New York City’s First Hockey Sports Bar The Canuck Opens

New York City has always had a score of sports-loving fans who follow professional baseball, football, basketball, and hockey and wear their Yankees, Mets, Knicks, Giants, Jets, Rangers caps with pride. And they often congregate at various sports bars to watch games.

But Denis Ladouceur, a Canadian and former COO at a Wall Street firm and transplanted New Yorker, felt as if the city was missing one main meeting place: a sports bar devoted to hockey fans. In December 2021, he opened The Canuck on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea to appeal to the legion of hockey fans in the New York area that follows the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils as well as fellow Canadians who are fans of the Montreal Canadians or Toronto Maple Leaf’s.

He said The Canuck appeals to a wide-ranging demographic including “Canadians, ex-pats in the city and visiting Canadians, hockey fans, sports fans and locals looking for a clean and friendly neighborhood pub.”

Though professional ice-hockey has been Canadian’s national sport, Ladouceur noted that “Madison Square Garden has over 20,000 fans at every Rangers game.” Moreover, most sports bars give preference to baseball, football, and basketball, slighting hockey.

“The city desperately needed a location where hockey was the first priority, on the big screens, where hockey fans can gather and watch hockey together,” he stated.

New York’s first hockey-focused sports bar has been generating word of mouth, bringing in crowds to watch hockey games, and establishing a niche, but loyal audience.

When Ladouceur left his finance job during the pandemic, the timing was right to make the leap into fulfilling his dream. Having had no restaurant experience, Ladouceur did his “homework” by meeting with a bevy of restaurant insiders to “better understand the costs, downfalls, benefits and requirement associated with the industry.”

He wanted to open the hockey bar in Chelsea because of its proximity to Chelsea Piers and its ice-skating rink. He says there are about 1,500 people involved in its amateur hockey league and many of them find their way to The Canuck for dinner or a beer, “nearly every night,” he said.

He hired a restaurant consultant who steered him into the right direction for hiring the right staff, both front and back of the house, designing the menu and identifying the requisite food purveyors.

The memorabilia at The Canuck transcends hockey and ventures into the Canadian culture. He pointed out that “there are numerous photos of iconic Canadians, Canadian sports moments where consumer can enjoy their Canadian beers and eat poutine (French fries and cheese topped with gravy). Everyone orders poutine,” not just Canadians, he said.

He financed the opening of The Canuck with his own personal funds supplemented by investors who were friends and family.

The restaurant is 2,000 square feet, filled with twelve tables, accommodating 65 seats. The bar area has 15 stools, and there’s outdoor seating with three or four tables, for eight to a dozen people.

Ladouceur says the menu specializes in burgers, club sandwiches, and Caesar salads. It also offers several special cocktails such as the Caesar, Canada’s version of the Bloody Mary, made with Clamato juice instead of tomato juice and Maple Old Fashioned, classic whiskey but made with maple syrup.

The menu includes pulled pork sandwiches, chicken tenders, buffalo chicken wrap and an Impossible burger. Draft beers include a number of Canadian brands including Labbatt Blue, Collective Arts, as well as American and Irish brews.

“We wanted the food to be fitting for a Canadian pub. I don’t want to recreate the food industry but offer simple, quality food,” he explained.

Business boomed in late May and early June when the hometown New York Rangers made a playoff run, by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes before falling in seven games to the Tampa Bay Lightning, which had won the last two Stanley Cups. “The bar would reach full capacity for each Rangers playoff game and the energy of the crowd and games was amazing,” he said.

Ladouceur employed a variety of strategies to spread the word of The Canuck’s opening including targeted ads at designated Canadian groups on Facebook and Instagram and sponsoring local hockey teams at nearby Chelsea Piers.

When the professional hockey season ended in late June, he intends to host events such as birthday parties and work parties, weekly trivia nights that will keep the regulars coming in, until the next National Hockey League season begins in the fall.

He expects the summer to be slower though he also envisions that Yankee, Mets and Blue Jay fans will keep the bar hopping. He’s introduced a Saturday and Sunday brunch and added more outdoor tables.

When I visited The Canuck on the evening of the fourth game of the Stanley Cup finals, the joint was jumping. Ladouceur is preparing for the crowd of hockey fans, wearing a Moosehead Brewery t-shirt, and looking relaxed but busy.

The bar is strewn with Canadian and hockey memorabilia with photos of Canadian-born celebrities from Celine Dion, Martin Short, John Candy and William Shatner, and hockey cards for the 1994 Rangers team, its most recent Stanley Cup winning team.

He estimated that about 20% of his clientele is Canadian. “Canadians walk by, see the flag and have to stop in, and there are more Canadians in the neighborhood than you might expect,” he said.

Asked if it’ll show the Yankee game that night, Ladouceur says, “We’re a hockey bar, so it’ll be the Stanley Cup on every screen.” The Yankees will have to wait until the NHL season officially concludes.

He said the keys to its future success are “consistency, making sure we maintain our food quality, and maintaining our staffing, because of the vibe and energy that they create.”

Ladouceur is working hard but having a fun time in its first six months of owning the city’s first exclusive hockey bar. “I want it to embody the Canadian spirit, be a Canadian bar so when Canadians dine out they feel at home,” he explained.

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