Tasty tidbits
🍷 The Winnipeg Wine Festival’s public tastings run today and tomorrow from 7 to 10 p.m. at the RBC Convention Centre. There’s also a Saturday matinee tasting from 1 to 4 p.m. Wines of Europe is the theme this time around. For more, see Ben’s preview here, and grab your tickets here. Physical programs for the public tastings are available at Liquor Marts.
🌮 Torque Brewing Co. (830 King Edward St.) is throwing an eighth anniversary party this Saturday featuring the introduction of the brewery’s new flatmate, La Taqueria. Expect a range of small-batch brews and tacos. La Taqueria’s food truck will be set up in Torque’s parking lot Thursdays through Saturdays before moving into the taproom in October.
🇩🇪 Also on Saturday, Devil May Care Brewing Co. (155 Fort St.) is teaming up with its neighbours at the Pyramid Cabaret to throw an Oktoberfest-themed street party. The festivities start at noon and will feature new German-style brews served in an outdoor beer garden along with live music, food, games and contests. Admission is free and all ages are welcome (for the fun, not the beer-drinking, obviously).
🧑🍳 Le Petit Chef returns to The Velvet Glove (2 Lombard Pl.) next week with a few worldly new friends. The immersive dinner theatre experience features a miniature animated chef performing a 3D tabletop show during a multi-course meal. This year’s narrative includes a cooking contest between the French protagonist and tiny chefs from Spain, Italy and Japan, with a menu inspired by each locale. Tickets range from $65 for kids 12 and under to $129 for adults; a vegetarian menu is also available. Seatings begin Sept. 26 and run Thursdays through Saturdays until mid-December.
🍻 Trans Canada Brewing Co. (1290 Kenaston Blvd.) recently announced it’s opening a second location — in Brandon. According to the brewery’s newsletter and social media, the Wheat City location will open in spring 2026, at the junction of the TransCanada Highway (fittingly) and Highway 10, seemingly near or where the now-closed Barney’s Motel once operated.
🍳 Oh Doughnuts recently reopened its Broadway location after extensive renovations. The menu has also undergone some remodeling with a new line of breakfast items, including donuts stuffed with savoury fillings and poached eggs, as well as a bread pudding made with eggs, cheese and veggies. The grab-and-go options look delightfully messy and are available in limited quantities until noon at 326 Broadway.
Recommended fare
Ben: I recently interviewed Winnipeg author Jenny Heijun Wills about her new book Everything and Nothing At All: Essays. Published in August, Everything and Nothing At All launches in Winnipeg on Saturday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location as part of the Thin Air writers’ festival. It’s a companion piece of sorts to her stunning 2019 memoir Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related, which won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust prize for non-fiction. In her latest, also shortlisted for the same prize, Wills ruminates on love, reading, beauty, kinship, queerness, community and family from her perspective as a transnational, transracial adoptee born in Korea. It’s a moving and insightful piece of writing. Check out my interview with Wills here.
Eva: Habesha Ethiopian Restaurant is a comfortable little spot at 594 Ellice Ave. with heavenly injera and very affordable prices. The meat and veggie combo — with beef prepared two ways and a selection of hearty, flavourful vegetable wats — was a mere $20 and more than enough food for two people. Don’t miss the samosas, spicy, fragrant and wrapped in thin crispy pastry. My colleague AV Kitching chatted with owner Mimi Tesema earlier this year.
Homemade
Homemade is a Free Press project celebrating home cooking in Manitoba. Want to share a recipe with readers? Visit wfp.to/homemade to fill out the submission form.
Tuck into soup season and use up that pile of zucchini with this stew recipe submitted by Debbie Stern.
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