First Nations café first of its kind

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This article was published 21/12/2015 (3598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An aboriginal-owned café that bills itself as the first of its kind in Manitoba is the latest new business to open in the city’s West End.

The Feast Café & Bistro opened its doors Dec. 10 in the former Ellice Cafe and Theatre building at the corner of Ellice Avenue and Sherbrook Street.

The owner/operator — Christa Bruneau-Guenther — originally hoped to open the eatery last summer. But renovation and remedial work in the building took longer than expected.

Bruneau-Guenther is one of four aboriginal investors — Jim Compton, Jeremy Torrie and Winnipeg-raised actor Adam Beach are the others — who bought the building at 585 and 587 Ellice from New Life Ministries in 2014 and invested $100,000 into renovations and upgrades.

The improvements included redeveloping the basement, upgrading the plumbing and installing a new roof. The theatre side of the building, which received $85,000 in building and equipment upgrades, reopened late last year and houses the Bandwidth Theatre and the Adam Beach Film Institute.

Bruneau-Guenther admitted the timing of the café’s opening wasn’t ideal, given last week’s big snowstorm and the fact the nearby University of Winnipeg is on its annual Christmas break.

“But it’s better than waiting until next spring!”

She describes the Feast Café & Bistro as Manitoba’s first licensed café and bistro serving dishes infused with locally sourced First Nations ingredients.

She said most dishes on the menu include from one to three traditional First Nations ingredients. For example, the house salad includes cranberries, sunflower seeds and wild rice; while the bison chili includes corn, bison meat and beans.

Other dishes on the menu include bison burgers, bison ribs, bannock pizzas, blueberry muffins and Indian tacos. Bruneau-Guenther noted the tacos, burgers and sandwiches on the menu are made with bannock. And there are plans to offer specials such as buffalo lasagna and elk stroganoff.

The executive director of the West End Business Improvement Zone said the Feast Café & Bistro is a welcome addition to the neighbourhood.

“We don’t have anything like that here, and I don’t think there is anything like that anywhere else in the city,” said Gloria Cardwell-Hoeppner. “I think they’re going to do extremely well.”

An added bonus is the café is open for breakfast — the winter hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Cardwell-Hoeppner said there are only a couple of other restaurants in the West End that open early.

“So them being open for breakfast is extremely welcome. Now we’ve just got to get the word out… “

Cardwell-Hoeppner said 2015 has been a good year for the West End, with 49 new businesses opening, including at least two this month. In addition to the Feast Café & Bistro, a new Meineke Car Care Centres franchise — the first in the province — opened Dec. 1 at 255 Burnell St. near Portage Avenue.

‘We’re hoping to draw people from all over the city’

The owner of that business is Ghassan Khalil, who immigrated to Canada 24 years ago from Saudi Arabia. His new six-bay service centre has five full-time employees.

Bruneau-Guenther said the lunch period was the busiest time of the day in the first week-and-a-half her café was open. The breakfast period has been slower than she would like, but she thinks that will improve as more area residents and workers become aware it’s open.

Her customers so far have been a mix of people from the neighbourhood and people from other parts of the city. Last weekend was the first time the café has been open on Friday evening and Saturday, so she’s hoping the extended hours will help attract more customers from outside the neighbourhood.

“We’re hoping to draw people from all over the city,” she added.

In addition to serving meals on-site, the Feast has also been offering catering services for local festivals and events since last summer. Within the next two months it also hopes to open a small retail area that will sell baked goods — things such as bannock, muffins, desserts and maybe some breads.

Further down the road, Bruneau-Guenther hopes to also begin offering cooking classes out of the building.

Know of any newsworthy or interesting trends or developments in the local office, retail or industrial real estate sectors? Let real estate reporter Murray McNeill know at the email address below, or at 204-697-7254.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca