Pepper-powered permission New eatery Blazing Chicken Shack adds ‘novelty’ waiver form to soon-to-be-unveiled spicy sandwich orders By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 6:12 PM CDT Monday, Sep. 16, 2024

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A new downtown Winnipeg eatery plans to serve its spicy chicken with a side of waiver forms.

Blazing Chicken Shack opened at 392 Graham Ave. earlier this month. So far, its sandwiches come without signatures. But this will soon change: staff are concocting a sandwich incorporating ghost peppers, scotch bonnets, Trinidad Scorpions and Carolina Reapers.

“Should be hot,” Eric Saniuk, the restaurant’s owner, said with a laugh.

He’s waiting on a shipment of Carolina Reaper chili peppers. Once those arrive, it won’t be long before the new creation — dubbed “the Waiver” — joins the menu, Saniuk said. He ballparked a timeline of three to four weeks.

The provincial government doesn’t require distribution of waiver forms at restaurants offering spicy food.

Saniuk said he’s doing it as a “novelty thing” — and a bit of awareness for those wanting to take a spicy bite.

He and friends are testing the sandwich; there have been tears, Saniuk said.

It’s likely the first time a Winnipeg restaurant will ask for such a waiver. The Free Press couldn’t find any similar cases across Canada. However, several joints in the United States require customer consent for their burgers, pizza and ghost pepper ice cream (the latter served in Delaware).

Blazing Chicken Shack has already drawn crowds, Saniuk and staff said. The official launch was Sept. 9.

Popular options include its hot honey wafflewich (waffles replace a traditional bun) and the Music City Nashville sandwich, where chicken is fried and dipped in hot oil, then flavoured with Nashville hot seasoning and different levels of spice.

“(I) had an idea to eventually open a restaurant, but I was waiting for the right opportunity.”–Eric Saniuk

Saniuk said he frequently ate hot chicken sandwiches while working construction in Toronto. Blazing Chicken Shack is his first foray into restaurant ownership. Just last year, he was a carpenter.

“(I) had an idea to eventually open a restaurant, but I was waiting for the right opportunity,” the 30-year-old said.

He grew up in St. Vital and has spent more than a decade doing construction, often travelling to other provinces for work.

Saniuk, an avid cook, recalled lugging his pressure cooker to hotel rooms to make chicken sandwiches. He was tired of construction and saved money for years to start his own business, Saniuk said.

He was back in Winnipeg earlier this year, when a friend told him a Graham Avenue site, formerly Shawarma Khan, was up for sale. Saniuk leapt.

“It was either I was going to go back to work or I was going to try and get the restaurant,” he said. “I figured I’d just go with the restaurant.”

Seeking to bring Toronto’s hot chicken sandwiches to Winnipeg, Saniuk contracted a chef, who made the menu.

Saniuk called the 1,200-square-foot space ideal for delivery: “I can basically hit any point in the city.”

Many recent customers are office staff in the area, noted Natalie Posner, a manager at Blazing Chicken Shack.

“It’s good to have more places,” said Livia Lopez, who works at a dentist office nearby. “We usually don’t have a lot.”

Blazing Chicken Shack faces two storefronts still boarded up; the businesses closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the number of enterprises opening downtown so far this year has surpassed closures, 14 to eight, respectively.

“It’s an exciting time,” Kate Fenske, CEO of Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone, wrote in a statement.

Blazing Chicken Shack is “adding vibrancy to our neighbourhood and giving Winnipeggers and visitors another reason to come downtown,” she added.

On Monday, Jessica Flett took a Nashville sandwich to go . She was in the area for an appointment and the new eatery caught her eye.

“I like spicy and they say that’s the spiciest,” Flett said of the sandwich.

Meanwhile, there’s been an uptick in people purchasing spicy and ethnic food, said Sylvain Charlebois, a Dalhousie University professor of food distribution and policy. Ethnic foods are often cheaper, which could play a role in the increased popularity, he noted.

Restaurateurs requiring waiver form signatures must be tactful in their delivery; there’s a risk of scaring off customers, Charlebois said.

“(However,) I think the nature of this waiver is very much about marketing and, frankly, fun,” he said of Blazing Chicken Shack.

Blazing Chicken Shack’s sandwiches range from $13.45 to $14.45. The Waiver doesn’t yet have a price.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com