Owner Luc Poirier says the larger building will allow for more events and live music
Ducky’s Pub plans to move into the former Vogue Cinema building across from its current home on Bridge Street by September 2027. This comes after a redesign to make the building more accessible delayed the original plan for a January 2027 opening.
“The plan right now is, by the time everybody comes back for September, we’ll be into the new space,” said Luc Poirier, owner of Ducky’s Pub, in an interview with The Argosy. He had hoped for a soft opening on Jan. 1, but renovations have only just begun, and demolition has not started. “If it’s not January 1, then it has to be after convocation,” Poirier said. Before then, he said, Sackville has “too much going on.”
“The original plan that had us opening on January 1 was with an architect that didn’t have as much experience with heritage buildings,” Poirier said. The previous plan kept Vogue Cinema’s seven concrete steps between the lobby and the seating area, which he said would have meant installing ramps. Built in 1946, the Vogue sits within the town’s Municipal Heritage Conservation Area, and the new design had to remove the steps without losing the character of the building.
The landlords found a new architect whose plan removes the steps. “We’ll have a level, smooth walk-in all the way to the stage,” Poirier said. He also believes the sloped floor is a problem for dancing. “My customers sometimes struggle dancing on a level plane,” he said. “They are not going to be able to dance on an incline.”
The building itself is in good shape, despite rumors of a damaged roof. “The roof is in really good condition,” Poirier said. “We’ve been in during the worst rainstorms over the past year and a half, and the place is still bone dry.”
The new space will have roughly double the square footage and, with a private event area, “triple the capacity,” Poirier said. “One of the things that we’re going to be able to do with our design is have an upstairs bookable space,” he said.
“A society night doesn’t have to be from 11 till 2 [a.m.] as a fundraiser,” Poirier said. “You could book out [Ducky’s] on a Tuesday afternoon or a Tuesday evening and have a space all to yourself with a dedicated bartender.” Poirier said a society party held in the space “could watch a sports game or play Mario Kart.”
The pub also plans to draw on the building’s past as a cinema. “We won’t be turning the space back into a new film location,” Poirier said, but the large screen will remain a part of the design. He said the pub has “already had some talks about showing student films.” This sentiment emerged after Mt.A announced an interdisciplinary minor in Screen Studies and Pop Culture, and is in a discussion with the Sackville Film Society about bringing back film nights, which have been relocated to Amherst since the closing of Vogue Cinema.
The larger building would also give the pub more room for live music. “We’re committed to bringing back live music to Sackville,” He sees the town’s location as an advantage for touring acts. “We’re on the way to Halifax,” Poirier said. A bigger stage could draw those acts to Sackville, and visitors who come downtown for a show would spend money at other businesses which, “will bring some more needed money into our little town,” Poirier noted.
The move also means taking over a building many people in Sackville have a connection to. “The challenge of Vogue Cinema is that everybody has an idea of what it could be or what it should be,” Poirier said. The pub told the landlords that it wants to preserve as much of the building’s history as possible. The stage facing will be rebuilt in the same style, a section of the original seats will go on display, and the pub’s photographer “documented it before any hammers were swung.”
Poirier hopes the move does not change what the pub means to students, noting, “I want [Ducky’s] to be spoken of the same way it is now.” “This is the safe space that I know I can go with my friends, whether I want to go dancing or I want to sit around and chat with my prof, or I want to take in an amazing live show.”