No taste like home

For newcomer pizza purveyors, it’s all about crafting solid foundations

A recent poll conducted by an Internet-based market-research firm determined that close to 20 per cent of people eschew their leftover pizza crust.

Some argued that the residual crust lacks flavour. Others submitted that it’s too hard or crunchy to enjoy sans toppings. Given that information, what are we to make of Crusty Craft Pizza, a five-month-old takeout spot whose owners are so confident in their European-style pizza crust that they’ve chosen to highlight it in their business moniker?

Whenever somebody informs them they don’t like pizza crust, their response is, well, they haven’t tried theirs, says Oleksii Samokvhal, who together with his wife, Iryna Mehedyn, opened Crusty Craft Pizza in early April, at 1311 Day St. in Transcona.

“It’s thin in the middle, with raised edges we hand-form ourselves,” says Mehedyn, a native of Ukraine who, like her Kyiv-born husband, relocated to Winnipeg to escape the conflict in their home country.

‘We belong… and we are giving back”: Sikh celebration enlivens downtown Winnipeg

Downtown Winnipeg came alive with vibrant sights, sounds, and scents on Sunday, as Manitoba’s Sikh community flocked to Memorial Park to celebrate its annual Nagar Kirtan procession and festival.

This year marked the 422nd anniversary of the completion of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture central to the Sikh faith. Shortly after 1 p.m., a palanquin bearing a copy of the scripture was led in parade through downtown Winnipeg, with musical accompaniment.

“This is a chance to tell the public and the whole community where we come from and who we are,” said volunteer Prabh Grewal shortly before the procession got underway. “In a community there are people from every race and every country, and our main objective is to have everybody live in peace and harmony together.”

Before, during, and after the procession, the park hummed with life. As many as 55,000 people converged on the site, with the majority dressed in festive traditional attire. Near the height of the day’s 30 C heat, families relaxed in patches of shade, enjoying plates of Punjabi cuisine dished out for free at dozens of tents sponsored by local businesses.

Four teens dead, four others sent to hospital after crash near Manitoba resort town

WINNIPEG - Mounties in Manitoba say four teens died and four other victims, including two children, were taken to hospital after two vehicles crashed and landed in a ditch near a resort town over the weekend.

RCMP say they responded just after 9 p.m. on Sunday to an intersection near the town of Winnipeg Beach, located about 80 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

Police say a car with four occupants was westbound on Highway 229, and was crossing Highway 8 when it was hit by a southbound van.

Both vehicles went into a ditch, with one of them rolling over on to its roof.

Enrolment up at alternative schools

Independent schools are preparing to welcome a record number of students as more families pay for faith-based instruction and secular alternatives.

The overwhelming majority of Manitoba children — 200,000 — are starting in the public school system this fall. Since 2000, the percentage of students enrolled elsewhere — in homeschools, funded and non-funded independent schools — has nearly doubled, to 12 per cent from seven per cent.

“If money was no object, we could fill dozens and dozens more classrooms with the demand for independent education,” said Andrew Micklefield, executive director of the Manitoba Federation of Independent Schools, who is a former Tory government house leader.

The King’s School, Dasmesh School, Springs Christian Academy, Beautiful Saviour Lutheran School, Steinbach Christian School and IQRA Islamic School have all either upscaled at some point over the last five years or are actively in the process of expanding their footprint.

Slow start but gritty play not enough in Bombers OT loss to Roughriders in Labour Day Classic

REGINA – Leave it to Brady Oliveira to succinctly describe that fine line between jubilation and the alternate.

In the aftermath of another Labour Day Classic that went down to the wire, Oliveira went through the joy of tying the game with no time left on the clock to the empty feeling that came moments later when the Saskatchewan Roughriders finished off a 32-26 victory on Sunday night before a raucous crowd of 34,352 at Mosaic Stadium.

“It’s terrible,” said Oliveira. “You just kind of feel all of the emotions. I’m pretty pissed right now. We were close, we were right there. We didn’t play our best football and we still gave ourselves a chance, which could be a silver lining.

“I don’t like to look at silver linings because the fact of the matter is we play this game to get positive results. We want to win the game and we didn’t win the game. So, I’m pissed.”

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on Labour Day

Here's a roundup of hours of business for services and things to do on September 7.