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“If you build it, they will come” may have worked for the Field of Dreams — but not for a restaurant that hoped to revitalize the area surrounding its historic hotel home.
The Transit Hotel opened in 1908 on Fort Road in northeast Edmonton and closed in 2017.
In 2019, two business partners signed a 20-year lease and began renovations to open a new restaurant inside the building — the Transit Smokehouse and BBQ.
The hope was the tasty BBQ could bring new life to the 120-year-old building and the surrounding neighbourhood — that didn’t happen.
Former co-owner Ray Pritlove said the Transit faced several problems that started even before they could get their doors open.
“The restaurant industry itself is one of the hardest to operate. I have been doing it all my life — I knew what I was getting myself into — but I never expected what happened,” Pritlove said.
It was a difficult journey with a 10-month delay to get the proper permits allowing the restaurant to have a smoker from the City of Edmonton.
Once the smokehouse did open to the public in 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic was an issue. Then followed road construction on Fort Road, right in front of the building.
On top of it all, the price of everything has climbed in a few short years, including meat. Beef prices shot up a few years ago at a time when Canadians were coping with the highest levels of inflation since 1991.
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It was one catastrophe after another.
“We held on to it longer than we should have — we probably should have shut down in December,” Pritlove admitted.
A century ago, the Fort Road area was its own village called Packingtown, in reference to the area’s main industry at the time — meat packing.
The area amalgamated with the City of Edmonton in 1913 and became the working-class industrial centre of the city. But as the city grew and industry changed, the community didn’t keep up.
The restaurant was meant to be an anchor for broader redevelopment plans, and losing it hurts the area.
“It’s hard,” Mayor Andrew Knack said. “I’ve been there, they had such an amazing community.”
Knack said there is now the question of how to ensure the historic, 118-year-old Transit Hotel can be preserved on Fort Road and 66th Street.
“It’s such an important historic resource… I would hope that building could find a new life in the future,” Knack said.
Knack said more can and should be done to help the area.
“I think there needs to be a broader ‘main street’ plan. Even something as simple as, can we do a better job at staying on top of cleanliness? Can we do a better job at creating all main streets as we want them to be?” Knack said.
As for Pritlove, he still hopes to keep his BBQ dreams alive.
He’s partnered with Rahim Jaffer, the owner of the Rooster Kitchen and Cafe on Whyte Avenue. The plan is to merge the two restaurants under the new name: Midnite Rooster.
The merger will allow the Rooster to extend its hours later into the evening and night. They will also merge menu items.
“We are bringing that same stuff here. We have to alter the menu a little bit because the kitchen is a different layout and we are pretty excited about it,” Pritlove said.
The current owners of the Transit Hotel are selling the building.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
