Doubly blessed

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This article was published 04/06/2016 (3719 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

According to the book To Hell and Back, when Marvin Lee Aday was growing up, his mother cooked meatloaf for dinner every Tuesday night.

Wilma Aday’s weekly take on the time-honoured dish must have been something special. Because after her son moved from Dallas to Los Angeles in 1967 to pursue a music career, the name he chose for his first band was Meat Loaf Soul.

On June 9, Meat Loaf, who dropped the Soul from his nom de plume in the early 1970s, appears at the MTS Centre for the first time since July 2010. To celebrate that bit of news, Ross Jeffers, owner of 1958, a homey 10-seat diner at 761 Westminster Ave., is reintroducing an old favourite.

“It has been brought to my attention the man, the myth, the legend Meat Loaf is coming to town… so like a bat outta hell, #meatloaffridays are coming back,” Jeffers wrote on his Facebook page a couple of weeks ago.

“I do have that album (Bat Out of Hell) but my problem is I have nothing in the restaurant to play it on, otherwise it’d be all Meat Loaf, all the time,” Jeffers said, when asked if patrons will be able to hum along to the Grammy Award winner’s greatest hits while they`re chowing down.

Jeffers’ meatloaf is a modern-day spin on what his mom used to prepare for him and his father, he says.

“I make individual loaves — three parts ground beef, one part ground pork — and wrap each one in bacon. I add a bit of seasoning and pulverized rolled oats instead of bread crumbs, so that it’s gluten-free. Individual orders come with smashed potatoes, mushroom gravy and the vegetable of the week.” (People who head to 1958 for breakfast on the weekend will be pleased to hear any leftovers will be put to good use in what Jeffers refers to as a North End Benny — that’s eggs Benedict with a side of meatloaf.)

Taking Jeffers’ cue, we decided to hit the streets ahead of what promises to be another memorable Meat Loaf concert to see where else in town Winnipeggers can enjoy, well, meatloaf. Here’s a bit (burp) of what we turned up…

Elephant & Castle Pub and Restaurant, 350 St. Mary Ave.

The décor wasn’t the only thing that changed when Elephant & Castle closed for renovations in 2014, says Roy Benedik, managing partner at Elephant & Castle. The kitchen’s meatloaf, which had been on the English-style pub’s menu for close to 20 years, also received an overhaul.

“What it used to be was two huge slabs of meat slapped on your plate; not much design to it…more like, ‘here’s a whole bunch of food,’” Benedik says with a laugh. “What we serve now is much more visually appealing. We make our own little mini-loaves, which we wrap in bacon. After they come out of the oven, we top each one with peppercorn gravy before serving them with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed veggies.”

Given that Elephant & Castle is only a block away from where Meat Loaf will be performing, Benedik agrees if the wind is blowing in the right direction, the singer might just catch a whiff of his titular dish.

“Hey, you never know. And if that happens, we’d be happy to serve him a portion — or a double-portion, for that matter.”

Palm Room, 222 Broadway

The stately Palm Room, located on the main level of the Fort Garry Hotel, has been serving its home-style meatloaf, prepared with ground veal and topped with a house-made barbecue sauce, for at least two decades, says Adrienne Feduniw, the downtown inn’s assistant food and beverage manager.

“I heard a rumour it was an old sous chef’s grandmother’s recipe, but nobody’s ever been able to verify that,” Feduniw says, disappointing a scribe who was crossing his fingers the origin of the dish was somehow related to the ghost that haunts Room 202 at the hotel.

Although the Palm Room boasts an extensive cocktail list, Feduniw believes a hearty beer — “maybe an Erdinger” — is a better fit with meatloaf than a Manhattan or crantini.

“When I think of meatloaf, I think of everybody gathering around the dining room table on Sunday night, for a traditional family meal,” she says. “It’s a comfort food, for sure, and that’s probably the reason we’ve been serving it for over 20 years.”

Marion Street Eatery, 393 Marion St.

A few months before the Marion Street Eatery opened in 2014, owners Melissa Hryb and Laneil Smith were trying to decide what direction to go with their fare. When they settled on comfort food served with a side of panache, Hryb immediately thought of her mother’s stuffed meatloaf.

“When I was growing up, my mom used to make this delicious meatloaf stuffed with Stove Top (stuffing mix) and a few slices of cheese,” Hryb says. “When I told my mom we were going to serve a variation of that here, she told me, ‘Please don’t, nobody’s ever going to order that.’”

Guess what? When the St. Boniface hotspot was featured on the May 20 episode of Food Network Canada’s You Gotta Eat Here!, its stuffed meatloaf, prepared with Bothwell cheese and Hryb’s homemade stuffing, was one of the items host John Catucci couldn’t get enough of.

“To me, meatloaf is something you’d want to eat in the fall or winter,” Hryb says. “But the one time we tried to take it off the menu in favour of more summer-y things, our customers were like, ‘You can’t. We won’t let you.’”

Underground Café, 70 Arthur St.

As implausible as it sounds, Wendy Murray, owner of the Underground Café, didn’t get her first taste of meatloaf until she was well into her 20s.

“My mom is an amazing cook — she made us things like cordon bleu all the time — but never once did she make meatloaf,” Murray says, noting her only experience with meatloaf growing up was hearing it used as a punch-line, “Not meatloaf for supper again!” on TV sitcoms.

“Then I was at my ex-brother-in-law’s place one time and he served us all meatloaf,” she says. “I was like, ‘What’s with this sweet junk on the top of it?’” (We assume Murray is referring to a coating of ketchup some chefs like to slather over their loaves, before popping them in the oven.)

Murray enjoyed her meal so much, she immediately decided to add a grilled meatloaf sandwich to her rotating lists of lunch specials. Occasionally she’ll dice up some bacon and add that to her ground beef, she says, while other times she’ll stuff each loaf with grated cheddar cheese. The sandwich, which she tops with cream of mushroom sauce and sautéed onions and peppers, comes with soup or side salad.

“We never have to advertise it very much, it seems. Mostly, somebody will spot it on another table and say, ‘I’ll have what he’s having.’”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca