Pony Corral to Close at Grant Park

Pony Corral Grant Park has had a long run of 28 years but the restaurant that took over the spot of the former Bombay Bicycle Club in 1997 could not get improvements on their leased property to continued on. The classic cars shows that ran on the property will move to their owned and operated location on Nairn. They also have their location on Pembina Highway.

For restaurant starved people of River Heights and Fort Rouge and for those wishing for a bite before or after a movie, for those wanting live music or to enjoy the classic cars on Sunday Cruise Nights, the Pony was the place to go. The Ginakes family have always staked a huge contributing effort into wrestling, classic cars and live music and it has been bestowed a love that comes from people gathering, eating and enjoying each other's company.

When the Pony Coral first moved into the corner restaurant, it shared the lot with Zellers. Then Walmart. Then Zellers again. Then Target. Then Goodlife Fitness and Canadian Tire. It seemed the only consistent thing was the Pony Coral. The Grant Park Mall has gone through a lot of changes.

The last time there was a major renovation of the restaurant was under the Bombay Bicycle Club in 1984 when they added space and re-did the interior and exterior. Before that it was Barnacle Pete's, a seafood restaurant. Even back then, the restaurant needed plumbing and sewer work and apparently still does. Today, it is need of roof repairs.

From 2000 to 2020, Pony Corral operated a restaurant downtown at 444 St. Marys Avenue in a former Keg location. The intention was to build on Donald Street but Covid put a damper on that. Oddly enough, it is The Keg that is building a Donald Street location.

There will be many people sad to see Pony Corral leave the Grant Park area. There will certainly be concern about how Sunday Cruise Night will be affected. Portage Avenue has been the site of cars cruising and while Grant Park is not super closer, it is closer than Pembina or Nairn locations. However, given the issues of cruising on Portage in recent years, perhaps a change will be good.

The restaurant business has always been a tough one but there have been a lot of closings so far. Rent is too high in some cases, restaurants are downsizing and patrons are not going out as late as they did pre-Covid. Even big national chains are still not back to full lunch service as were five years ago.

It is hard to imagine a restaurant that served so much of the community in a variety of ways besides besides serving food. They will be missed for sure. And it will be curious what comes next. It could be that only a national group like Earls or Joeys can afford that corner.

Lot 88 Steakhouse and Bar to Open on Pembina

Steakhouses are staking out Winnipeg. In the last weeks Mr. Mike's SteakhouseCasual has opened on Kenaston and coming on the heels of that, Lot 88 Steakhouse and Bar announced they were coming to Pembina Highway.

In September, Lot 88 will take over the former Barley Brother's location that recently closed at 2005 Pembina Highway near the University of Manitoba. It is a large building of 6,900 square feet with a patio as well. The owners of the steakhouse approached Barley Brothers even though the site was not on the market. It was fortuitous as the owners there were about to receive a court ordered bill of $475,000 from their former location on Empress which closed 18 months ago.

Timing is everything and Barley Brothers accepted the offer and Lot 88 will open in September in time for the Banjo Bowl and the Bombers presumably. This will be third restaurant at the spot with Earls being the first. A steakhouse might be a good choice since there has not been a good one since The Keg relocated their location near the McGillivary and Pembina years ago. Go back even further and some cheap steak places like Mr. Steak and Ponderosa along Pembina.

Lot 88 will be a fine dining steakhouse. It brings a new concept of cooking your own steak at your table using a volcanic stone. It will be an interesting concept. It will certainly give other steakhouses competition .

The restaurant business is fierce. Much of it has turned to sports and grill formats. Flat screen TVs tuned to sports has changed the business. No longer is a restaurant/bar limited to a picture tube TV mounted in a box or a large blurry projection screen TV. They are ubiquitous. Still, a lot of people still love a place that has big booth, great food and are all about the atmosphere. Lot 88 will probably hit it off with them.

Pembina is a high traffic area and the location near Investor's Group field and the University of Manitoba should give it a spot on location. It will be interesting to hear what their lined up customers will think.

Polo Park Part 3

Polo Park is going through it third major expansion since its inception. This does not include development in its parking lot of restaurants such as Earls and Joeys but rather expansion and renovation to the mall proper.

As an aide before I get too far, it should be mentioned that the Polo Park website is so far behind the times that they don't even have Joeys listed as being located on Polo Park property. I'm sure Joeys is impressed after being there for some time now and are probably why they are paying for Polo Park management in the first place.

At ant rate, this post will talk about the inside of the mall and the lay-out of the mall.

First, let me say that if people thought the outside of the mall was ugly, the inside doesn't get much better. The 1986 expansion that put a second floor on the mall was so fraught with problems as to defy belief. The entrances in any location in the mall do little to show off the mall or to give someone direction as to where to go. One of the the worst sections is the north entrance by Sears. For decades, it has been a wind tunnel for people. For this reason and for the waste of space it represents, renovations are taking place at this portal. A large Sportchek is being built at this entrance.

It remains to be seen what sort of improvement this will make because once inside the mall, a visitor still has to pass by the blank wall of Sears for some distance until well inside the mall.

The 1986 expansion placed three escalators in the mall and one glass elevator. Other elevators exist in the Bay and Sears but if you are in a wheelchair, it can't be easy to get the second floor unless that is where you entered in the first place via the second floor parking deck.

There is a glassed roof in a few places but its use of natural light is done so poorly as to make it almost useless.

The center of the mall, where a set of escalators and the glass elevator is located, has a small open space that serves a variety of needs. One of the main things the space is used for it the Santa display for several weeks before Christmas. The space is underutilized thereafter and doesn't serve a role as a either a spot for people watching or where people might meet a friend before going shopping together.

One of the main problems in Polo Park is the food court. Hemmed in as it is beside Sears on the second floor, it is not pretty not is it easy to get in and out of. Originally built with 500 seats, there are often no seats to be found. It is that busy at times. Only a few of the restaurants, Moxie's and A&W have seats of their own away from the maddening crowds. Anyone hoping to have a dining experience where they can relax and chat in the mall would find it extremely difficult to do so. Moxie's is probably the only choice but for years that has meant fighting past the crowds in the food court to get to its entrance.

No doubt mall management have known about the problems of its food court for some time and this is why renovations are taking place in this area now. I'll reserve further judgment until I see what they have done.

I don't know how much of the present renovations on the inside can or will address the things mentioned here. At the moment, there appears to an attempt to beautify the inside by ripping out tired facades and flooring. Some mall stores are all also taking advantage of the time to do renovations or change their location in the mall altogether.

It has been 21 years since the last major upgrade and Polo Park simply was not keeping up with the latest models in look and substance.

Malls in North America have become destination spots. Many of the news malls in the U.S. have all manner of entertainment in them including dining, shopping, theatre and recreation . In the last several years, Polo Park has been concerned about getting income from the large parking space around the mall. The construction of Earls, Joeys, the Silver City movie theatre and Pier 1 Imports all took precedence over what was happening in the mall itself.

The synergy between the mall and a stand alone restaurant or movie theatre is difficult to see. Good for mall management in terms of rent but not so good for retailers inside the mall. Someone going to Silver City is not necessarily going to Polo Park.

In the U.S., many malls build movie theatres right inside the mall. Polo Park used to have a theater in the basement on the west side but they treated it as an afterthought. I'm sure St. Vital Centre benefits more from Silver City inside the mall than Polo Park does from its stand alone Silver City.

More in Part 4.



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