‘Where tourists all come’: BeaverTails settles in at The Forks

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This article was published 30/05/2024 (493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eager beavers have already lined up in the sun for a classic Canadian pastry chain’s opening at The Forks.

The trade of BeaverTails — long, flat, fried pastry dough usually topped with sweets — is set to run throughout the summer and following winter.

Same place, likely same time: near the Manitoba Children’s Museum, Friday evenings through Sunday. The operation may grow to six days open per week as customer traffic builds, the site’s owner noted.

“We had a lineup from pretty much open ‘til close,” Marcel Petit said, referencing May 26. He’d opened at The Forks the day before, but the weather wasn’t great for sales.

Not that Petit and his team are strangers to The Forks — it and Festival du Voyageur have been go-tos during the company’s food truck days. They have been driving a BeaverTails food truck around the province for the past five years.

Petit recently sold the vehicle, swapping it for a bright red container on Parks Canada grounds. He’s also expanded the menu: poutines and ice cream are options alongside the doughy desserts.

It’s Winnipeg’s only consistent BeaverTails location; the Clear Lake town site (Wasagaming) in Riding Mountain National Park is home to Manitoba’s other BeaverTails shop.

“It’s just the best place in Winnipeg,” Petit remarked. “(This is) where tourists all come.”

He’s been eyeing The Forks as a more permanent location for a while. However, The Forks Market doesn’t allow chain businesses, Petit relayed.

This isn’t the case for Parks Canada. The federal entity owns a portion of The Forks; it’s been in discussions with Petit since 2019.

“We consider opportunities that support management objectives for the site,” Lauren Wagn, a Parks Canada communications officer, wrote in a statement.

Objectives include “enhanced visitor offers and services” and increasing the space’s visibility, she added. “The evaluation process found that working with BeaverTails supported Parks Canada in these ways.”

BeaverTails is a staple in other Parks Canada locations within the country, Petit noted.

While staff in the red container create fried treats for The Forks visitors, Petit’s former BeaverTails food truck will continue setting up throughout the province, under new ownership.

Petit will also continue his four other food trucks: three for mini doughnuts and one for deep-fried cheese curds. He has been in the mini doughnut business for 23 years. Purchasing the BeaverTails food truck was, at one point, something he wasn’t prepared to do — it was competition.

Petit knows the previous owner — “That’s how the food truck system works; we’re just a big family” — and he was regularly being nudged to buy the BeaverTails wheels. But it was a no. That is, until he and his wife realized they could take the BeaverTails truck to events selling mini doughnuts that weren’t their own.

“BeaverTails kicks butt, usually,” Petit said with a laugh.

The food truck sent his family down a path of BeaverTails ownership. The set-up at The Forks is a partnership between he and a pizza restaurateur, he said.

The crew will continue opening BeaverTails mobile site as long as the weather is warm. Once The Forks’ river skating trail begins, BeaverTails will open for business again, Petit said.

“This sounds like a wonderful addition to The Forks,” commented Dennis Compayre, while visiting The Forks on Thursday.

He’s never had a BeaverTail. Now, might be the time to try, he figured.

Laurie MacKenzie, another visitor to The Forks, applauded BeaverTails’ arrival: “If a business can open up and make money, I say go for it.”

BeaverTails’ container can move, but Petit has no plans to take it elsewhere. Parks Canada will review the deal in November, when the current licence expires.

BeaverTails began in 1978 in Ottawa. The franchise now has more than 150 locations internationally.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com