Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
^ Now that you mention it, whatever happened to Grapes? They were a fairly big deal in the late 80s/early 90s and then they just faded out before disappearing altogether.
Their demise seemed to coincide with the arrival of Earls which has a fairly similar "casual dining" concept although some of the Grapes locations had a nightclub feel later in the evening.
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I was 18 when I started at Grapes and worked at Main and Pier 7. I was there during its decline. Earls had opened up across from Main and certainly was way "cooler" than Grapes.
But Grapes was passe. I recall one of the chefs telling me he'd put their food up against anyones. But I dont recall how good/bad the food was.
They were huge on Sunday nights as they had dance floors and DJ's. Main did an awful renovation that killed the character of the place and relocated the dance floor.
Pier 7 had it's own issues with being over-packed in the bar, rowdy customers and minimal security. The way I heard it, and this could be wrong, they began a renovation and discovered bigger problems than they anticipated, didnt have the money to finish and that was that. Many of us were confused by the renos since they were so busy in the bar.
I recall many nights working Sunday at Main and having having the manager say he just got a call and the bar needs to make X amount of dollars that night to cover payroll for the week and we'd basically open the floodgates and pack the bar to try and make as much money as possible.
They seemed to have trouble finding the right management too. They'd often re-hired managers they had previously fired. If I recall, one of the partners in Grapes opened Mondetta World Cafe.
And I think Round Table was sort of spun off to protect it from Grapes' demise. I also seem to recall there being a Grapes in BC which went out of the business and the "franchisee" came back to Manitoba and became Director of Operations to try and whip the chain back into shape but he was an unpleasant person and several good staff quit.