Stone Angel Brewery owner petitions to change the name of Plaza Station to 'Brewery Station'

Stone Angel Brewery is hoping the city will consider its request to change the name of the new bus stop behind its south Pembina business to "Brewery Station."

Owner and co-founder, Paul Clerkin, released a petition on Twitter Friday morning with an aim of persuading the City of Winnipeg to rename Plaza Drive, the stop along the second stage of the Southwest Transitway, set to open next spring.

Clerkin said he thinks that the name of the station isn't entirely representative of the area.

"A plaza in Europe suggests a big square, you're in Barcelona, you're in Madrid, a 'piazza' in Italy. Plaza Drive here is essentially a short little nubbin of a street with two buildings on it, Clerkin said.

"It doesn't live up to the phrase 'plaza' and we figured that the biggest landmark at the station is clearly our brewery."

Clerkin, who co-founded Stone Angel Brewery in 2017, moved to Canada from Dublin, Ireland fifteen years ago. He said the idea of changing the name of Plaza Station originally began as an April Fool's Day joke.

Clerkin released a fake press release on April 1st and a photoshopped image of Fort Rouge Station, intended to look like the station at Plaza Drive, with the name changed to Brewery. The fake release was complete with made-up quotes from city officials supporting the project.

From there, Clerkin said his customers supported the change so he decided to try to make it a reality.

He said the idea behind it is that people would see the stop on the way to work, it would make their day, and on their ride home they would remember that 'Brewery Station' is coming up and be reminded to unwind and get themselves a drink.

"Plaza is misleading, 'Brewery' isn't. There is no plaza, there is a brewery."

Although Clerkin said he thinks the name of the station doesn't represent the correct definition of 'plaza', Winnipeg Transit can't change names of bus stops easily.

Although no one from Winnipeg Transit was available to comment, a spokesperson said in a statement the city typically names bus stations after major landmarks or intersections in the area, not businesses.

The reasoning is businesses can move, change names or shut down, making the name of the bus station no longer relevant.

Clerkin aims to get 1,000 signatures on the petition and then try to formally present it to Mayor Brian Bowman. If it doesn't work out, Clerkin joked that he'll resort to more direct measures.

"Maybe a march, you know, there have been marches on more ridiculous things than this. Maybe a campout outside the Mayor's office."