Chow time in the Exchange District

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This article was published 13/07/2017 (3355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Exchange District holds a rich reserve of turn-of-the-20th-century architecture. With lots of creative young entrepreneurs, the historic neighbourhood also is becoming one of our city’s top food destinations. Mixing up high-end restaurants, fast-casual joints and a summer fleet of food trucks, this crowded culinary scene is just made for the festival season.

With the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival coming up, I toured the Exchange, basically eating and drinking my way through this very walkable neighbourhood. It began with an early-morning latte and finished off with a late-night cocktail.

This is only a partial list of the restaurant possibilities in this dense and diverse district, but it’s a start. Here’s wishing you some good eating — and great fringeing.

Coffee and breakfast

Parlour Coffee (468 Main St.) is ardently devoted to good java, with exquisitely calibrated pour-over coffee, damned fine espresso-based drinks, and beans from Dogwood Coffee Co. and 49th Parallel. There are a few edited food choices, including organic sourdough toast (with nice homemade ricotta and jam from Vera Pizza) and a bijou selection of baking (brought in from Tall Grass, Beet Happenings and Oh Doughnuts).

If you want to go for the full doughnut experience, you’ll need to head to Bronuts (100 King St., C). (Their fresh-baked favourites sometimes sell out so you might want to get there early in the day.) The Bronuts bakers specialize in intense, often unusual flavours (a blueberry cake doughnut with lavender glaze, a yeast doughnut finished with beet glaze and toasted caraway seeds), accompanied by elaborate personified descriptions.

“Bridget” is summed up as a “blond bombshell (who) can’t wait to tell her friends about the scandalous fling she had during her summer away at soccer camp.” That’s a pretty specific way to talk about a doughnut, but after sampling this combination of tart citrus curd and soft, marshmallowy meringue, I totally got it.

If you want a bigger breakfast — and have a little more time — Clementine (123 Princess St.) is a gorgeous-looking venue serving up brunch classics without the clichés (Brussels-style waffles with whipped dulce de leche, Turkish eggs).

At Forth (171 McDermot Ave.), another great coffee spot, you can start the day with avocado toast topped by a perfectly poached egg or an upscale breakfast sandwich served on rich, buttery brioche.

Lunch and snacks

For a fast bite between fringe shows, you can get fairly quick counter service — and some welcome outdoor seating — at both King + Bannatyne (100 King St., D) and Chosabi (100 King St., A).

King + Bannatyne modestly refers to itself as a “sandwich shop,” but, wow, what beautiful, beautiful sandwiches. Consider the meltingly tender braised lamb slathered with tomato jam and cut with the peppery crunch of radish. Or a recent weekly special that tops a Winkler farmer-sausage smokie with spiced sauerkraut and pickled onion.

Chosabi, which offers a hip fusion of Japanese, Hawaiian, Korean and Filipino influences, is known for its fat sushi “burritos” (adorably high-concept but a bit awkward to eat). Even better are the bowls: the poke bowl mixes up edamame, carrots, cucumber, rice and raw tuna and salmon (certified sustainable), with all these clear, distinct flavours and textures coming together into one harmonious whole. Chosabi is also a handy spot for fuelling your kombucha habit.

If you just need an afternoon sugar pick-me-up, consider an imperial cookie from Cake-ology (85 Arthur St.), an old-school, very Winnipeg treat with a jammy raspberry filling and white icing.

Apres-theatre and late-night

Deer + Almond (85 Princess St.) is not the place to go when you’re rushing between shows, but it’s the perfect location for some quiet, unhurried post-theatre chat.

The small, sharable plates come out of the kitchen in their own time, and you’ll want to linger over thoughtful and inventive dishes, such as charred romaine hearts with pistachios, halloumi with lentils and romesco, as well as big, bold entrées like lamb with lemony potatoes, peppers and date tahini.

For dessert, Tiger Tiger, a cool combo of orange sorbet and astonishingly intense licorice ice cream, makes for a grown-up take on that Dutch Maid childhood memory.

For drinks, the Albert Street Cocktail Company (tucked away at 91 Albert St.) and the bar at Forth both offer an ambitious array of traditional and new-school craft cocktails. Why not try the Bartender’s Choice at Forth, which involves a brief Q&A (Do you like salt, sweet, citrus? Liquor-forward or light?) and then a custom-made match.

Finally, you might want to finish a long day of fringeing with some poutine, that gut-busting dish that was born in Quebec, moved across Canada and has more recently spread to the U.K., where it is used as an all-purpose night-on-the-town capper and/or hangover cure.

You can head to Smoke’s Poutinerie (131 Albert St.), right up till 11 p.m. on weeknights and 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, for a deeply satisfying mess of gravy, curds and carbs.

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca

Alison Gillmor
Writer

Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto’s York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992.

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