Frustration, exhaustion on the menu across city Staff shortage forces Roblin Boulevard restaurateur to sell, join growing list of post-pandemic food-service casualties By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

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The number of Winnipeg restaurants hoisting “for sale” signs continues to grow.

Capital Grill & Bar, Tea Story Cafe, Mr. Calzone on Corydon Avenue, Salisbury House’s Main Street site and Delicious Vegetarian, on Pembina Highway, were among the eateries up for grabs on REALTOR.ca last week.

A lack of staff led to Wayne Martin’s real estate posting. He did “a lot of soul searching” before listing Capital Grill & Bar’s Roblin Boulevard location.

He’s proposing a turn-key operation for $249,000. He’s also willing to train the new owners.

“I don’t really want to give it up. It’s still a good, viable restaurant,” he said.

The customers are coming, Martin noted.

However, the head chef is barely at the suburban eatery. He’s working the equivalent of about four shifts daily at his Broadway location; Roblin is only running half the hours it should be, he said.

He hopes to transfer his Roblin staff downtown.

“Then I can step back and get more caterings in, change the menu up and do features, do what I should be doing,” Martin said. “(I can think) a year down the road instead of thinking about the week of functions and… line cooking, and, ‘How are we going to pay for this?’”

Debt is ever-present, and his mental well-being has drained over the past three years.

“As much as I hate to say it, I think (selling) will be a good thing. (I can) focus on one thing,” he said.

“As much as I hate to say it, I think (selling) will be a good thing… (I can) focus on one thing.”–Wayne Martin

Capital Grill and Bar on Roblin will continue to operate until Martin is able to sell.

The number of restaurants closing in the last six months is significant, said Shaun Jeffrey, CEO of the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

RnR Family Restaurant on McPhillips Street was among those who shuttered in January. The location “just did not make a comeback” from pandemic-era closures, partner Roger Perron said at the time.

The MRFA doesn’t track restaurant closures. However, you don’t have to look far to see a for sale sign, Jeffrey noted.

“This is exactly what we thought would happen,” he said. “We’ve talked about it for years. Coming out of the pandemic, we needed to have supports in place (for) businesses.”

The average Manitoba restaurant had roughly $250,000 of pandemic debt last August, a MRFA survey found.

Labour, food and utility costs have risen. Restaurateurs are dealing with pandemic-era stress and an unpredictable future, Jeffrey said.

Customers are, in many cases, keeping restaurants busy, though the eateries are often open on reduced hours, he added.

“I can’t foresee anything changing in the near future because there just isn’t that (government) collaboration,” Jeffrey said. “We need long-term investments in the future of our industry.”

Wholesale liquor pricing and longer-term grant programs are among Jeffrey’s proposed solutions.

“A lot of times, it’s a life’s work to open a restaurant,” said Daniel Henry, owner of Carlos and Murphy’s. “Every time I see one close… my heart breaks for people.”

He’s continuously updating menu prices to keep the business viable, but there’s a ceiling, he said. To raise prices too high is to lose customers.

“For as long as I can, I will do my best to run the restaurant in the best possible way I can,” Henry said. “If, at the end of the day, we have to close… then that’s the way it goes.”

He estimates he’d have to raise prices 25 per cent to balance out operating costs.

“Our government is aware of the difficulties that the Manitoba restaurant industry (has) encountered over the last few years of the pandemic,” a provincial government spokesperson wrote in a statement.

“A lot of times, it’s a life’s work to open a restaurant… Every time I see one close… my heart breaks for people.”–Daniel Henry, Carlos and Murphy’s

The statement acknowledged “there is still more work that needs to be done,” and pointed to programs Manitoba has implemented, including a $9 million rebate program during the pandemic’s severe code-red restrictions that 499 restaurants used, and a $250,000 grant to help recruit staff.

Salisbury House’s Main Street closure is not a result of the chain struggling financially, according to board chair Earl Barish.

The North End site was the last quick-service type of an otherwise dine-in brand.

“(It) just no longer fit into what Salisbury House is,” Barish said Friday.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com