Mitzi’s has been a restaurant for the last 45 years but the pandemic and remote work has been difficult for this downtown institution. Job shortages as well has meant the St. Mary and Garry Street location is take out only. Many customers who are not regularly downtown anymore will come in just for the chicken fingers and honey dill sauce!
At 4,200 square feet, it is has a nice corner lot. The nearby Windsor Hotel is likely to be coming down soon with a new buyer so the street could be going through changes. Many businesses are still doing remote work and finding workers is still hard for restaurants. There have been increasing numbers of people moving into new finished apartments downtown but not enough yet to replace the lost workers. Moreover, a number of medical offices downtown have closed and moved to the suburbs. The Portage Place proposal for Pan Am Clinic to set up a 15 floor medical center would be the first major return of health care to the downtown in a few years.
Family restaurants can only continue if other family carry on the work. And in Winnipeg, some families have been putting in 12 hour days almost every day of the week. For some, the pandemic and the changes in the market, the age of those running the business and the lack of family to carry on has seen places like Mitzi’s hang up the for sale shingle or simply close.
The for sale listening states that the deal includes all restaurant equipment, but doesn’t include the Mitzi’s name or their famous chicken finger recipe. Once sold, the restaurant will be no more. It’s best to try and get your chicken fingers take out while you can!
This has been a guest editorial by John Dobbin.
To read more from John, visit his blog Observations, Reservations, Conversations
