How the Rainbow Bistro survived the pandemic and made it to its 40th anniversary

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The Rainbow Bistro is celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend, three years after owner Danny Sivyer ran out of money during the closures and capacity restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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He made the difficult decision to close the doors at the end of September 2021, a move that was covered by the Ottawa Citizen. It looked to be the end of an era for the ByWard Market live-music venue at the corner of Murray and Parent streets. 

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The response was remarkable.

A group of local tech entrepreneurs came forward to help, setting into motion a stretch of fundraising efforts that not only saved the club from imminent demise, but also helped make it more viable than ever. 

“I’m very happy,” Sivyer said of how things worked out. “For the first time in years, I can sleep at night. I don’t stress about bills. We were always just above or just below the line for 37 years, and I’d have to throw money in and get it back the next year. Now we’re running with a balance in the bank and making a bit of profit.”

Kevin Ford, CEO of Calian Group Ltd., was the first tech exec to reach out to Sivyer after the Citizen’s 2021 article. A musician who’s also the father of musicians, Ford had fond memories of taking his sons to the Rainbow’s Sunday jam session and didn’t want it to close. 

Ford recruited some music-loving Ottawa business colleagues, including MDS Aero CEO John Jastremski, Kingsford Consulting President Andrew Penny and Kinaxis CEO John Sicard, forming an advisory group they called the Rainbow Bistro Business Amplifers. They met regularly over Zoom. 

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For starters, each executive contributed $5,000 in the name of corporate sponsorship and saw their company names emblazoned on a banner over the stage. That raised $55,000 and got the club through the winter of 2021-22, Sivyer said.

Then they encouraged him to apply for a FACTOR grant, available at the time to help live-music businesses. That added $60,000 to the business account. A provincial grant bumped it up by $30,000, while a crowd-funding campaign raised another $41,000 that went to support the booking of bands. 

During one pandemic closure, the advisors recommended investing in long-delayed renovations, an expense that cost about $80,000, and struck a deal with music equipment supplier Long and McQuade to provide top-notch sound and light gear on a no-charge, multi-year lease. 

“We survived through the generosity of Ottawa, basically,” Sivyer said. “We were able to do the renovations, get the sound equipment, pay the bands and reopen in March of 2022 with money in the bank.”

Today, the Rainbow Amplifiers’ meetings have dwindled to quarterly sessions, but Sivyer says the club is doing well partly because they’re no longer trying to book shows every night of the week. 

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“The business is viable now,” he said. “We’re making a small profit every year, mainly because we don’t do 12 shows a week anymore. After COVID, we were smarter and said we can’t do that again. Now we’re booking a lot less, about two to five shows a week, so that cuts down all of our costs.” 

He’s also proud of his daughter Stacy’s work in programming. The Rainbow had long been known as Ottawa’s home of the blues, but Danny wanted to reach a younger clientele and asked Stacy to take over the bookings a decade ago. She also manages (and often tends) the bar. 

“Stacy is doing a really good job with the young local music scene,” he said. “The young bands all support each other. If she books three of them, then three of the others come out and support. They follow each other around the city. It’s always a pretty good crowd and quite often a sold-out crowd.”

For proof they’re on the right track, Sivyer pointed to the two Ottawa Music Industry Coalition awards at the bar. The Rainbow was named best music venue in 2023, while Stacy earned the live-music curator-of-the-year award this year. 

“That means, even though we’re 40 years old, the granddaddy of bars, we’re still relevant with the young kids,” he said. 

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

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