Hitting the D(elicious) spot New sports bar and dessert shop opening in July By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 6:00 AM CDT Friday, Jun. 30, 2023

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This article was published 30/06/2023 (823 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Move over, Toronto — two of its restaurant chains have planted roots in Winnipeg, promising hot wings and extravagant desserts within a month.

A devil’s tail door handle decorated St. Louis Bar & Grill Wednesday, but the eatery’s patio wasn’t ready. Mere steps away, D Spot Desserts awaited a fire inspection.

The sports bar will open July 10 near the Seasons of Tuxedo outlet mall. The dessert shop — which also sells burgers and sausages — will be open sometime in July, its owners say.

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“When I think of St. Louis, it’s the wings,” said Saiyam Trehan, sitting in his sports bar’s bright red booth.

He chowed down at St. Louis Bar & Grill in Ontario in 2021. Buffalo ranch, Mississippi honey barbecue, garlic parmesan — Trehan had plenty of wing options.

He had been working in hotels while looking to open his own restaurant. St. Louis Bar & Grill was a fit, he said.

The hub at 749 Sterling Lyon Pkwy. will be the chain’s first in Winnipeg. St. Louis Bar & Grill has more than 75 locations across Canada, and it sells more than 2.2 million pounds of wings annually.

“This location is growing so much,” Trehan, 27, said of the area. “(It’s) blossoming.”

He listed nearby apartments, the mall and Ikea. It’s why he chose the roughly 2,500 square-foot space, which can fit around 150 people when counting the patio.

On Wednesday morning, the red bar was void of alcohol, but multiple flatscreen TVs were mounted, ready for sports games. Fries, garlic dill sauce and ribs will also be on the menu.

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In the same strip mall, D Spot Desserts owners are preparing for their location’s launch.

“Lotus cookie butter — that’s a really famous one; peanut butter, milk chocolate, white chocolate,” Shahid Sadruddin rattled off, pointing to sauce bottles on a counter.

Rows of ice cream ran left of him. To his right, a display showcasing cakes stood beneath digital menus listing sundaes, waffles, funnel cakes and other sweet creations.

“(This is) almost 10 pounds,” Sadruddin said, looking at a chocolate cheesecake.

He would know — the café co-owner did a month of training in Ontario, serving customers, cleaning the shop and baking treats.

The first training day overwhelmed the former accountant. By his last week, he felt like a pro putting together Belgian waffles covered in cookie dough, brownie, molten cookie, cookie dough ice cream and several sauces when a customer ordered the Cookielicious, a D Spot special.

“When you serve people the smile on their faces, it’s too good,” Sadruddin, 30, said.

It wasn’t his idea to open Winnipeg’s first D Spot Desserts, he was just a fan. His first encounter came in Toronto, in 2020, when he tried a chocolate lava cake-type crepe.

“I’m not a sweets person, but when I ate that, I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s awesome,’” Sadruddin said.

He had waited in his car for 45 minutes to get dessert — the lineup was that long, he said.

Later in 2020, Sadruddin’s friend Naim Dauva approached him and asked if he would co-own a D Spot in Winnipeg.

Dauva had heard about the dessert café from a childhood friend, and now co-owner, who’s also a huge fan.

“When they pitched me about D Spot, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m in.’ It was a calculated risk,” Sadruddin said.

He left his management job behind.

Dauva, 32, will continue managing Cell Phone Hub, a repair centre in CF Polo Park, while co-owning D Spot Desserts.

“There was nothing much to do during the time of COVID,” Dauva recalled. “It actually gave us time to step back from what we’re doing in day-to-day life and it allowed us to think about more opportunities.”

Dauva believes his dessert venture will be busy. Already, Winnipeggers have stopped by, inquiring about the eatery’s opening date, he said.

Candy-like lights hang in the shop, and there’s a photo wall for pictures, similar to the roughly 30 D Spot locations across Canada.

“It’s always scary opening in a new province,” said Samir Desai, president of the D Spot Dessert Café franchise. “We’re very excited.”

Desai began the business with his wife in Scarborough, Ont. in 2014. She would bake cakes from home while he produced ice cream on site.

“It was a slow start for us and then demand just became crazy,” Desai said. “The lineups were out the door consistently. We figured, ‘We have something going on here.’”

Since then, Desai has received several inquiries from people wanting to start a D Spot franchise in Winnipeg, he said. He began seriously considering the city about a year and a half ago.

He interviewed the Tuxedo location’s current franchisees; they settled on a roughly 50-seat space, and now, it’s almost showtime.

The Winnipeg location’s co-owners — there are four, with two living out of province — have hired 14 staff and plan to employ a handful more.

Desai is planning another 10 D Spot Dessert Café openings across the country by the end of the year.

“Everybody’s complimentary of each other,” said Taylor Renaud, owner of the Chopped Leaf near Sterling Lyon Parkway.

His restaurant, which opened nearly three months ago, is nestled between D Spot and St. Louis Bar & Grill.

“I’m super excited, selfishly with Chopped Leaf, but also just as a customer,” Renaud said. “I think it’s going to further help drive traffic.”

Operating amidst a construction zone has been challenging, but customer levels have been “really good,” Renaud added.

More than 100,000 vehicles drive through the nearby intersection at Sterling Lyon Parkway and Kenaston Boulevard daily, according to a Seasons report.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com