That's kind of disappointing, don't usually see local places straying from the more urban areas.

Some places have done that... Kawaii Crepe opened up a second location in some strip mall across from St. Vital, La Fiesta and Dalat Vietnamese left the West End for South St. Vital and Grant Park respectively.

But sometimes it works in reverse... October Boutique recently left Grant Park for Corydon.

I have to admit, though, when you see a place like nuburger or Kawaii pop up in a suburban strip mall, it dulls a bit of their appeal... makes them a bit more like a generic fast food place.

Nuburber's long-term plans are to spin it into a franchisable concept — so it makes perfect sense to test out Kenaston as a place similar to what franchisors might want.

Also, Kenaston Common is where Moxies/Joey/Costco are — do you know which place it's really at? The Sobeys location is probably a little worse.

I sincerely hope that they've spent some time in that space, because that signature Subway smell is awful, and tends to seep into adjoining spaces in many other locations. The last thing I would want is to be eating a nice breakfast and smelling Subway. :yuck:

Sorry, my bad, it is definitely Kenason Crossing which is where Sobey's is. Had the description right and the name wrong.

True, forgot about Kawaii - that'd be another one. Ya, probably two places that want to make the leap from small and local to large franchise.

Two places I'd love to see in the Exchange, though.

Burrito Spledido is another small, local upstart that clearly wants to be a chain. If you looked at the first shop right at opening you could easily have made that mistake. The have since opened two offshoots, the IGF event/game day location and now one by St Vital mall.

I wonder if having a staff of obnoxious hipsters will be part of the franchise model for Kawaii Crepe and Burrito Splendido.

Can't say I enjoyed the crepe at Kawaii, but loved the food at Burrito Splendido. Service was horrendous though, like bad enough I'd never go back.

They also have one on Regent that opened up in the middle of March in the strip of stores behind the Salsbury House in the Crossroads Station complex.

Yeah they're Japanese-style crepes, so if you're used to French ones it's definitely a change.

Kawaii is great but the staff and service was definitely way better at the St Vital location. I hate to say that but Osborne frustrated me to no end. Seemed like a bunch of kids and no supervision, no urgency to serve the customer. Just hangin out making some crepes. I used to frequent the St Vital one when it opened. Very good.

Never went to Nuburger though I heard it was good. Didnt they change their name after a series of health code violations?? Also, Im sure i've seen Nuburger(or Unburger) in other cities...

They didn't have any health code issues, they had to deal with 2 floods. And they changed their name because people kept coming in and get it mad because they thought UNburger meant vegetarian/vegan... Like some people actually freaked out.

^ Haha, I thought that's what Unburger was too until I actually went there. I only went once, though... fast food burgers at sit-down restaurant prices is something I might do once in a while for Five Guys, but not anywhere else.

Nuburger is coming to the Kenaston area. I believe by the Sobeys.

Anyone heard of any new spots that Browns Social House is looking to expand into? Currently on North main and plessis. Seems they want to open in more residential areas away from competition.

It seems like Brown's Social House is following a Boston Pizza model for locations but at the same time trying to, at least initially, hit under services locations. With that in mind Birdgewater Town Center, the ESP development and Henderson and the Perimeter and Sage Creek would seem to be next logical locations.

The end of Roblin by Extra Foods could be another potential site. Depending on lease terms Seasons of Tuxedo and Westport Festival could also make sense.

^ Makes sense, there are a lot of parts of town that don't have these types of casual chains. Not exactly my cup of tea, but if I lived in, say, Transcona and I wanted to eat at a place like this, I'd much rather take a short hop to the Brown's on Plessis instead of driving farther and dealing with the traffic gong show that is Lagimodiere and Regent.

I was looking at the Free Press when Plessis location opened and at that time I recall Brown's management group saying they wanted an additional 9 locations in Winnipeg . They figure to open about 2 a year. It's sort of like Boston Pizza where one group has the development rights for Winnipeg. The people with the Winnipeg rights also have stores in Regina.

A good way to figure out where you might see Brown's Social House open is take the city map, plot every Boston Pizza location then connect them in a rough circle around the "inner ring road". Then draw a straight line from Portage and Main to each location and keep going until you hit the Perimeter. The space between the last Boston Pizza and the Perimeter, especially in newer developments will limited restaurants is likely where you will see them first. Once they are an established brand look for them to surface in the SHED area like Tavern United, Boston Pizza and Original Joes/Elephant and Castle have.

Wow! Wonder how the Plessis location is doing. Haven't been myself. Seems like the market is saturated with moderately priced pub-type places that will heat you up a plate of food off a Cisco truck.