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Moving to Winnipeg
August 26, 2014 - 4:01am
So I'm moving to Winnipeg this week to pursue a Masters degree in public administration. I know there are a couple Winnipeg-based Babblers and I was hoping I could get some advice on the city.
Where are the best places to eat and drink?
Can anyone recomend places to buy groceries and bank (I will be living near the university)?
How cold does it get (I'm from the Edmonton area, so I don't think Winnipeg will be much of a change in this department)?
Any other tps or comments would be great!
Stay in Edmonton.
Which university, Manitoba or Winnipeg. The latter is centrally located while U of M is way south.
Osborne Village and Corydon Street have a wide variety of eating and drinking options that are relatively affordable. One of the best places to eat is Stella's Bakery (multiple locations: U of W, Osborne Street, Wolsley area, airport and Kenaston area).
Try Nuburger for their burgers and fries - very tasty, innovative, healthy and fresh. Best hand cut fries ever. (Osborne Village)
Bar Italia is great for a cappucino or a beer. The Grove is also great food and lots of beer on tap. (both in Corydon area)
Kenko Sushi has a very nice bento box for lunch (Corydon again).
I've only been here a year myself, so still finding things out!
Winnipeg is quite a bit different weather-wise than edmonton. A lot more damp, and harsher winters.
Speaking of burgers, one of the things I miss from there is Juniors burgers. Their burgers and fries cannot be beat, IMO.There are so many great restaurants and food shops there I can't even begin to list them.
Having spent more time in Edmonton lately, I'd say there's a lot of similarity between the two places. Certainly a lot more then Winnipeg and Calgary. I have no plans to go back to Winnipeg, but I think it is a great place to check out.
Oh! Forgot Baked Expectations! Amazing cakes and very nice meals as well. But the cakes... Fabulous...
If you can spare the cash or have a very special occasion to celebrate, Segovia's Tapas Restaurant in Osborne Village is absolutely fabulous.
St. Boniface, the French-speaking quarter has good places to eat as well. For a novelty, I think there is still a restaurant on a pedestrian bridge over the Red River (on the way to St. Boniface). Before winter closes in try having some ice cream at the BDI. I think Rae and Jerry's is great for steaks (if you're into that), and try some place like Alicia's (or maybe the Ukrainian Labour Temple still serves food at their events) for genuine Ukrainian fare. I liked The Nook for decadent breakfasts, and the Toad in the Hole for beer. There is a nice place way down Corydon towards Charleswood that serves Israeli style middle eastern food. I forget the name. Gelati at any of the several Italian ice cream places on Corydon would be nice. And Bailey's downtown is nice but rather expensive, etc.
A person who is tired of Winnipeg is tired of life. But dress warmly.
A few non-descript but authentic restaurants of various national cuisines, including shawarma, on Ellice and Sargent. Parlour coffee on Main for a high-end European cafe feel. Dairy Wip (no 'h', and that's why I like it) in St. Boniface for pretty good soft ice cream and retro greasy spoon drive-in. However best soft ice cream possibly in the world is at the White Top drive-in on Salter St. in the north end.
Nightspots: Yellow Dog Tavern, High and Lonesome Club, Windsor Hotel. But there must be a host of new ones since.
Haven't tried Deer + Almond restaurant in the exchange or Chew in river heights yet but I heard good things. Also East India Company downtown for Indian food. On the cheaper scale Merkato is a very good Ethiopian place downtown and Affinity is a great vegetarian place downtown - try the crispy black mushroom. Bridge Drive in and Banana Boat are a couple of the standard ice cream places in the south osborne part of town. I like Cake-ology and the Lilac Bakery for baked desserts. And if you're into boardgames a boardgame/cafe opened up recently in the exchange district. It was fun, don't remember the name, it was next to the now closed Mondragon.
Best Vietnamese: Thanh Huong on Ellice. Best Indian: A Taste of India, just a couple of blocks east of there.
And ikosmos, the place you are thinking of is Falafel Place. He used to be up on Academy when I lived there.
No one has mentioned Deens yet, or the caribbean place at the Forks market.
The Felafel Place on Corydon! Good food, amazing corned beef breakfast hash. The owner is a hoot, too.
Nucci's Gelati on Corydon is the best, I think - but there are several other nice gelati places nearby.
Deer+Almond is amazing dining. We've been doing a food show, and did a spot there. Corrientes in the Exchange is also good - Argentinian style pizza.
Out of town jaunts: Benjamin's brick-fired pizza on Eveline in Selkirk; East Beaches area (Albert Beach, Grand Marais) and the Birchwood Motel pub; Whytewold Emporium in Whytewold, near Winnpeg Beach; Lockport loop drive to see the pelicans - there are two pubs there and another in East Selkirk. Oh, and Stead Ranch Steakhouse on the way to Stead.
Since you mentioned public administration, I'll guess you'll be living close to the U of M. There are a few credit unions you could sign up for along South Pembina (Crosstown Civic, Westoba, and Cambrian). If you're into dinner theatre, there's also Celebration's Dinner Theatre, roughly a 25 minute walk from the U of M campus.
I thought Alycia's closed a couple of years ago... Is it back in business?
I love this - I am so stealing it!
I'm pretty sure it has closed.
It will be fall supper season soon though. Though, the best I have ever attended is quite a few hours from WInnipeg, in Olha.
Thanks for the info everyone!
The Masters of Public Admin is a joint program, but most of my classes will be at U of M and I will be living there, too.
Jas, does the "Lockport loop drive" you speak of refer to the Town of Lockport? That is where my family originally immigrated to before moving west to Alberta. I'd love to head up there. My grandparents tell my there used to be a great hot dog place near Lockport. Is it still around (and still great)? There are often pelicans at the lake near my family's cabin here in Alberta. I was always cool to watch them fish. I wouldn't mind checking them out in Lockport, especially since its pretty close to Winnipeg.
ikosmos, is there anything to see at the Ukrainian Labour Temple? I've read about the history of the building and being a Uke myself, wouldn't mind checking out.
Aristotled, do you know if Assinoboine CU has a branch near the U of M campus? Based on what I could find on the internet, they seem to be the biggest credit union in the city. Would I be correct in assuming that? I was with Servus CU in Alberta and they have branches everywhere in the northern half of the province, which was very helpful because I hate paying the outragious ATM fees.
People complain that there is nothing to do in Edmonton (besides "the Mall"), too. I don't but much credence in such opinions. If you get bored in a city of over 500,000 people, you will find something to complain about in any city. I've been to Winnipeg recently and it seemed fine. The downtown seemed more vibrant and busy than Edmonton's. Although, Ed does have Whyte Ave, which surpasses downtown when it come to resteraunts, bars, and shopping.
I ctually like the cold and snow and am not worried about that so much as the summer heat. I belive Winnipeg is more humid than Edmonton. This will help my skin which gets abused by the dry Alberta winters, but will probably kill me when its hot out. I dread the heat and I think Winnipeg has higher average summer temps than Edmonton. The hummidity will make it even worse. At least I will be spending May-August in Alberta.
Thanks again!
Yes, I would call it more a village. It's a nice route one way up Henderson Hwy and back down River Rd. on the other side - or the other way around. And Selkirk isn't too far from there. It's a nice weekend afternoon thing to do. And yes, Skinner's or the Half Moon drive-in for burgers or dogs.
A good Winnipeg blog that expresses the extreme polarity of emotions most newcomers feel for Winnipeg. But I think it's exactly those extremes: sometimes awe and wonder, oftentimes depression and loathing, that causes it to get under your skin if you live there long enough.
And hey! There's the Dairy Wip!
http://winnipeglovehate.com/
If you ever have a mind to go back to Edmonton for a visit, check out VIARail. I don't know what their winter prices are going to be this year, but last year it was way cheaper than the bus. $49 one way for Saskatoon-Winnipeg.
And when you start to go crazy because the only thing in the entire Red River Valley that isn't flat as a board is a hill made out of garbage, take a drive southwest to the Pembina Hills. They are gorgeous.
And go to the Museum. It is one of the best.
We had an account at Assiniboine CU briefly. I was really unhappy dealing with them. They wanted to put 5 day holds on every cheque I put in the account, including my paycheque. I'm self-employed, so they didn't recognize the company name, business account was from another bank, so I asked if they could put the company name in notes on the account so they didn't make me bounce my automatic bills, but no dice. When they did deign to not hold up my funds for the better part of a week, it meant standing there while a supervisor came over, looked at the account, went back to her desk, did more checking, then came back and authorized my deposit while everyone in the bank watched. I finally asked a manager if there was some way to avoid this, and for a reason why we needed this level of scrutiny every time, I was told it was because they couldn't be assured that there was that amount of money in the company account as it was at another bank.
I pointed out that this assumed I was trying to kite a cheque every time I came in to make a deposit. Given that my mortgage payment comes out of that account, it makes no sense for me to do something that stupid.
After being treated like a criminal a couple of times a month for about 6 months, I closed the account.
for deep background, get a copy of the film 49th Parallel, which shows 1940s Winnipeg and Manitoba in the best possible (moral) light ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3HrDhTZOrw
and
http://westenddumplings.blogspot.ca/2010/07/manitobas-oscar-winning-past.html
Geez, I'd try Cambrian or Teachers or the Caisse or Carpathia. Or even another branch. I had to do that with Affinity over an issue (also WRT self-employment) here.
I had to go to Vancouver to get that sort of ill treatment at a credit union. I said to the guy: at least having no credit rating is better than having a bad one. He said, "that's not actually true". I found out later he put a permanent hold on my cheques - something that ordinarily disappeared after six months with new accounts.
Of course the banks are all nice and sweet. My partner took her business there until she found out they nickle and dimed her for everything.
I have an extremely good credit rating - have to have, in my line of work. There was just no good or sensible reason for it. I've moved our banking to a regular bank not far from home and have had no problem at all with having holds removed. It's almost as if they want my business... Which is really a pity, because I prefer the idea of credit unions over banks. I dealt with a credit union in SK for nearly 25 years without a glitch.
Yes, and Assiniboine is also involved in sponsoring many different community events.
Oh boy that's frightening. There are pockets of activity, but by and large, there's never much happening in downtown, and several major shopping centres in the area close after 6PM during the first half of the week because everybody has gone home to the suburbs. Even big events, like Santa Claus Parade and Canada Day get lots of people downtown, but once the main event is over, they're out of there as fast as they can to get back home, because there's not much to keep them there.
Sounds like a description of Edmonton ' s downtown! To be clear, equating downtown Ed with downtown Peg isn't an endorsement of the latter much as it is an indictment of the former.
Also, it's rainy today.
i have to agree. Don't know about downtown, because I have rarely gone there, but from what I have seen on Whyte and other places there is way more happening on the street in Edmonton than in Winnipeg. Not surprising, since it is a much larger city.
AUUC Winnipeg Branch
The hall I think is used for other events as well, eg, Canadian Dimension magazine dinners, solidarity events, etc
After a fee weeks in the Peg I have a few observations:
The residential boulevards in this city are huge. Twice as wide as they are in Edmonton.
So many Shindico "leasing opportunity signs." That company's tentacles extend all across this city.
People jay walk like mad in this town!