So, where's the review? Did you die of food poisoning or are you still gorging yourself?

$17 burgers in Transcona?:???:

http://brownsrestaurantgroup.com/bro...14-Menu_bc.pdf

Easily the worst restaurant in the city - the venerable Pancake House - is opening another restaurant on the pad site at the southeast corner of Columbia Drive and MacGillivray where the sociological experimentation as to just how expeditiously food quality can decline before people ignore the sign on the door continues completely unabated...

:???:

What is the problem with the pancake house? They're good at what they promise: pancakes. I've never left disappointed.

I knew this would draw out the sympathizers and apologists ;)

Outside of the giant apple, the rest of the menu is a pathetic shadow of its former self. Sloppily thrown together at best...

I don't think I ever set foot in a Pancake House until the mid to late 90s so I concede that I have no recollection of the chain's apparently long-departed golden era. Apparently I must have missed something special?!

Chips were good, burger patty was dry. Service terrific, place was packed. Obviously built too small. Transcona is underserved resto wise, this place should be a gold mine.

EDIT: They pour a terrific Guinness, full pints (unlike the King's Head), right to the brim.

Anyone hear anything about the Wendy's on Pembina?

I love pancakes!

It's similar to Buffet Square.

I don't drink Guinness, but I met a Guinness "trainor" in a pub in the Netherlands and his job is to train bartenders on how to pour properly. it's suppose to have a large head, then "cut off" as it get to top.

Hopefully you mean more like Buffet Square when it first opened and not how it is being run now.

I worked there during its decline. Earls really helped kill it but it was dated and they didnt seem to know how to stay relevant. They went through managers constantly. I remember working in the bar on Sunday night and having HQ call over and say "you need to make *this much* tonight for us to break even on the week". We'd push it with over-crowding and hope the LC didnt come in. If we didnt make enough, they'd just transfer or replace the manages.

When they finally decided to spend money and renovate, it was an awful renovation that killed the personality of the place.

It was, however, Teemu Selanne's favourite place to eat.

I thought the change to liquor laws allowing bars to open on Sunday was what killed Grape's on Main which as a restaurant/lounge has been able to open on Sunday's under the old law and was one of the go to bars for that night. I don't have the same insider info though.

Had Shawarma Khan today. I hadn't been back since it first opened.

I must say it has vastly improved. Much better than the first time, with more options for fillings.

Great shawarma, expensive, but good.

I dont recall when the law changed but I was working at Pier 7 around the time Grapes on Main closed. I had moved over to Pier 7 after a dispute with the bar manager at Main (who had previously been fired and brought back). it was a stupid argument but we didnt get along and the service manager at Main had more power and liked me. Once he was promoted to GM of Pier 7, I was a dead man walking. I was canned during renovations.

Anywho, Grapes on Main was actually quite busy all weekend. Sunday was, ofcourse, the big night. But it was still packed for a long while after renovations. They had no money when they did those renos and the restaurant didnt increase business much at all if any. They also moved the dance floor from between the restaurant and bar to the far end of the bar so restaurant goers could not use it which was dumb.

I didnt stay at Pier 7 long as I also worked at Scandals at the time and tried to bring some of the security techniques we used there to Grapes and management was resistant (like having more than one person working at a time, use of a barring database, security wearing identifiable clothing etc).

My understanding of Pier 7 was, it became Grapes' hot property and they closed to renovate and found a lot more problems then they knew existed and couldnt afford to finish renos.

If I recall, it was a former partner in Grapes that opened Mondetta World Cafe at the Forks which also had Sunday bar service. But it wasnt Grapes' bar business that killed it, it was the restaurant. I remember during my interview, the manager glared out the window across the street at Earls and said "those f*#@ers are killing us"

^ What ever happened to Patrick? I used to see him around occasionally but haven't seen him for years. Is he still in the business?

I lost touch with all those guys, Patrick included, as I moved on. I was 18 when I was hired at Grapes on Main, 19 when I moved to Pier 7 and still 19 when I moved on to Scandals. But I remember working at Boogie Nights and going to Mondetta every Sunday for awhile because they treated us like local celebrities. Good times!

Havent seen any mention (or did I miss it) of Vodka Rocks. I checked it out recently for food and drinks. Food was perfectly fine and the chef came out after to ask us for feedback. They fully renovated that place and it looks fantastic. I liked it when it was Dylans but the people that owned it as The Marquee ran it into the ground. We had an event there one night and they had removed all the toilets from the women's washroom.

I recall partying at Grapes on Main with some Jets. Igor Ulonov just arrived from Russia and the boys took him to Value Village shopping for a suit, he was so proud of it. Even though it was early 90's, his suit was early 70's. F'ing hilarious!!!

Patrick owns a POS business, he services a ton of places in Winnipeg.