Photo by Adriano Magnifico\nPromotions co-ordinator Heather Deibert and Chef Michael Erin at Bistro in the Park.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nThe restaurant took a short hiatus last year to rethink its concept and reopened in February with a new staff, some kitchen renovations, and a diverse, fresh menu.<\/p>\n
New popular offerings include barbecue pulled pork, reuben, and clubhouse sandwiches; along with chicken quesadillas, patty melts and Philly cheese steaks. They’ve also added vegetarian dishes and gluten-free items.<\/p>\n
This iteration of the Bistro is under the watchful eye of director Michael Erin, a 20-year red seal chef, who spent the last 14 years as a culinary arts teacher and co-chef at the Louis Riel Arts and Tech Centre.<\/p>\n
The teaching team also includes Rob Ferens, red seal chef with A.T.C. experience and Heather Deibert, promotions and event co-ordinator with a human ecology degree.<\/p>\n
The serving staff is comprised entirely of high school students, some completing course programming requirements, others volunteering to gain work skills and résumé-quality work experiences.<\/p>\n
Chef Erin invites any LRSD high school student “who wants real life work experience to build work skills for future work opportunities.”<\/p>\n
“Our team has worked with high school students for many years and can emphasize with their needs,” Chef Erin says, who has also completed a post-baccalaureate in education.<\/p>\n
The space offers seating for 45 lunch guests and includes a beautiful stone fireplace and student-generated art works on the walls. Windsor Park Collegiate (WPC) musicians play live acoustic guitar on Wednesdays to add a little ambiance to lunch.<\/p>\n
These kids don’t simply serve. They host, prep food, work on the line or wash dishes within a technical food curriculum with real customers.<\/p>\n
WPC principal Nicholas Kelly believes “it’s important to provide opportunities for students to work in a real life setting.”<\/p>\n
Assistant superintendent Irene Nordheim sees the Bistro as another important piece of LRSD’s career education mandate,” a place for students to build confidence, skills, and a potential career path.”<\/p>\n
The Bistro is open to the public for lunch on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.<\/p>\n
From Monday to Friday, larger groups of up to 50 can hold workshops, parties or staff meetings in the dining room which is equipped with a screen, projector, and a Bose sound system.<\/p>\n
Chef Erin is developing a line of Bistro frozen food products such as soup and lasagna that people can pick up and take home. The diner also caters to outside groups.<\/p>\n
The Bistro does not take reservations; groups of five to six should call ahead to ensure that space is available.<\/p>\n
For more information, contact the Bistro in the Park at 204-253-3885.<\/p>\n
Adriano Magnifico is a community correspondent for St. Boniface. You can contact him at amagnif@mymts.net<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":260698063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-445463263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Adriano Magnifico","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2017\/09\/18\/bistro-ready-to-serve","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Bistro ready to serve","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2017\/09\/18\/bistro-ready-to-serve","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2017\/09\/18\/bistro-ready-to-serve"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-stboniface-magnifico-sept20.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-stboniface-magnifico-sept20.jpg"},"articleSection":"Community Correspondents","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2017-09-18T20:20:00Z","datePublished":"2017-09-18T20:20:00Z","dateModified":"2017-09-18T20:25:15Z"},"rendered":"
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