Decorative gourd season is also delicious gourd season, and this fall you’ll find plenty of pumpkin on everything from small plates, to pizza, pastries, beer and every beverage in between.
Plus, there’s harvest events, new rooms and the end of patio season to catch. Dig in!
Pumpkin spice and gourds that taste nice
If you’re not pairing a pumpkin spice latte with a pumpkin spice pastry, are you even experiencing fall?
Here in Winnipeg, all the best cafes and bakeries make pumpkin anything but basic with classics like Sargent Sundae’s legendary pumpkin pie soft serve (get a cone then walk across the bridge to see the leaves change in Assiniboine Park), to Fête’s pumpkin pie ice cream pies, to Barn Hammer Brewing’s Moonlight Desires Smoked Pumpkin Saison, which comes replete with a Gowan soundtrack that automatically plays (in your head) when you crack that can.
For classic PSL latte/pastry combos across the city, check out spots like Lark in The Exchange, Gato in the West End, La Belle Baguette in St. Boniface, the Oakwood Café on South Osborne, and Modern Electric Lunch downtown. In fact, we’ve savoured so many pumpkin creations in the past year that we have a whole story about it, where you’ll find it all from Torque Brewing’s dark pumpkin ale, to Frenchway’s marvelous pumpkin macarons.
That said, no one uses as many local gourds as Tall Grass Prairie, who take in more than 6,000 pounds of these beauties each autumn, transforming them into everything from pies, to scones and all things wheat (which they also mill onsite at both The Forks and original Wolseley location).
Seasonal settings and events
For fall-themed events, look no further than FortWhyte Alive and Oak Hammock Marsh. Both spots pair the sights and sounds of migration season—a time when you can see thousands of ducks, geese and gulls land on the wetlands at sunset—with a seasonal multi-course meal. Oak Hammock presents a few every weekend, while FortWhyte Alive hosts them nightly from late September through October at its Buffalo Stone Café. The dishes come courtesy of the team from SMITH at Inn at The Forks, which also does the catering at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
On top of those, you can also expect to see more pop-ups as the season progresses from the likes of Two Hands, who have been doing events at breweries and beer gardens around the city
Noteable new spots and nationally acclaimed dining
In spite of the pandemic, Winnipeg’s restaurant scene continues to grow with notable new dining rooms.
Some of the highlights include Tabula Rasa, a new concept from the Sous Sol team, which opened on South Osborne with a nice little patio and a menu that celebrates local fish.
In St. Boniface, chef Emily Butcher—who recently finished in the top five on Top Chef Canada after placing third at the Canadian Culinary Championships—has teamed up with King + Bannatyne’s Mike Del Buono (along with many Winnipeg veterans from spots like Segovia) to create Nola, a new small plates restaurant.
In the Exchange, the gorgeous James Avenue Pumphouse is now serving exciting takes on global comfort food in a dining room that provides floor-to-ceiling views. Gladys Caribbean Kitchen opened in the West End, where Jamaican chef/owners Deidré Coleman and Patrice Gilman pay homage to their grandmothers with authentic dishes like whole fried snapper, curried goat, oxtail and all manner of jerk.
For more surefire bets, you should also check out a few of our nationally celebrated establishments.
For star treatment—à la Food Network Stars—both deer + almond and Feast Café Bistro have you covered. At the West End’s Feast, owner Christa Bruneau-Guenther presents a menu that pays homage to her Indigenous roots, while in The Exchange District deer + almond is run by chef Mandel Hitzer, who is known for his whimsical approach to small plates. Both chefs can be found on Food Network’s Wall of Chefs, along with countless publications in the past five years.
Deer + almond has made the Canada’s 100 best restaurants list on several occasions, while currently representing Winnipeg on the list is Enoteca. The latter restaurant is one of three restaurants by chef Scott Bagshaw (the other two being Máquè and Passero), which are all known for elegant plating and bold, well-balanced flavours that will make you want to lick your plate (or take-out container).
Even more spots that are lavished with acclaim include: Clementine (noted by The Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s best brunch establishments), Oxbow Natural Wine Bar (which made the enRoute Canada’s best new restaurant’s long list—Máquè and Clementine have both been featured here too), The Roost on Corydon, Forth Bar, Langside Grocery and Patent 5 Distillery (Canada’s 50 best bars). Lastly, Nonsuch Brewing Co. and Magic Bird were both featured in Globe and Mail’s “Then ten best new restaurants on the Prairies.”
Given that fall should be the start of a time when we all want to give back, we would also like to give a shout out to chef Ben Kramer’s Made with Love. Kramer and the team are now selling delicious, handmade pantry items online, while still taking donations from Winnipeggers to continually feed thousands throughout the pandemic with healthy, filling dishes. At last count, they have donated more than 85,000 meals!
