Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisallard5454
Would anybody be able to produce a contrast as to how Winnipeg is doing regarding its restaurants? As in the number of restaurants opening vs. restaurants closing. It just seems that as of late there is only news of restaurant closures. I am excluding major chains of course, which seem to be thriving.
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I'll start by admitting that I'm no expert in this area, but from what I can observe it seems that there is a bit of a changing of the guard driven mainly by urban growth patterns and changing tastes.
On growth patterns: Looking at Winnipeg, a good many of the new restaurant openings are taking place in the suburban power centre areas (Kenaston, Regent, Polo Park, etc.) as well as in a select few parts of downtown (MTS Centre, to some extent the Exchange District). So that is definitely one factor given that people who live in, say, a new house in Waverley West might be inclined to eat closer to home and won't bother driving to Corydon Avenue or wherever to eat. Also, a lot of the places opening up in the suburban areas are chains that have a lot of marketing muscle. This often makes them a much bigger draw than humble mom-and-pop operations that never advertise - for example, Gasthaus Gutenburger has a reputation for great food but you'll never see a lineup there the same way you would for a more questionable place like Famous Dave's BBQ.
On changing tastes: The best example I can think of are sushi restaurants. 20 years ago there weren't more than just a few sushi restaurants in all of Winnipeg. Even a decade ago there were only a handful of them around. By 2012 there was one in practically every strip mall, food court or commercial district. People who now eat sushi probably eat less of whatever they were eating in 1993. So that contributes to the turnover. (Older generations will recall the same phenomenon with pizza, which went from being an exotic ethnic food in the 1960s to a ubiquitous staple by the 1990s.)
From my own personal observations, I haven't noticed a visible decline in the overall number of eating establishments. They are constantly changing, but if anything the selection in this city is improving.