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Posted Aug 1, 2026, 3:22 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Posts: 7,623
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Quote:
‘Good deal of synergy’ brewing in South Osborne
Under construction Dastardly Villain could join Nonsuch, Good Neighbour as potential pub crawl core: BIZ
Gabrielle Piché
Friday, Jul. 31, 2026
Pub crawls could become the next South Osborne draw.
At least, that’s the hope of entrepreneurs in the area as three breweries build out locations in the Winnipeg neighbourhood.
Nonsuch Brewing Co. and Good Neighbour Brewing Co. have opened storefronts along the strip in the past three months. Dastardly Villain is creating a taproom and nanobrewery.
“I’m really excited to have these pubs and taprooms,” said Ben Shantz, board chair of the South Osborne Business Improvement Zone.
“I hope that having multiples — three of them — will actually create a good deal of synergy in the area, where people can hop from one to another.”
The BIZ runs local restaurant tours. It hasn’t talked about an organized pub crawl, but that would be a “natural expansion,” Shantz said.
The breweries say they independently decided to open.
Nonsuch Brewing was approved for up to three liquor sales locations, leading to its expansion beyond the Exchange District, co-founder Matthew Sabourin said.
It opened its 551 Osborne St. store mid-July. The shop — which sells beer and seltzers — will move from the main floor to the basement once construction finishes. The ground level will become a tasting room and snack bar, likely sometime this winter, Sabourin said.
“Someone had written in an article (that) South Osborne was a beer desert … that was the right way of saying it,” Sabourin said. “I sought to try and correct that.
“A number of us thought the same thing, and I think that just shows the potential of the neighbourhood.”
Construction on the former tax service centre has been a “brutal long haul — but we’re getting there,” Sabourin said.
Nonsuch has had the 960-square-foot space since February 2025, he added.
He cited unexpected costs, permits and design work as slowing progress. Tariffs on steel and aluminum, among other levies, took effect during the time period.
Dastardly Villain has also pushed its opening date.
Owner Scott Tackaberry is building a nanobrewery and steampunk-themed taproom inside 726 Osborne St., where he formerly ran Grape & Grain, a home-brewing supply store.
Renovations on the 100-year-old building began around two years ago. Permits and bringing the building up to code — drywalling, replacing furnaces — has stretched the timeline, Tackaberry said.
Dastardly Villain might open in the spring, he added. He’s planning murals, sculptures and pictures of villains for the 100-seat taproom. An outdoor patio seating another 100 is planned.
For now, Dastardly Villain keeps making its five core beers at Torque Brewing and its seasonal beers, typically, at Oxus Brewing Co.
Good Neighbour opened its South Osborne takeout beer shop — at 683 Osborne St. — in May. An unfinished space behind a fridge wall could become a bar, potentially by 2027, its owners told the Free Press at the time.
Good Neighbour is converting a former upholstery store.
“Some people might look at it like, ‘Oh no, you’re getting competition,’” Tackaberry said. “But I know these people and they’re good people, and it’s a good industry.
“I think … we will become a little tourist strip, like Osborne Village or Little Italy on Corydon.”
He created Dastardly Villain — and shuttered Grape & Grain — in response to online sellers taking home-brewing retailers’ business, he said. Dastardly Villain’s beer hit shelves in 2021; Grape & Grain closed in early 2025.
The Osborne stretch hasn’t had a taproom since Luxalune Gastropub shuttered in 2016, said Shantz, who’s been general manager of GameKnight Games for 14 years.
“(The business landscape) has been improving massively over the past decade,” Shantz said. “It’s had a bit of ups and downs, but generally speaking, it’s been developing really nicely.”
Black Market Provisions entered the area in 2019; it’s now doubling its footprint. The specialty goods retailer is taking over its neighbour’s 600-sq.-ft. space at 552 Osborne St.
A retirement led to a bookkeeping service’s closure, said Alana Fiks, co-owner of Black Market Provisions.
“We need more square feet,” Fiks said. “It’ll allow us to give our kitchen some breathing room, and then also will allow us to expand our retail.”
Staff have been cooking and baking in a 300-sq.-ft. commercial kitchen. The shop itself is another 300 sq. ft.
Post-expansion, Black Market Provisions will likely stock more kids’ items and stationery. Employees will have a doubled kitchen area for labelling and packing, Fiks said.
Black Market aims to open before Christmas.
“These openings are very welcome because they’re going against a troubling national … trend,” said Robin Bezte, a Prairies senior policy analyst with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
The CFIB has called Canada a place of “entrepreneurial drought.” Rising operating costs, taxes, red tape and labour issues hamper businesses, Bezte added.
Black Market Provisions plans to trade a warehouse it uses for the storefront expansion, meaning the company is swapping space more than growing, in terms of square feet.
“We’re not really risk takers,” Fiks said. “We definitely benefit from a very, very supportive neighbourhood and surrounding areas.”
Lord Roberts housed 5,225 residents in 2021, up 5.2 per cent from 2016, census data show. Riverview, another South Osborne neighbourhood, saw a drop of 0.1 per cent (to 4,265 people) during the same timeframe.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS
Dastardly Villain Ale owner Scott Tackaberry says the brewery will open in the spring.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES
Good Neighbour Kayla Goossen helps out a customer.
BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS FILES
Black Market Provisions is doubling its footprint.
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Winnipeg Free Press
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