Burger King and Khab Tapioca Coming to Polo Park Area

Burger King has slowly been expanding their footprint around the city. Considering how important the Polo Park area has been for decades, it is surprising that the restaurant has not tried for a location close by. A&W has had their drive-thru for decades the street and McDonald's has been on one side of St. James street across from Polo Park and then on the same side. Both times just not of the mall.

The old McDonald's was a two floor monster with a play area downstairs. It featured one of the first drive-thrus for the restaurant in 1976. It became a favoured place for families over Grant Park. It would take a remarkable expansion for Burger King at 10 restaurants in Winnipeg to come close to McDonald's 30. For some fast food places like Arby's, they have closed all their stores altogether and left the market here.

Above, the sire of the old McDonald's on St. James in 1988, a year after Polo Park expansion.

The new Burger King will be immediately beside Chapters bookstore and will also feature a drive-thru. Next door will also have a restaurant called Khab Tapioca. It is one of many in the proliferation of sweet drink shops that have opened all over the city.

The area around Polo Park has been very slow to develop since both the arena and the stadium moved out. As fall progresses, we might start seeing some of the vacancies and open land start to fill up but it is hard to say where the economy is. Even when things were firing on all cylinders in 2019, the area around Polo Park suffered while Seasons of Tuxedo was exploding.

The big question of restaurants opening up beside Chapters is when will the bookstore have a return of coffee shops to their stores? Nothing happening in them yet. So a couple of restaurants opening by Chapters gives book buyers a place to go now.