Iconic Thunderbird restaurant set to take flight once more

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Ten months after closing its doors, an iconic Winnipeg restaurant is set to reopen this spring.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Ten months after closing its doors, an iconic Winnipeg restaurant is set to reopen this spring.

The Thunderbird Restaurant at 1970 McPhillips St. announced its return in a series of social media posts earlier this month, promising the same food and atmosphere it became known for after John Ginakes and his brothers, Jimmy and Perry, opened the doors in 1961.

A group of restaurateurs headed by Mahak Mahajan and former Johnny G’s owner John Giannakis is leasing the restaurant, said Peter Ginakes, John Ginakes’ son and a spokesperson for the family. John Ginakes, now an octogenarian, is also a shareholder in the enterprise.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
                                The Thunderbird Restaurant at 1970 McPhillips St. closed last June for unspecified reasons. A series of social media posts earlier this month announced the restaurant would be reopening.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES

The Thunderbird Restaurant at 1970 McPhillips St. closed last June for unspecified reasons. A series of social media posts earlier this month announced the restaurant would be reopening.

One of the social media posts announcing the reopening garnered more than 240 comments, with many people expressing their appreciation for the restaurant and excitement at the thought of eating there again.

The feedback has been heartening, Peter Ginakes said on Friday.

“We served a lot of people over the (years),” he said. “There’s a lot of people that have memories of the place and I think that’s why it resonates that we’re bringing it back. People don’t like losing these things.”

“There’s a lot of people that have memories of the place and I think that’s why it resonates that we’re bringing it back. People don’t like losing these things.”

John operated the diner with his wife, Gloria, for decades. He was known for his signature Thunderburger, Greek salads and breakfast spreads.

Meanwhile, the restaurant’s towering, yellow-and-red, T-shaped signage became a local landmark.

John retired in 2013, and leased the space to tenants to keep the restaurant going. (The family kept possession of the building, which is now managed by Niata Enterprises, owned by Peter Ginakes.)

The tenants closed the restaurant last June for unspecified reasons. Ginakes said his family didn’t want to see the business end.

“We think that there (is) another chapter to be written about the Thunderbird.”

The family was approached by a number of people who were interested in taking over the restaurant, many of whom had one condition.

“A lot of them wouldn’t do it unless my dad was involved, unless he was there getting them back up and running and introducing them to the people that he knew and getting them on track with the same food that we used to put out,” Ginakes said. “So my dad, at 87, said yes.”

“It was a place where everybody was welcome. It didn’t matter if you’re wealthy, famous or an ordinary person.”

The new tenants are renovating the restaurant. John is assisting with the menu and teaching staff how to prepare the food.

“It’s going to be very similar to what we had it as,” Ginakes said. “It’s got a storied history, you know? … It was a place where everybody was welcome. It didn’t matter if you’re wealthy, famous or an ordinary person.”

The Thunderbird’s architecture, simple food and the memories people created there have made it a beloved diner, said Shaun Jeffrey, executive director and CEO of the Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association.

“It’s absolutely amazing to see an icon like that reopen,” he said.

It’s positive news at a time when Canada’s restaurant industry is facing mounting financial pressure, Jeffrey added. “When local hospitality icons like the Giankes family reinitiate a restaurant like this, it does bring some great morale to the industry as a whole.”

The Thunderbird will reopen in three to four weeks, Ginakes said.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca

Aaron Epp

Aaron Epp
Reporter

Aaron Epp reports on business for the Free Press. After freelancing for the paper for a decade, he joined the staff full-time in 2024. Read more about Aaron.

Every piece of reporting Aaron produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

A life’s story: activist, educator, organizer knew the true meaning of community

Janine LeGal 7 minute read Preview

A life’s story: activist, educator, organizer knew the true meaning of community

Janine LeGal 7 minute read 3:00 AM CDT

Somewhere between a love for sharing stories and a love of community connections, Michael (Mike) Maunder lived his life. Giving voice to people and neighbourhoods was a passion for the natural-born community organizer.

An author, teacher and principal, Maunder lived in a one-bedroom apartment in West Broadway and devoted himself to community development, education and neighbourhood renewal.

He maintained a connection with Augustine United Church, whose commitment to social justice he appreciated, volunteered at the Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre, and found comfort in a Buddhist prayer community.

Maunder died on July 15 at the age of 80.

Read
3:00 AM CDT

A quick look at where provinces and territories stand on time changes

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

A quick look at where provinces and territories stand on time changes

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:28 AM CDT

WINNIPEG - Manitoba's government said Thursday the province will be sticking with daylight time year-round, making it the latest jurisdiction to move away from twice-annual time changes. Here's a look at where things stand across Canada:

British Columbia said in March that it was moving to permanent Pacific daylight time. The change also means that parts of northeastern B.C., which have been on mountain standard time year round, are now in alignment with the rest of the province.

Alberta also switched to permanent daylight time this year in what it calls Alberta time. The change means it now has the same time as Saskatchewan year round.

Saskatchewan has been on permanent central standard time since 1966.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 6:28 AM CDT

Kinew delivered what most of us wanted; now we’ll have to deal with the consequences

Dan Lett 5 minute read Preview

Kinew delivered what most of us wanted; now we’ll have to deal with the consequences

Dan Lett 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:43 AM CDT

Premier Wab Kinew has decided to adopt permanent daylight savings time, which means a permanent end to the spring forward, fall back tradition of adjusting our clocks. And absolutely no one is surprised.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:43 AM CDT

Former Bombers linebacker Gauthier enjoying career as electrician

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Preview

Former Bombers linebacker Gauthier enjoying career as electrician

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Yesterday at 12:44 PM CDT

Most professional football players don’t ride off into the sunset on their own terms.

Shayne Gauthier was well aware of that, but it didn’t make it sting any less when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers informed the veteran linebacker that they weren’t bringing him back for 2026.

“I was really hoping to play one more (season) because it would have been my 10th season, so, I’d say it didn’t really end the way I wanted,” Gauthier recently told the Free Press.

“It left a little sour taste in my mouth, but that’s part of pro sports. If everybody got the ending that they wanted, then it wouldn’t really work.”

Read
Yesterday at 12:44 PM CDT

Cabernet Sauvignon star of wine festival

Ben Sigurdson 6 minute read Preview

Cabernet Sauvignon star of wine festival

Ben Sigurdson 6 minute read 3:00 AM CDT

The Winnipeg Wine Festival will celebrate the king of red wine grapes next weekend — the theme of this year’s festival, which takes place Sept. 25 and 26 at the RBC Convention Centre, is Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cab Sauv, as it’s also known, is the world’s most widely planted wine grape of any colour, first coming to prominence in the 1800s in France’s Bordeaux region, where the grape is still popular. Rather than single-variety wines, Bordeaux reds tend to be blends, with those coming from the left bank of the Gironde estuary being Cabernet-dominant, while right-bank wines are Merlot-dominant, with Cabernet Sauvignon playing a supporting role. Cabernet and Merlot work well together and many other countries have followed suit in blending the two.

A team at University of California Davis put Cabernet Sauvignon through a DNA test in 1996 and discovered its parent grapes are Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc — it’s likely that at some point the two varieties, planted next to each other in some vineyard, crossed and mutated and became the grape we know today. (Someone growing grapes in the 19th century must have had an inkling of what was up, as the grape has been called Cabernet Sauvignon since long before the DNA test.)

Flavour-wise, most Cabernet Sauvignon wines are big and bold, with a core of deep dark berry flavours, some graphite and spice notes and relatively bright acidity. It’s a grape that is well-suited to barrel aging, with most examples seeing at least some time in wood.

Read
3:00 AM CDT

Steinbach Credit Union member warns others after scammer steals $10K

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Preview

Steinbach Credit Union member warns others after scammer steals $10K

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Yesterday at 5:19 PM CDT

A Winnipeg single mother whose bank account was drained of nearly $10,000 says Steinbach Credit Union needs to warn its members about what she believes is a broader security problem.

The woman, who is not being named to protect her identity, said a scammer gained access to her account earlier this week after calling SCU’s contact centre, claiming to be her and successfully completing the credit union’s authentication process.

She said she knows of at least six others who have experienced similar incidents in which callers impersonate SCU account holders and pass the authentication checks.

The woman discovered something was wrong when her minor son asked why money had been transferred out of an account they jointly hold.

Read
Yesterday at 5:19 PM CDT