The Maligne Range is a whisky distillery, restaurant and retail space that was scheduled to open just one day after the catastrophic wildfires hit Jasper in July 2024.
It’s owned by Bearhill — the group that began in 2005 with Jasper Brewing Co., which is fondly known to locals as “The Brewpub,” and is Canada’s first brewery to be located in a National Park.
Since 2005, Bearhill has expanded to include Banff Ave Brewing, Last Best Brewing & Distilling in Calgary, and Campio Brewing in Edmonton.
Passionate about more than just beer, the group started making and bottling un-aged – and internationally award-winning – spirits at Last Best in 2020, and have been crafting their whisky for 11 years, which has now found its home at The Maligne Range.
Maligne Range was built in the building that used to be the Chaba Theater, which was a mainstay in the town of Jasper for 94 years before closing its doors in 2022. Turning an old movie theater into a restaurant was an interesting project to complete on such a tight schedule. The project required the sloped movie theater floor to be leveled, and a lot of time-consuming and detailed work, which included lighting features that had to function with the intricate woodwork done by Jasper-born Mark Deagle of Mark Deagle Log Building Ltd.
Anthony Papaianni was Carlson’s project manager for both Jasper-based projects at the time of the fire. He said that the main goal was to get the team out safely once the evacuation notice came through, but once everyone was out, he had a big realization:
“If this building burns after how hard we worked to turn it over, I don’t know if I can go back and rebuild it again,” reflected Anthony.
He talked about knowing all the work that went into the building, on such a tight schedule – how the team worked so hard to get it done.
“I knew all the issues we had to go through to reach the opening date on schedule. It would have been awful to know that nobody got to enjoy it.”
Fortunately, the building remained standing and only sustained relatively minor smoke damage.
Maligne Range was finally able to welcome customers through its doors in September 2024 – only two months after its scheduled opening date – after cleaning up the smoke damage within the building.
It is one of many businesses that have opened their doors following the July 2024 wildfires, and we encourage every Albertan to make a stop here in their summer travels.
This article is part two of a four-part series, which will profile some of the Jasper-based Carlson projects that are now open for business.
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