‘Canada’s best smoked meat’ returns to Sherbrook Street

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This article was published 10/01/2019 (2640 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Canada’s best smoked meat sandwich” is back.

The Sherbrook Street Deli, shuttered three months ago, reopened over the lunch hour Thursday with little fanfare and no advance advertising.

Its return is courtesy of restaurateur Noel Bernier, who was a non-operating partner in the deli before it closed, and who bought Winnipeg chain restaurant Salisbury House two years ago and also owns Hermanos Restaurant.

Bernier said he tried to sell the Sherbrook deli and had several offers within 24 hours of its closing on Sept. 30, but they all fell through.

Meanwhile, people kept rapping their plates and clanging their cutlery on social media.

“Over the last three months, the outpouring of people missing our smoked meat sandwich, either over Facebook or from phone calls or letters, was pretty phenomenal,” Bernier said.

“We’ve had many people from across the country tell us this is Canada’s best smoked meat sandwich. Because it’s a tiny little place in Wolseley, maybe it doesn’t get the attention it deserves,” Bernier said.

Sherbrook Street is being reopened as a family venture. It will be operated by Bernier’s son Riley and his partner Juliana Roberta.

“As much as this is a business story, it’s a family story,” Bernier said. “I’m a restaurateur, and I’ve never seen a restaurant come back to life. So it’s a fun challenge.”

Part of what makes the deli unique is all its meat is made in-house and from scratch, with its own flavouring, rather than bought from a supermarket.

“The deli was always very popular, but it had a very long menu of something like 60 items, and it wasn’t profitable,” Bernier said.

The new Sherbrook deli will have eight sandwich platters. Previously, the eight sandwiches made up 85 per cent of orders, while the other 50 items comprised the rest and made for extra inventory losses and expenses.

“We’re going with the Winnipeg Smoked Meat Sandwich as our signature item, and we’re going with a much shorter menu and much faster service.”

As well, the new Sherbrook Deli will be set up for online orders via Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats and any other delivery service. That should begin within a couple weeks.

Within two hours of announcing its opening on Facebook, the site had thousands of views and hundreds of comments.

“We’re going to wait to see if that turns into real business,” Bernier said.

The previous Sherbrook Deli owner, Jon Hochman, took over Gunn’s Bakery last week. The new Sherbrook deli will be using marble rye and light rye bread from Gunn’s Bakery, “keeping our connection to Jon,” Bernier said.

On its Facebook page, it also promises “set-in-stone operating hours” of from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The previous deli kept arbitrarily changing hours during its struggles, much to the chagrin of patrons.

“Only time will tell if it will survive a second time, if we can bring a restaurant back to life,” Bernier said.

Bernier is helping with the launch, and will then let his son and partner take over. He said he needs a break from the rigours of the restaurant business.

“I’m actually stepping away from restaurant operations for the rest of this year to take a break and spend time with my family,” he said.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca