Poutine King goes Underground

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/01/2020 (2097 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Poutine King is expanding his domain in Osborne Village and adding live music to the menu.

Derek Collins, owner of Winnipeg’s Poutine King food trucks, has taken over the lease at the former Cavern and plans to reopen the basement bar and live music venue at 112 Osborne St. as The Underground by the end of February.

“I know a lot of people in the industry and they were all disappointed that The Cavern was closing,” he said. “That space has been there for over 15 years doing live music and we just wanted to keep that trend going.”

Collins is a professional chef from Montreal who has established something of a food truck empire since moving to Winnipeg nearly a decade ago. He currently owns four food trucks — two under the Poutine King name, one named Wiggle Chips and another called the Onion Factory — and opened his first brick-and-mortar business, PK Sports Pub at 121 Osborne St., in October 2018.

When it comes to experience in the music industry, Collins says he previously ran a restaurant lounge in Montreal and was part-owner of a nightclub. He is working with local music promoters to book live bands at The Underground, but declined to name names.

“I’m working with two promoters, maybe a third one, and (they are) people who are very well-known in the city,” he said.

Collins says The Underground’s live music lineup will include anything from rock to ’80s and ’90s pop to soul to salsa and merengue. He hopes to keep the venue open five or six days a week.

“We want to have a diversity, we still want to cater to the people of Osborne, but also to the music community,” he said. “We’re going to keep going with what was happening at The Cavern before, but make it better.”

Renovations have been underway in the space for the last two weeks. The layout and the exposed brick will remain unchanged, but some of the features and fixtures will be modernized.

“We’re completely re-doing all the washrooms for sure,” Collins said.

The Cavern closed at the end of December and its sister venue, the Toad in the Hole, is set to reopen down the street in the former Buccacino’s restaurant in the coming months.

‘We’re going to keep going with what was happening at The Cavern before, but make it better’–Derek Collins

The more than 8,000-square-foot space at 112 Osborne is managed by Premiere Property Solutions. In an email to the Free Press earlier this month Premiere president Nik Fast said it is likely the upper floor will likely be divided up between multiple tenants.

 

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney