Main Street Winnipeg in 1949

Photo courtesy of University of Winnipeg Archives. In 1949, it was proper to have a hat and step inside the protection of the bollards when waiting for a streetcar on Main Street just beyond Portage.

Old Pictures of The Bay Downtown

Taken in 1930 from the air, The Bay was very prominent in the city. A surface parking can be seen at the rear. Eventually an Imperial gas station would be on the near corner.

Also pictures from 1930, angled parking right outside the doors of HBC. Awnings because no air conditioning. It got hot inside.

The picture is after 1932 because that was the year the Winnipeg Auditorium was built. Hard to tell what year but angled parking remains on Portage Avenue at this time. The Winnipeg Art Gallery is decades away and even the Mall Medical building has not been built. That would come in 1947. A gas station can be seen in the narrow corner future art gallery. Believe it was a British American gas station.

This was the Bay parking lot in the 1940s.

By 1947, the Mall Medical was built across the street and the parking lot had an Imperial Gas station. In Memorial Park of the future, the University of Manitoba science faculty is seen.

Portage and Main 1970s

In 1976 just ahead of the demolitions that lead to the building of the Trizec building across the street (You can see Wilson's Furniture peaking out), parking on Portage Avenue East beside the Bank of Montreal and Richardson building was permitted.

You can see parking meters across the street and a bus stop by the Bank of Montreal building.

Parking your muscle car right by the Richardson building just like Steve McQueen was possible.

Winnipeg has grown quite a bit but we will be seeing a significant amount of building on or near the intersection including the tallest building in the city this year and next. How people move about on this intersection and throughout the downtown needs to be examined.

Fast Fired By Carbone Coming to Charleswood

March 2018, Fast Fired by Carbone Opened Brandon

The former Subway in old Charleswood closed and paper in the windows indicates that a new restaurant is soon to open. Fast Fired by Carbone is slated to open in the fall of 2018. The newly branded restaurant was formerly known as Carbone Coal Fired Pizza and had locations in River Heights and downtown.

Under their new brand name they opened a 1243 square foot location at the Coral Centre in Brandon, Manitoba to great fanfare in March. They show little signs of slowing down. In addition to the location being built on Roblin in Charleswood, they are working on a 1523 foot location in Sage Creek at Sage Creek Village North. There is also a new pad site of 1500 square feet at Kildonan Place being built. And lastly, at 201 Portage in the RBC building, a 313 square foot location is being built in the food court.

The Charleswood location will be 1290 square feet in the Morningwood Center. It is the first time I've heard that name used in the complex that also holds a Starbucks and the Capital restaurant. Subway had been the only survivor of a previous renovation that ended the tenure of Robin's and KFC.

Fast Fired by Carbone specializes in fare such as pizza and wings that are cooked in coal fired ovens imported into Canada. By the end of the year the restaurant,  founded in 2014, will have doubled in size from the present four location to eight. It is unlikely they will stay at the number given the interest in franchising the concept.