Comfort food at Saddlery

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/02/2017 (3193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Saddlery on Market is located on the main floor of the Great West Saddlery Warehouse building, erected in 1898.

A little bit of Winnipeg trivia: the saddlery company became the world’s largest manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer of harnesses and saddles. The restobar has been inspired by Winnipeg’s past and serves homey comfort food.

Anticipating my winter vacation, I chose from the salad section of the menu. The roasted beet and goat cheese salad featured a hearty serving of red onion, candied pecans and roasted shallot vinaigrette. Once all the good stuff vanished from the top of the salad, I tried very hard to finish my vegetables by consuming all of the spinach leaves on the plate. Perhaps I was distracted by the hand-cut fries that arrived with my companion’s burger. Being an old friend, she gave my permission to enjoy some of them off of her plate. They were the highlight of the visit.

The house burger, which was her selection, was a half pound of ground chuck topped with lettuce, tomato, provolone cheese, pancetta, caramelized onions and made-on-site barbecue sauce. She remarked that the pretzel bun was delicious but not sturdy enough to offset all of those fixings. The burger was tasty and juicy, but eating it without making an enormous mess took a lot of skill.

I had arrived before my friend as she found the street parking to be tricky. This left me with the opportunity to closely examine the surroundings. The space has supported a number of restaurant concepts in the past but I do not recall one that let the beautiful brick walls speak for themselves.

Perched at a window with a view to the Exchange District, I anticipated that the restaurant would get busier over the lunch hour with so many people working in the area.

Kathryne Grisim is a local food and travel writer and blogger: foodmusings.ca. She believes food = love.