Full plate

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/03/2015 (4048 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Through the snow haze on a weekday afternoon, winter light tumbles into the tiny restaurant and finds Amos Ramon gliding plates out from the kitchen.

This is a whole new game Famous Amos is playing now, on the brink of his baseball retirement. Out of the dirt and into the dishes.

The restaurant Ramon now co-owns with Chris Taing and Lisa Le Taing at 612 Academy Rd., Fusian Experience, is a small space, outfitted with just six tables and a sleek sushi bar. Clean. The menu is mostly Japanese, but with a wink: There are tacos made with wonton crisps instead of tortillas, that kind of thing.

A couple of weeks ago, Free Press restaurant critic Marion Warhaft gave the place a rave review. Five stars for the food.

As for Ramon? The only hint of his previous career is an article framed high up on one wall, a memento of that glorious 2012 season where he helped lead the Winnipeg Goldeyes to their championship trophy, as the team’s playoff MVP. Almost three years later, the thrill of it hasn’t faded: He still thinks about it, on the regular.

Though he’s running a restaurant now, instead of bases, Ramon still looks the same. Bright smile, 5-8 — too small to play pro baseball, people back home in Texas and Louisiana used to say. But Ramon proved them wrong, starting when he signed on with Winnipeg fresh out of college nine years ago.

Now, it seems, the next new phase of his life will start here too. So this is a story about beginnings, and the unexpected places they can find you.

“Winnipeg is a great city,” Ramon mused, after the last tables of a busy lunch cleared out last month. “A lot of people don’t even know where Winnipeg is, especially guys from the States like me. I had no idea where Winnipeg was, when (Goldeyes manager) Rick Forney called me.”

The last time we spoke, the Texan thought he’d be on his way south by now. The Fish cut him loose on the final day of pre-season last summer, squeezed out by the veteran-limit rules on a well-seasoned roster, and he wound up playing in Sioux City, Iowa.

By the time that squad came up to Shaw Park for a series, Ramon thought that he and his Winnipeg wife, Duong, would pack up their house and move down to San Antonio. That way, they’d be closer to his family. They had the paperwork and everything all ready.

So this is a story about how sometimes you choose Winnipeg, and then sometimes Winnipeg chooses you.

“Things happen for a reason, and you may not know at the time why you’re doing it, or why things are happening,” Ramon said. “Eventually, it all works out.”

Because Ramon decided to prove his old critics wrong, he wound up playing ball in Winnipeg. Because he played ball in Winnipeg, he met Duong. Because he met Duong, he settled in a house next to Taing, who happened to be the former chef at Asahi on Roblin Boulevard. And because he got cut from the Goldeyes last season, that neighbour offered to cut his grass while he was gone.

Ramon offered to return the favour by helping Taing and his wife with graphic design for their catering biz. Within months, the two families had partnered up, signed on at the former Modern Taco space on Academy and launched the Fusian Experience. Around the same time, Ramon and his wife learned they were expecting their first child.

“Everything was kind of boom, here you go,” Ramon said.

Can we talk about this, about how many athletes wind up in Winnipeg, and stay? Obby Khan is running restaurants. Former Bombers punter Mike Renaud, freshly retired, is marketing farm equipment, because if you’re going to be a Manitoban you may as well do it all the way. Former Blue Bombers running back Charles Roberts and offensive lineman Kelly Butler have also stayed. That’s just a sampling, not a full list.

“Obby Khan, same thing,” Ramon said. “I’m kind of hoping I can follow that path, guys like that who kind of help build a community as well, because the community gave a lot to them when they were playing… This is great, because I built my name here in Winnipeg. And it’s good to give back.”

Ramon never worked in a restaurant before working with Taing to open this one. But duking it out in the trenches teaches a lot of things, work ethic being one of them — “If you don’t work hard in indie ball, you’re going to get cut, it’s as simple as that,” he said — and as he settled into the biz after their January opening, that part got him through.

At first he was a little nervous, especially when it came to making small talk with customers or chatting with them about Taing’s part of the business — the food.

“I had to face my fear, and just talk,” he said. “And it’s been fun.”

Which is a striking statement, because any Goldeyes fan of years past will remember him lingering by the dugout after games, signing autographs.

“It’s different,” Ramon said with a laugh. ” ‘Cause I’m talking about baseball, something I’m familiar with… when it comes to food, I’ve learned a lot. Chris has taught me a lot, not just about sushi, but about everything.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca