The second coming of Alycia’s

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/12/2017 (3048 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In June, a married couple from Ottawa travelled to Gimli for the express purpose of dining at New Alycia’s, a Ukrainian-flavoured nook that is the direct descendant of Alycia’s, the McGregor Street mainstay that shuttered its doors in 2011, following 34 years in business.

The pair, who were staying with relatives in Winnipeg, had fond memories of the North End location, and became excited after coming across an article stating Aaron Blanchard, the grandson of Alycia’s founder Marion Staff, had resurrected Alycia’s, a holopchi’s throw from the shore of Lake Winnipeg. Unfortunately, the story they read was out-of-date, which explains why they were greeted by a sign welcoming them to the Harbour Café, when they pulled up to the listed address.

“The way I understand it, they were very disappointed, and immediately got back on the highway for the return trip to Winnipeg. But after driving about 30 km, the woman found our Facebook page on her phone, at which point she told her husband to turn their car around and head here,” says Colleen Swifte, Blanchard’s mother-in-law and the owner of the new, New Alycia’s, which opened approximately 14 kilometres north of Gimli at the junction of Glen Bay Road and Evergreen Avenue, in March.

Another time during the summer, a Torontonian visiting friends in Winnipeg placed a phone order with Swifte for two dozen potato and cheddar perogies. After making the 90-minute trek to the restaurant, which is nestled in a thicket of trees directly adjacent to one of the province’s most popular snowmobile trails, he made a point of informing staff he is originally from Winnipeg, and he was planning on taking the perogies back with him on the plane, to the Big Smoke.

“I don’t have much of a history with the original Alycia’s — to tell the truth, I only ate there once — so to see the draw the name still has all these years later, especially with Winnipeggers and ex-Winnipeggers, has been truly incredible,” Swifte says.

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‘It’s very important to me that there’s still a tie to Marion and her family, through my daughter and son-in-law. I guess what I’d really love to see happen is for this restaurant to keep going and remain viable until my three grandchildren– Marion’s great-grandchildren – are old enough to decide if it’s something they’d like to take on, as well’ — Colleen Swifte

“It’s a bit of a long story; do you have a few minutes?” is Swifte’s typical response, when customers inquire about her connection to Alycia’s initial location, which former Free Press restaurant critic Marion Warhaft once lauded as a “bastion of Ukrainian comfort food.”

From 1982 to 2007, Swifte worked in Winnipeg’s public library system. After leaving her position there, she bought a house in Matlock, steps away from a summer cottage that has been in her family for as long as she can remember. At the time, Swifte wasn’t sure what she intended to do career-wise, but shortly after discovering she had a flair for writing, she caught on with the Selkirk Enterprise, first as a reporter and later, as part owner. (Swifte is currently the owner and managing editor of the community weekly, which, awhile back, changed the name on its masthead to Interlake Enterprise.)

In early 2008, Swifte was enlisted by area businessman Paul Bisson to pen promotional blurbs for the Twin Pine Resort and Campground, of which he had recently taken ownership. By June of that year, she was giving Bisson a hand in the resort’s kitchen, despite the fact it had been “a good 30 years” since her last restaurant job, slinging bacon and eggs in a Pembina Highway Salisbury House when she was 17.

Swifte’s and Bisson’s association came to an abrupt halt in August 2008, when Bisson was tragically killed while riding his ATV. The property changed hands a number of times in the ensuing years, Swifte says, but when it came up for sale in 2014, she purchased it, and promptly renamed it Paul’s Grill, in honour of her late friend.

“I always felt I had unfinished business here,” she says, reaching for a picture of Bisson, which ran in her newspaper, along with a story about Paul’s Grill’s grand opening. “The summer I worked here with Paul, it seemed like things were just beginning to happen, then it all ended so quickly, when he was killed.”

Part two of the story has to do with Blanchard, who started working alongside his grandmother at Alycia’s, when he was a teenager. Blanchard, together with his mother Sharon Staff and step-father Roger Leclerc, continued running Alycia’s after Marion Staff died in 2004. When the restaurant closed in 2011, they packed all the memorabilia associated with the premises in boxes, and transferred the lot to their new home in Gimli.

“Aaron and my daughter, Erika, started dating when they were both working at Misty Lake Lodge,” Swifte says. “They got married in 2014, and a year or so later, Aaron started discussing the idea of bringing Alycia’s back. He said almost every time he told somebody about his family’s association with Alycia’s, they had stories they immediately wanted to share. So he thought maybe it was time to give it another shot.”

The second incarnation of Alycia’s was met with great fanfare when it opened in June 2016. Reviews were great, lineups were long and customers, the majority of whom made the trip from Winnipeg, were overjoyed to be able to sample Alycia’s Famous North End Special (that’s six perogies, two cabbage rolls and a side of kubasa) once again. The problem was, Blanchard had lost his left arm in a work-related accident a few years earlier and after a number of months, found it too difficult to run the restaurant, due to the unremitting pain from his injury.

“Because he wanted to see (New Alycia’s) keep going, he approached me in January of this year, about taking over, and moving everything here,” Swifte says. “It wasn’t the easiest decision, because by then, Paul’s (Grill) had built up a following of its own. In the end, though, I decided I’d be crazy not to take advantage of such a famous name as Alycia’s.”

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Between the end of January and March 10, when Paul’s Grill reopened as New Alycia’s, Blanchard taught Swifte everything he knew about preparing Ukrainian cuisine.

“Marion’s original recipes are all written down but some of the instructions are a bit… interesting,” Swifte says with a laugh, noting the amount of vinegar Alycia’s borscht recipe calls for is “a two-to-three-second pour.” “I mean, how much is that?”

Swifte, who doesn’t come from a Ukrainian background, had never so much as rolled a cabbage roll or pinched a perogy before her son-in-law taught her the ropes. If she was ever looking for an endorsement for her cooking, she received it a few months ago when a man teared up after trying her borscht, telling his server it tasted so much like what his late grandmother used to make, he couldn’t believe it.

Besides what’s on the menu, Swifte also pays homage to her predecessor by decorating her establishment with dozens of signed 8x10s, all of which originally adorned the walls of the Winnipeg Alycia’s.

Predictably, there’s a photo of comedic actor John Candy, who, on more than one occasion, had perogies from Alycia’s shipped to his home in California. Not far from that picture is one of Jim Nabors, star of the ’60s sit-com Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., who wrote “Golleeeeee, Gomer says hi and it was great,” above his signature.

“There’s Tommy Hunter, the Barenaked Ladies, Paul Brandt,” Swifte says, taking a visitor past more snapshots. “There’s also a tablecloth behind you that was handmade by one of Marion’s customers, and presented to her as a gift, however many years ago.” (Resting on the woven cloth is a guest book Swifte placed there on New Alycia’s opening day. In the space of nine months, it’s already been signed by people from as far away as Trenton, N.S., Fort Worth, Texas and Perth, Australia.)

Finally, whenever customers thank Swifte for their meal, or tell her how pleased they are Alycia’s is up and running again, she lets them know she doesn’t feel like the owner of the much-loved icon so much as its caretaker.

“It’s very important to me that there’s still a tie to Marion and her family, through my daughter and son-in-law. I guess what I’d really love to see happen is for this restaurant to keep going and remain viable until my three grandchildren — Marion’s great-grandchildren — are old enough to decide if it’s something they’d like to take on, as well.”

During the winter months, New Alycia’s is open for lunch and dinner, Friday through Sunday. For more information, go to www.facebook.com/The.new.alycias.

David Sanderson writes about Winnipeg-centric businesses and restaurants.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca