Going big on small Acclaimed chef Dustin Pajak returns with Snack Häus to build ‘fun, tongue-in-cheek eatery’ By: Eva Wasney Posted: 4:41 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 Last Modified: 5:10 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 Updates

At Snack Häus, chef Dustin Pajak is dreaming big but starting small — small plates, small kitchen, small staff.

Pajak opened the casual-dining spot, his first solo venture, inside Low Life Barrel House in early October. With a deceptively simple menu involving “pickles, pickles, pickles” and “disco nuts,” Snack Häus is a fitting homecoming for the award-winning local chef, who spent the last few years honing his craft in high-calibre Toronto restaurants.

“You can be great in your bubble, but I wanted to test myself,” says the former head chef of Close Company, which was named one of Canada’s 100 best restaurants under his leadership.

The 2022 accolade came at a weird time. The tiny Stafford Street restaurant (now home to Petit Socco) was quietly winding down and Pajak, who ran the 100-square-foot kitchen and dining room for five years, had already departed for the Big Smoke.

“It was bittersweet, but we definitely earned it and it was such a unique thing to be recognized for something that small-scale against restaurants that have 150 seats,” he says.

Pajak joined the ranks of several of those acclaimed behemoths in Toronto.

He worked with a huge international team at Canoe, a high-end restaurant serving contemporary Canadian cuisine, and turned hundreds of tables a day while running the kitchen at Paris Paris, a popular wine bar on Ossington Avenue. Other residencies saw him cooking alongside Michelin-starred chefs and experimenting with local ingredients.

Pajak started developing the concept for Snack Häus when he and his partner returned to Winnipeg in April to be closer to family. The goal was to create a fun, tongue-in-cheek eatery, while capitalizing on everything he’s learned about the culinary industry while working here and abroad.

“Let’s make (the food) really, really good, make it really, really consistent. And I’m trying to be really competitive pricewise,” he says.

Moving into Low Life was a natural fit, thanks to Pajak’s connection with owner Adam Carson, a former Close Company regular.

To keep costs down, Snack Häus is a counter-service operation and Pajak does most of the prep and cooking in the brewery’s tight but newly renovated kitchen, employing a rotating crew of friends to help out when needed.

He also tries to reduce food waste as much as possible, including making crackers from Low Life’s spent grains.

There are 14 items on the Snack Häus menu with prices ranging from $4 to $16 — a pretty good deal, considering the fine-dining details in Pajak’s recipes.

The snack staples include the aforementioned pickles (three types made in-house with local herbs) and nuts (baked and tossed in a spiced batter), as well as olives grilled over charcoal and marinated in olive oil, black garlic and confit garlic.

The handheld and small plates sections feature empanadas filled with broccoli and 1,000-day-old gouda cheese, which Pajak describes as a play on a Pizza Pop, and Manitoba pork belly that’s been salt-aged for five days prior to roasting.

Pajak hopes the small but diverse Snack Häus menu will satisfy Low Life’s diverse clientele, which includes everyone from beer drinkers to natural wine lovers to running clubbers to sauna goers. (The brewery at 398 Daly St. N has become a catch-all community hub in recent years.)

“Not everyone’s coming here to eat, I know that, but there are some people who want to have a full meal, so the menu is really buildable. Come in, get a little or a lot,” he says.

“Then I have the ability to do some interesting fun stuff as this grows and continue to push the concept.”

Much of the food is also vegan, gluten-free and family-friendly — such as honey dill popcorn and chocolate milk ice cream designed to appeal to kids big and small.

Since returning home, Pajak has been glad to see Manitoba’s food scene expand and bounce back from the challenges of the pandemic.

“When we left, there seemed to be less chef-driven places popping up. Now, you can see it’s coming back,” he says, pointing to the new generation of restaurants in nearby Osborne Village — such as Shirley’s, Baby Baby and Crumb Queen — as examples.

Pajak has also found it easier to source products from local farms and farmers markets, which he says share a symbiotic relationship with chef-driven restaurants like his.

“It all goes hand-in-hand: better restaurants come in with people wanting to source better products, which creates a job for these farmers,” he says. “I’ve had nothing to do with it, but I think I happen to be coming in at an amazing time.“

Snack Häus is open at 398 Daly St. N. for rush seating Wednesday through Sunday. Visit Instagram (@snackhauswpg) for full hours and menu.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com