This Keg is a premium steakhouse restaurant that was newly constructed in Aurora, Ontario in 2009. The patio faces on to a parking lot that has southwest exposure. This makes for a brutally hot location from noon till late evening.

Retractable awnings don’t fit the restaurant image which is one of a rustic but eclectically modern mountain lodge, so ShadeFX was called upon to fit into and complement the pergola structure while providing retractable sun protection.

The area to cover was 38 feet long by 11 feet wide of a structure made from beautiful rough-hewn Douglas Fir. At the time (early 2009), we didn’t make canopies over 30’ long so we broke the area into two 19 foot long systems that extend toward each other and ‘kiss’ in the middle, referred to as kissing canopies.

There was a mounting challenge in this project that is worth noting. The point where both canopies meet did not provide enough wood to mount both drive beams properly. To deal with this, we made a ‘saddle’ bracket that slings under both drive beams and mounts securely holding both drive beams from underneath (as seen in the last image).