The former Tony Roma's location in Grande Prairie will soon be home to "The Lions Den" Pub (Photo: Shaun Penner / EverythingGP staff)

By Shane Clausing

Moving up the bypass

The Den moving to old Tony Roma’s location in spring, returning to “Lions Den” name

Jan 6, 2021 | 3:20 PM

The Den Pub and Carvery is moving to a new location this spring.

The pub has been a staple in Grande Prairie for over 20 years and is currently located across the street from Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC).

In the spring, the pub will move a couple of kilometers away to the old Tony Roma’s location on 107 Street and 117 Avenue.

Todd Zahorodniuk, the Owner of The Den, says he felt moving his restaurant now was a great opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.

“I’ve been kind of looking at this building for a while since Tony Roma’s shut down (in 2019) and I really loved the building. The location is equal to where to we are at, my lease is coming up and we made a really good deal.”

“I really liked this building, it has a great look for a pub. It just made sense at the time. I know it’s tough times out there, but I think that this brings excitement and people will have something to look forward to in the new year.”

With the move to a new building comes new opportunity, and Zahorodniuk says that people will see some changes.

“We are going back to the Lions Den Pub name, we’re going to do a new exciting menu, we’ll cozy up the pub quite a bit.

“It’s a bit of a smaller room so it will be a little bit more intimate and we’re still going to do a little bit of live music here and there and have some good old Lions Den fun.”

While Zahorodniuk is moving away the location The Den has held for over two decades, right across the street from GPRC, he doesn’t think that he’ll lose the college crowd once in-person classes resume.

“We’re really only a couple of blocks away from our old location, so I don’t see that being an issue. I think we did the right thing and people are going to come to the place.

“I think with an exciting new room, they’ll be quite pumped up for a good ThursDen coming up.”

Zahorodniuk hopes they will be able to open in the middle of March.

He says he hasn’t heard of any plans on what will happen to the current Den location once they move out.