very good.'
'We've had a lot of support, and it's been great. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays have been amazing.'
Ship Happens has yet to have its own website. Advertising so far has been word of mouth following a post on Facebook.
The reaction to that post caught the couple by surprise.
A vessel that once served as a fire boat in Detroit and a car ferry on Georgian Bay has been moored at Port Dalhousie Pier Marina since 2002. It recently opened as a bar and grill called Ship Happens.
'Somebody told me, 'You better be prepared, somebody put it on Facebook,'' Trish said. 'There have been a huge amount of likes and, yeah, we got slammed.'
The Pentzeks never really thought about the marina lacking a restaurant when they were going on and off their boat.
'We were busy with the other place, my husband also has his company that we work with,' she said. 'I didn't really think about it until I toured the boat.'
Most of the clientele isn't from people who dock boats in the marina.
'Actually, it's a lot of people walking in,' Reinhold said.
So far, the investment of time, money, and sweat equity to get Ship Happens ship shape has been worth it to the Pentzeks.
'I didn't think this would get so busy so fast, but it did,' she answered when asked if she was concerned about spreading herself too thin.
'I have my family, my daughters. We have a friend in there, Justin, who helps out, so we're all together working and doing this together and making it work.'
The memorable name — a take on, of course, Boat Happens — also was a collaborative effort.
'I asked my daughters and I asked my husband,' Trish said. 'I gave them a whole list of names, and everyone had this name on their list.
'People love it, it's great. Next year, all the girls are going to have it on their T-shirts.'
The biggest hurdle was getting the equipment up to date and ensuring everything was working properly.
They plan to 'boost up our menu next year.'
'We made it very plain this year,' she said, such as salads, chicken wings, wraps. 'I didn't even know what to expect. I didn't know if I expected boat people only coming or people from out there, so we made the menu very simple.
'Now we know what to expect, people are asking for different things, so we know what to do now.'
The name is more than appropriate, according to Reinhold.
'And it does apply. You go along and 'ship' happens,' he said with a laugh in recalling the work involved in getting the Normac ready for its next life.
The seasonal restaurant, which will be open from April until October, currently has about 10 employees. It is closed Monday, open from 5 p.m. until 11 p.m. or midnight Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and from noon until close Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.