Call this late-winter or call it early spring, just don’t call us late for dinner––particularly when it’s zesty new brew pub fare and fancy hot dogs on Sherbrook Street, a big local name coming to Portage and Main, and a new Italian market.
On top of those (and that lede only a grandmother would love), this massive New & Notable also features a spirited spirit-free shop, Middle Eastern breads that are worth a trip to a strip, a shop dedicated to marshmallows, and some fun news involving the consolidation of several of the province’s best little culinary companies.
Oh, and potatoes and rum too!
Dig in!
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Restaurants and new markets
Next Door – new restaurant for Good Neighbour Brewing Company at 116 Sherbrook
Some big news at 110 and 116 Sherbrook, the home of Good Neighbour Brewing Company and its new restaurant Next Door. The brewery by Morgan Wielgosz and Amber Sarraillon–the city’s first all-female (and 2SLGBTQ+) owned-and-operated brewery––was named New Brewery of the Year on February 3rd at the Annual Canadian Brewer’s Choice Awards.
To pair with their delicious brews and this tasty news, they’ve reopened the restaurant (previously known as Two Hands Dining room and one sixteen) with the help from the Hoagie Boyz. Next Door features food by Stefan Lytwyn, Nyk Bielak and Jesse Angers, who are also the chefs behind Kosmo's Food Cantina at The Beer Can with its outrageously fine burger. This being a brewery, they’ve naturally brought a rendition of that burger to the Next Door menu, along with items that are crushable with a Kölsch like cheesy bread that you pull apart, tuna nachos with spicy mayo and cilantro, salads, wings, patatas bravas starring waffle fries, and larger mains like eggplant parm and a pastrami’d short rib. If you’ve ever had something from these fellas that wasn’t really great, you are lying––and liars shouldn’t go to Next Door.
While you are there, you can also buy bottles and try samples from Good Neighbours’ bottle shop at 110. Both spaces are still connected by that lovely narrow patio area, which we can’t wait to hit again come summer.
Reservations available online, while Next Door is open Wednesday through to Monday, and is open late.
Doggystyle at the Handsome Daughter – Everyone’s fav dive bar is now doing dogs
Move over Magic Bird, Cold Mike is now slinging hot dogs. After the deep fryers went down at Magic Bird within The Handsome Daughter (61 Sherbrook St.), chef Mike O’Connell (aka Cold Mike) and the kitchen crew were forced to pivot (#mostoverusedwordfromthepandemic #sorryweusedithere) to offer something new for food at this much-loved bar. Enter Doggstyle, the new concept that is all about dressing up hotdogs with delicious toppings like wakame salad, mac n cheese, perogies with bacon and sour cream, and other tasty things. To celebrate, there was a Doggystyle launch party on March 6. The new menu will also feature vegan items, and yes, the name is actually Doggystyle so don’t email us to say that that is rude because we are only reporting the culinary news.
Tuesday to Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. at The Handsome Daughter starting in March.
529 Uptown – 201 Portage Avenue
Legendary local steakhouse 529 Wellington by WOW Hospitality is going beyond its mansion setting to offer a chic eatery right at Portage and Main. The 57-seat concept will focus on brunch (featuring a high-end coffee bar), lunch and after work drinks, with a menu executed by award-winning chef Östen Rice. At 1,100 square feet of dining space, 529 Uptown takes over most of the space in 201 Portage’s lobby. It features an animated floor-to-ceiling bar with additional seating, along with a covered patio (featuring wind barriers) that is set to open in the summer right the building’s plaza. From said bar, there will be 100 wines curated by Jones & Company Wine Merchants to choose from, including the largest selection of premium wines by the glass you will find in Manitoba, all served in premier stemware of course.
The menu will feature plenty of prime-grade Canadian beef that the steakhouse is noted for––the house-ground burgers are always worth the price should you not be wanting to tuck into a steak at lunch, while surely a tower of onion rings will be in order––along with some Japanese wagyu, a selection of fish dishes, and large salads too. The kitchen itself has been built one floor below, with food swiftly arriving via a 20-second heated elevator trip right up to the bar.
Soft opening on March 8, so until then learn more in Martin Cash’s October profile from the Free Press.
529 Uptown is open Monday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
529 Coffee (located in lobby of 201 Portage) is open Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
529 Burger (located on lower level) is open for breakfast at 8 a.m. then transitions to lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Søbr Market – New market for all your non-alcohol needs at 484 Academy Road
Find up to 300 non-alcoholic products––including wine proxies… so hot right now!––at The Søber Market on Academy.
Søber (which is Swedish and Norwegian for sober, and also Danish for soap, which is fitting as this place is all about clean living with products made from healthy ingredients that are shy on sugar and fillers) has a truly impressive selection of zero-proof bottles and cans from around the world. You’ll find so many quality low-alcohol beers that run from sours, to IPAs, stouts and lagers, along with zero-proof gins, tequilas, rums and digestives––all handsomely bottled making for a great gift idea. There are also countless items to make mocktails with (including a full range of local Sol Brü products made from super healthy ingredients like chaga and reishi mushrooms), along with so many drinks that will be a true delight for your digestive health.
It’s run by couple Jessie and Shane Halliburton, who are onsite to help you find a drink that will suit your needs when it comes to flavour profiles and occasions. Did someone say celebratory Italian spumante?
Learn more about the Halliburton’s and their business from Ben Sigurdson in the Free Press here, where you’ll note Ben also reviews a number of non-alcohol drinks available at Søber.
The Søber Market is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday). They have a full online store too that you can find here.
Vincenzo’s Mercato – Italian Market in Tuxedo a 30-1580 Taylor Avenue
If you thought Winnipeg already had enough quality Italian markets, think again.
Vincenzo’s opened in late-January in that strip mall beside the railroad tracks in Tuxedo on Taylor Avenue, and it has already proven to be a neighbourhood hit. This place is always full of local Italians in the know who are picking up prepared foods (including so many salads!), take and bake goods (including gluten-free pastas!), all while sipping espresso, wine and beer from the little café. There’s also a cheese, deli and butcher counter, while the shelves lined with great imports from Italy and local goods too.
Thus far we’ve tried the house-made pizza and the dough was airy, chewy, and not too thick, plus you could really taste the quality of the mozzarella. If you’re a local wondering why the setup looks similar to DeLuca’s––particularly on the packaged house-made food––it’s because Vincenzo is by Vincenzo (Vince) DeLuca, of the legendary DeLuca’s, who affably runs this new spot with his family.
Vincenzo’s Mercato is open Monday to Thurs 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Winnibakes Levantine Bakery – must-try Middle Eastern bakery at 1765 Kenaston Boulevard
This spot opened in August 2023, so it’s technically not new––but boy, is it notable. Run by Jordanian couple Batoul Hussein and her husband Fawaz Alsayeh, the bakery specializes in flatbreads from across the Levant, with service that is as warm and inviting as all the carbs on the menu.
Winnibakes is somewhat hidden within a strip mall on the east side of Kenaston, just south of McGillivray Boulevard. The spacious dining room has high ceilings and an open kitchen commanded by a tiled open-flame oven that pumps out classic versions of mana’eesh topped with ingredients like zaatar, spinach and the mild spreadable Akkawi cheese (which you can think of as feta’s less salty cousin). A signature item is the cast iron-baked pies in a pan––available in beef and chicken shawarma versions, along with spinach, feta and tomatoes. Find a number of salads like fattoush featuring a medley of cubed vegetables, olives, and fried pita for crunch, along with a selection of desserts, teas, pita pockets and so many varieties of flat breads. If you are gluten-free, you can also call in advance to see what gf doughs are on offer that day.
Tip of the hat to reader Kym who put this place on our radar. Learn more about Winnibakes in this feature article by Eva Wasney in The Free Press.
Winnibakes is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Mashmallow Factory for sweets at 771 Selkirk Avenue in the North End
If you have a hankering for marshmallows, The Marshmallow Factory has more than 25 flavours to choose from. This family run business by Dena and Brandon Desrosiers goes far past simple confectioner’s sugar, corn starch, gelatin and water (the four main marshmallow-making ingredients) to include fun things like salted caramel, root beer, Mexican vanilla bean, maple bacon and even––this being Winnipeg, and it’s a limited release–– honey dill with pickle juice!
The marshmallows are all available in re-sealable bags of six or 12, all with an extra springy texture that you won’t find in a conventional store-bought marshmallow.
Most of the items can be purchased online, with the storefront running limited hours on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. You can also find their marshmallows at these shops across the province.
Bones and Marrow Broth Company expands its product portfolio to include Abiding Citizen and Juice Me
Some of our favourite local producers have recently been brought under one central umbrella by food entrepreneurs Ryan Wiebe and Shawn Vidal––and all quite serendipitously we might add.
Wiebe and Vidal are the fellas behind Bones and Marrow Broth Company, whose broths are available at stores across the province.
They started Bones and Marrow back in 2017, first as a side business. By 2020 Wiebe had gone full time with the broths, and it was that year that they saw that Pop Cart (the original fancy popsicle business by our favs Angela and Alana from Black Market Provisions, where you can still buy the pops) was for sale, so they purchased it to add to their operations.
In October 2023, they added Abiding Citizen craft beverage company, after Wiebe had been stationed beside Chad Friesen at the Exchange District Alleyways Market in July of that year. Friesen, who ran and founded Abiding with his wife Teri-Lynn Friesen (who co-owns and operates the popular Fête Ice Cream & Coffee with Élise Page) brought up how they were looking to sell to concentrate on their main businesses and family (Chad is a relator, and he and Teri-Lynn are also parents). Then, just when the ink was drying on that deal, Agata Robb from Juice Me (another company we adore and use daily, particularly the ginger shots every morning) contacted them to see if they were interested in adding her freezies and super food shots to their company, which they just finalized on February 1, 2024.
“Some companies set their sights on expanding across the country or continent, while we may set our sights outside of Manitoba in the future, we are currently focusing our efforts on loving the local food scene and are thrilled to be building a little collective of quality local brands in Winnipeg and the surrounding areas," said Wiebe.
“Our brands such as Bones & Marrow and Juice Me align nicely from a health and wellness perspective while Pop Cart and Abiding Citizen are more targeted for those cheat days or celebrations,” continued Wiebe. “Despite the differences, all our brands are in alignment that they are small batch quality products made with real ingredients––we don't mess around with artificial flavours or colourings."
You can find all these products at fine food shops, grocers, and local markets across Manitoba.
Upcoming events and news at a glance
If that wasn’t a large enough serving of local culinary news for you, here’s a few things to look out for in March.
Peak of the Market’s Potato Week (March 1-10) returns with more than 50 local restaurants showcasing just how far you can go with Manitoban-grown tubers. Find everything from roti, calzones, doughnuts, mashed potato fondue, croquettes, gnocchi and tacos at these participating restaurants before voting to see which spud reigns supreme at this food event that has been staged since 2018.
For more local bounty, the annual (and always excellent) Love Local MB Food, Beer and Wine Event takes place on March 16 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Victoria Inn. Many of the companies mentioned above will be in attendance, with your $40 ticket getting you sips and samples from so many of the province’s top purveyors. Get your tickets and learn more here.
To try more local drinks, how about some rum? We are serious, as our friends at Patent 5 Distillery have just released their very first rum, with only 180 bottles available. The rum has been aged in bourbon barrels for the past two years, and like all Patent products, they promise it will be oh-so-smooth.
And finally, there’s quite a bit going on at The Fort Garry Hotel this March. Italian celebrity chef Rosanne Marziale is back in town leading the kitchen at Vida Cucina Italian with a five-course tasting menu highlight new items on the spring menu until March 7. There will be wine pairing options available too from FGH’s wine director Christopher Sprague. Reserve here.
On top of that, Winnipeg’s castle is also bringing back its famed Easter Brunch Buffet extravaganza on Sunday, March 31 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Carving stations, cold seafood stations, pancakes, waffles, eggs, salads and desserts as far as your eye can see will return to the seventh floor of the Fort Garry Hotel for one special day. Here’s the full details.
