Café owners game for change of location

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/11/2016 (3476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the city’s most unusual restaurant concepts — the owners encourage their customers to play board games while they eat and to stay as long as they like — has proven so successful it’s moving to bigger quarters.

Early in the new year — hopefully some time in January — the Across the Board Game Café will be relocating from its cosy quarters at 93 Albert St. to a spacious new commercial condominium on the main floor of the nearby Crocus Building at the corner of Bannatyne Avenue and Main Street.

At about 4,000 square feet, the new space is more than twice the size of the Albert Street location and will have more than double the seating capacity — 130 seats versus 58, co-owner Clinton Skibitzky said.

Skibitzky said the extra room will enable him and co-owner Olaf Pyttlik to install a full-sized commercial kitchen. That, in turn, will enable them to expand their menu to include full meals — appetizers and things such as pasta, curry, burgers and fries — instead of just the soup, sandwiches and salads they were restricted to offering at their smaller, café-style operation. Customers will also be able to order a glass of wine with their meal.

The partners think the expanded menu will not only generate more revenue but also help attract more customers — newcomers and repeat customers — who will drop by more often. He noted many of their regular customers had been asking them if they could expand their menu, “so that’s part of the rationale for doing this.”

He said they looked at a number of rental properties before deciding to buy a commercial condo instead. They focused their search in the Exchange District.

“We really wanted to stay in the same neighbourhood,” he said, noting they can see the Crocus Building from the front window of their Albert Street café.

“First of all, it’s been proven that people will come here, and it’s an area that’s trending up. It (their concept) also works here, there’s traffic, and there’s demand for it here.”

The Exchange also has become known as a hot spot for unique or unusual shops and restaurants. He added, “I think what we have is distinct and a very unique experience unto itself.”

The Across the Board Games Café, which opened in May 2014, is stocked with hundreds of different board games, including some favourites Pyttlik brought with him from Germany when he moved to Canada in 1990. They include games that are socially interactive, ones that are co-operative in nature and ones that challenge the players’ dexterity. Customers pay a $5 cover charge to play, but there’s no limit on how long they can play.

Skibitzky said their customers range from college and university students to large families with young children and even grandparents in tow.

“It’s really incredibly diverse.”

Skibitzky admitted the move to larger quarters comes with risks. Their new space previously held the offices and concert hall for the Manitoba Conservatory of Music and was never designed to be a restaurant, so extensive renovations, to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars, were required.

“It’s an awful lot of money,” Skibitzky said, adding they never would have spent that kind of money if they were leasing the space rather than buying it. They made sure it could be re-purposed as restaurant space before proceeding with the purchase.

“That was kind of a make-it-or-break-it issue,” he added. “But this way we have a space I think will be worth a lot more after this upgrade is done.”

The Across the Board Games Café isn’t the only Exchange District restaurant that’s growing these days. Chosabi Asian Eatery has also gotten bigger, only in numbers rather than physical size.

Less than a year after opening its first Chosabi outlet on King Street, Winnipeg’s Wasabi Group has opened a second outlet. The newest is at 2696 Pembina Hwy.

Wasabi co-owner Cho Venevongsa said their fast-casual, sushi-burrito concept has been so successful, it was a no-brainer to open another outlet.

“Being burritos and sushi, it just comes together naturally. People understand it… and it’s healthy.”

He said south Pembina Highway is a good location because of its close proximity to the University of Manitoba and to the fast-growing Bridgwater Forest residential community. The area also has a large Asian population.

Venevongsa said the Wasabi Group, which also owns three Wasabi sushi restaurants in the city, wasn’t sure at the outset if it would open more than one Chosabi outlet.

“Just like everything else in life, you think, let’s start with one and see what happens, right?’”

But now the concept has proven successful, the company plans to open at least two or three more in the city over the next few years. And if it continues to do well, they’d like to franchise the concept and expand it into other cities in Western Canada, he added.

 

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