Boardwalk Burgers Fries Shakes Now Open in Charleswood

Charleswood has long stretches where there is not much in the way of commercial development. As such, it is a bit of a drive for grocery, pharmacy and restaurants. The Safeway in the Charleswood Mall and the No Frills in the Westdale area along with some Shopper's Drug Marts are it. Residents have to go further afield for other stores. And so it is for restaurants.

There are just not a lot of spots for any commercial development in all of Charleswood. It is largely a sleeper suburb of Winnipeg. Opportunity arose when No Frills Charleswood had a renovation. It created three spaces for other businesses either side of the entrance to the grocery store. In one of those spaces between the Liquor Mart and No Frills, a 1,690 square foot restaurant went up. That restaurant called Boardwalk Burgers Fries Shakes is totally new to the Winnipeg market.

Boardwalk, started in 1981 in Maryland and had grown to 750 locations worldwide with 22 of them being in Canada.  There are six more locations coming in Canada. Known for their lightly salted fries and a variety of shakes, Boardwalk is consider a mid-priced alternative to the higher priced burgers elsewhere and a step up from the big chains. The Cheema family and around six employees have the franchise in Winnipeg and quietly opened May 25 with an official opening in July.

The 6650 Roblin retail area has slowly transformed into a mix of housing, retail and offices. It hasn't always been easy. Resistance to any change around the area has been fierce. Any multi-unit housing has been painfully slow to come on stream. The Charleswood Condos went up only after a decade of being an empty field. The renovations to No Frills was mostly painless and the result is an insurance outlet and a new restaurant. The third space remains ready to lease.

Long time landlords are realizing they have to spruce up their properties and right size them for the market. Charleswood is no different. Space is needed but hard to come up. And the space offered sometimes is far too big. It was one of the reasons why some spaces in places like Osborne Village were so hard to lease. Landlord refused to subdivide and subsequently, the space went unused until this year where Basil's used to be. Today, two restaurants are being built where one once was.

Charleswood residents now have a place to go that is local to them and will likely see a few people come from farther away just to try out Boardwalk.