Warm up to Frozen Comfort's wonderful fare

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Monique Dorge

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Owner James Best (left) and chef Alain Manaigre have been run ragged at Cold Comfort on Main Street.

TRIPLE ALL-NIGHTER: After HOT 103 morning host Ace Burpee featured the "cream of perogi" soup from new-concept deli Frozen Comfort, chef Alain Manaigre was up for three nights running.

"I cooked all day and night to fill the extra orders and slept on the couch in the back, a few minutes here and there," he says with a grin.

Meanwhile, James Best, who owns the shop with wife Sharmelle, worked the lineup at the front after the crazy rush began a week ago, after the radio interview.

Best says their concept is to "cook totally fresh comfort food on site, no preservatives, and blast freeze it so it doesn't lose any freshness or nutrition value." The special -30 C freezer takes just-cooked food to freezing four times faster than a regular freezer.

Frozen Comfort is in the corner of a mall at 1832 Main St. Ukrainian comfort foods like giant cabbage rolls and borscht have flown out the door. They sell everything from homemade pizzas, pot pies, soups, meatballs and steaks to homemade ice cream.

"And we've tried everything we cook in a toaster oven. It works there, too," says Best, 43. "I had an older guy come in who said he cooked absolutely everything in a steamer. He said, 'This is a new life for me.' "

Best also sells comfort foods like pasta for those with celiac disease and no-sugar-added ice creams for diabetics. Call 415-1119 for more info.

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NEW WINNIPEG STAR: Recording artist Amy Bishop, who tours with the Hashmagandy band out of Calgary, is playing Phil Spevack and David Au's hugely popular Grant 'n' Wilton Coffee House Jan. 14 at 1077 Grant Ave. It packs out at 150 people and the opening guest spot is soul singer Kelly Bado, originally from Ivory Coast.

Bishop recently moved to Winnipeg from Calgary and is re-establishing her career here. Her voice is low and intense like Melissa Etheridge's; she describes herself as "acoustic pop, with a little bit of blues and a torch song or two."

Says actor/CJNU radio host Brett Buckingham, who caught her November performance, "I saw the singer Flo standing at the door saying 'Wow,' because Bishop did Hallelujah as well as k.d. lang."

In a telephone interview, Bishop confesses lang was her first singing idol. "I started listening to her when I was 12, and I wanted to be k.d. so bad, but when people asked me who I was listening to on headphones, I said, 'Bon Jovi. What's it to ya?' "

But music isn't everything to Bishop these days, with a wife and three tiny kids.

"My partner transferred through her work and I moved in support of her. We have three little boys, age two, four and six."

The coffee house boasts quality guest singers (recently Flo and Don Amero) and is held once or twice a month in the basement of the Shalom Temple. After the feature act, Spevack invites musicians in the crowd who've had at least one rehearsal with him to join him. Tickets are $10 at the door, or in advance at 488-0207. Get on the event email list by emailing spevackp@gmail.com

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UH-OH, EVERYTHING SHOWS IN YOUR FACE: Check out Booth No. 56 at the Wellness Expo called Purify Your Mind, Body and Soul starting on, of all days, Friday the 13th at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Winnipeg face reader Monique Dorge will tell strangers about their personalities and lives led so far, read by touching and examining the contours and lines of their faces.

"The repeated use of the muscles create experience lines, which express the personality within, especially after a certain age. A furrowed brow, the effect of wincing, being in the sunshine is less evidenced in the face of a child," says Dorge. "I've read about 500 faces since 2008, when I got certified by Hermann Muller." He's the controversial developer of psychosomatic therapy and author of the book Face to Face With Facts.

This 18th annual Wellness Expo has 106 booths at last count. Doors open at 5 p.m.

Got tips, events, sightings, unusual things going on? Call Maureen's tip line at 474-1116, email Maureen.Scurfield@winnipegfreepress.com or send mail to The Insider, c/o Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, R2X 3B6.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 6, 2012 B2