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Le's Vietnamese subs. Spotted on Portage near Valour Rd. Seems to be just takeout Vietnamese style subs and bubble tea.
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It was only a month or two, when I was lucky enough to work days I would come down to the 2nd floor and notice people sitting in Robins that use be in the line for coffee at MMMuffin's. I wondered at that time how long Linda and her staff would still be around after the regulars deserted them.
Near the end Linda's long time employee left and went across the street to work at Tim Hortons. |
Tried out Ye's Buffet, it was okay. Would I go back? Probably if it was a special occasion, or at least not for the $22.99/$23.99 dinner service. Oddly enough, the best dishes were the non-asian ribs and glazed salmon (which aren't available during the $13.99/$14.99 lunch service).
Parking sucks. The 30 or so stalls were fine when it was a Marks Work Warehouse, but not for a buffet. Many people were parking across the street at Polo/Joeys/EQ3. Free refills for pop was nice. |
Strike two for a (the) restaurant down on the river.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...ce=d-top-story Stupid idea then, now and in the future or just stick a McD's on it at least in this town you know it will be busy!:D |
No real surprise, but Chez Sophie on the bridge has packed it in in year 2 of a 5 year lease citing high operational costs related to the bridge location and the large swings in patrons between the winter and summer months.
So yeah, two massive structural issues nobody is getting around. I have no idea who'd be interested in that space now. A seasonal ice cream place or something? No idea. |
^ It pretty much has to be seasonal place.
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And here we are almost two years after the city found its newest tenant for Esplanade Riel and the latest experiment on putting a restaurant on a bridge is shutting down not quiet half way in its lease. I bet the owner of Sal's is just laughing and saying I told you so.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...941766?cmp=rss |
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Should have kept Sals but the St Boniface residents wanted something cultural. They wanted Sals terminated. Now they have nothing. Well, put in a Tim's and it will last longer than 1.5 years. About 10-15 years ago the buzz was that Provencher was going to be the new Corydon Avenue. Looks like the residents did not put their money where their mouth was. That horrible body shop is still there and that vacant lot where a condo was suppose to be built. And empty storefronts and truckers. |
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The area also has a secondary plan which makes density difficult but none of the landowners understand how that affects the value. Streetside was able to vary the secondary plan down the street on their development on Tache, but that project hasn't turned out so well and it's hugely expensive to try. The residents are also as organized as they come and they keep making noise about traffic down their side streets so in addition to everything else, you've got a neighbourhood full of NIMBYs with a councilor (Vandal) who knew where his bread was buttered. And Allard won't be any different given he's Vandal's protege. And the south side of the street has a completely different set of restrictions altogether making any sort of dense mixed-use impossible. Provencher is a complete mess and the city's planning documents and community committee process is a huge part of the reason why. But it's also the result of an economic development agency trying to play developer instead of facilitating it. As a result, you've got a miserly landowner and a economic development agency conspiring against each other mostly for spite at this point in what could be considered the most strategic area on that strip. |
St B. is worse than I thought.
Qualico did Verve Tache I and II which seemed to sell rather well. The 3rd one they did Mode Tache is a hard sell. The building is crap and all the windows are sliding patio doors which makes it impossible to place furniture..................and most of them do not have balconies.........and the heat loss! I would hate to pay monthly utility bills........and $600,000.00 for an unfinished condo..................pure insanity. The new condo building to the South is almost sold out. Seems like people live there from cradle to grave. Those condos pretty much have ZERO greenspace. I do not know how they got away with that. And those new $869,000.00 houses on Hebert Street. INSANE. That area is still the St. Boniface Ghetto with empty lots, dilapidated houses, city yard on the River and gravel roads. Looks like Simplicity may have it right where people fight each other and nothing gets done. At least they are building a new condo building on the old gas station lot on Marion. Looks like no greenspace either. They will fight to screw up the Bridge Restaurant for decades but just keep them on their side of the bridge. Do not cause problems in the Exchange/Waterfront District.....................please....................just stay put. |
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Anyway, do you or does anybody have a link to that Pointe Hebert development where it shows the housing prices? I've heard all manner of insanity and it's taken forever to get those houses built. A bunch of them had sold signs on them and then one day they didn't. If they're actually almost $900K I don't even know what to say. None of those lots is anymore than 35' with most of them at 33'... |
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Pointe Hebert sold many lots and many of the homes are $600k, I know I priced some out. Yeah SOME show homes were $750-$900 which is nuts and what is more nuts is that some sold. The area is weird, total ghetto on some streets where people still burn the garbage in oil drums. that will change, soon majority of lots will be sucked up. small lots, but i think the ones buying there are those that don't want condo but still live close to downtown, forks, whittier park, etc. they dont want the maintenance of a large yard and not a 25 minute commute to downtown. on the subject of Chez Sophie, they're original restaurant has been for sale for over 1 year for a crazy price for a run down small building. I'm assuming they were bleeding from both ends with 2 locations. proof that expansion is not for all. |
this is the actual view from a Rive Gauche condo for sale, 2 bedroom, 1235 sq ft, $450k
http://s3.amazonaws.com/mrp-listings...7f67fc003.jpeg |
The bridge Sophie location had horrible reviews on urbanspoon. The service was universally panned. It sounds like they had more issues than simply seasonal fluctuations in business.
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And I'm through there quite frequently. You have a park that functions mostly as a homeless shelter, public housing beside 'luxury' condos, a train that runs straight through your back yard, and people who park their cars on their lawns. You've got Club St. B and a bunch of other commercial yards in the middle of a a quasi-residential area and whenever the wind is blowing just right, all the glory that arises from hog rendering and a mushroom farm. The unfortunate part is that this stuff is only learned when you spend enough time there. If you just drive straight down Tache into Gibraltar Park, you'd be left with about 10% of the story... |
The Esplanade Reil restaurant location claiming business drops to non-existent levels in winter as it is too far from parking and no one wants to walk in the winter wind need to take a look at what is making Raw Almond a success. Raw Almond is located relatively the same distance from parking and people need to walk through the winter wind to get there. By all accounts Raw Almond is a booming success. The other interesting side story of Chez Sophie is the report that their first year's rent for the bridge was free. Having gone through one winter there they should have been able to figure out their income at that site was not going to be sufficient to cover their expenses in year two and started talking loudly sooner. At least with Sal's they had sound business operations in place to realize that site was a money looser and could offset some of those losses from operations at other sites.
Going forward I think the bridge location might make the most sense as a bit of a restaurant launch pad. Prepare your operational plan, etc for a new Winnipeg business. The City partners with you and heavily subsidizes the leases costs for the first year. You move into the bridge in September and will be out come the end of August. Over that year you while have heavy involvement with city development agencies to find a permanent home for your concept and some mentoring on establishing a viable, on-going business. This could potentially serve as a testing ground for concepts to populate Provencher and actually turn it into the new Cordoyn. |
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If Raw Almond is successful because it has guest chefs, pre-set menus and only advanced sold tickets why could that not be replicated on Esplanade Reil? Knowing what food you needing on a given night and who many people were coming could make the supply and staffing issues easier to mange as well. I know places other than Raw Almond bring in celebrity chefs and have similar event type dinners so not sure why trying to run the location built around that premise would be anymore a failure than what has been tried before.
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