Penticton's Bad Tattoo Brewing shifts to counter service to avoid vaccine passport program

Photo: Contributed

A prominent brewery with locations in Penticton and Kelowna that publicly announced it would not take part in B.C.'s vaccine passport system has announced changes to legalize their operations.

Bad Tattoo took to Facebook Thursday to announce the change.

"In an effort to remain inclusive to everyone, we would like to update you on our new service structure. We have changed to a counter service and takeout model and as such will only be able to serve alcohol in our tasting room side of the facility while standing," their post reads.

"We apologize to anyone we can’t serve alcohol to in our restaurant side but we will still be serving up our same delicious pizzas with a new non-alcoholic drink menu."

Provincial health orders require sit-down restaurants seek proof of vaccination from customers. The program, however, does not apply to cafes, cafeterias, fast-food restaurants — eateries where customer seating is unassigned and have no table service.

Tasting rooms without seating attached to wineries, breweries or distilleries are also exempt from the passport system.

When visited by Castanet last week, staff at the brewery confirmed they are not checking for proof of vaccination.

The City of Penticton says businesses in non-compliance with the passport program will first be visited by bylaw services, where they will try to bring the business into compliance. If the business does not comply, then those files are all forwarded to the Penticton RCMP.