‘Neighbourhood staple’ Oakwood Cafe to shutter

At one of the Oakwood Cafe’s last lunch rushes, one might guess the restaurant packed full of diners was influenced by the announcement a day earlier the decades-old South Osborne neighbourhood institution would be closing its doors for good.

That’s partially true — some customers beeline to veteran server Kendra Menard with questions, well-wishes and hugs — but every time it happens, a chain reaction follows: diners just here for lunch, shocked, ask their companions if it’s true, if the Oakwood is really closing.

Menard has been a server at the Oakwood for 23 years, almost half her life. It shows: while speaking with the Free Press on Friday, she welcomes guests by name and preps drinks at tables reserved by regulars before they show up.

Pointing to a single-seat table, she tells a story of a regular, Bob, who was at that table for breakfast nearly seven days a week for years. Menard’s children shovelled his snow and staff would call to check on him if he didn’t show up.

He passed away two years ago. The Oakwood held the table for him on the day. Later, Menard found out she was named in his will.

She tears up thinking about a future without the Oakwood and the diners who have become like family.

“I know every restaurant has their regulars, but I feel like the people here are just so genuine and so lovely,” Menard, 49, told the Free Press, before her voice breaks and she pauses.

“Sorry, I might get emotional. I’m going to miss them so much. It’s like a neighbourhood staple here, and I’ve gotten to know so many people so well.”

The Oakwood will close March 8 after operating for more than 30 years.

Financial struggles that began after the COVID-19 pandemic and worsened over the past year forced owner Wendy May to make what she describes as the “really, really terrible” decision to close.

“All the reserves that we had kind of dwindled away gradually over the last few years, and with the economy, people being a little bit more careful about how and where they’re spending their money, it’s impacted us greatly,” she said.

Supply chain issues have led to unstable pricing, May said, making it impossible to build a cost-accurate menu and forcing the restaurant to scale its menu down in hopes of keeping costs down.

“Sorry, I might get emotional. I’m going to miss them so much… I’ve gotten to know so many people so well.”

May uses green onions as an example: she said a two-pound bag would typically cost between $9 and $12, but in the last few months, the price has risen to $36.

“We just can not make the numbers work anymore.”

The 56-seat Winnipeg restaurant began as Samantha’s in the late 1980s, before changing hands and being named after the adjacent Oakwood Avenue. May said “at least three” owners took over before she became its last proprietor in 2016.

May contemplated selling the Oakwood eight months ago and a realtor ad went up at the time, but it was without her consent and the building was never formally on the market, she said.

In a social media post on Feb. 12, May said restaurant supplies would go up for sale after March 8 and asked anyone interested in commercial space to reach out.

Some staff, like Menard, have been there for years. May said one dishwasher was first hired in 1993.

“It really is a family place in the truest sense of the word, our staff, everything,” she said. “I think that the worst part is feeling like we’ve really let them down.”

When Jean Paul Cloutier and Lorraine Daniel arrive for their reservation on Friday, their coffee is already waiting for them, poured by Menard less than a minute before they arrived.

Both are long-time regulars: Cloutier said he’s been visiting for 20 years, and when he found out it was closing, he called Daniel and they booked a table right away.

“It’s pleasant to come and be welcomed and be recognized, and all that stuff — and have coffee and have pie and have French toast,” he said. “It’s the end of an era.”

“We just can not make the numbers work anymore.”

Nearby, sisters-in-law Terry and Lynne Kent have finished their breakfasts — pancakes for Terry; bacon and eggs for Lynne.

“It’s sad that we’re losing a really nice place to come eat,” Lynne said. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a restaurant owner in this time, when prices are skyrocketing.”

They have their own memories to share: Terry’s granddaughter, now 28, would always pick the Oakwood for her birthday lunches as a child, and later went on to work at the restaurant.

Terry lives in the neighbourhood, and used to own an esthetics business down the street. She’s empathetic to the Oakwood’s reason for closing.

“People seem to have an idea, if you have a small business, you have it made,” she said. “They don’t know how you fight for it all the time.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca