The concept has been aging for at least three years and is finally ready to be formalized.
529 Uptown, a sister restaurant to Winnipeg’s iconic – and highly successful – steakhouse, 529 Wellington, will open in the lobby of 201 Portage Avenue in the spring of 2023.
Doug Stephen, CEO and owner of Wow Hospitality (which owns 529, Peasant Cookery and other Winnipeg restaurants) and Rosanne Hill Blaisdell, CEO of Regina-based Harvard Developments, which owns 201 Portage, have been talking about it for about four years.
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RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Doug Stephen, CEO of Wow Hospitality, in the lobby of 201 Portage Avenue, where a new restaurant will open later this year.
But the pandemic – obviously – and a serious health issue that Stephen is now recovering from, continued to stall the project’s development.
But now it’s full steam ahead and they’re not just building a restaurant.
In addition to an upscale 57-seat restaurant for breakfast and lunch – and possibly an early dinner spot – on the north side of the lobby at 201 Portage, Wow Hospitality will also build an upscale coffee bar on the south side of the lobby, a burger spot downstairs in the lobby called 529 Burger, and two kitchens on the lobby level.
“This restaurant in particular has been a trip,” Stephen said.
He refers to the uncertainty the pandemic has created for all developments like this, but he also refers to his illness – myelodysplastic syndrome or MDS – which caused two month-long hospital stays after two separate stem cell transplants.
Wow’s favorite designer, Jennifer Stockford of Stockford Designs, was inspired by the design of the new lobby lounge space at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel and the restaurant will feature a lively, floor-to-ceiling lit bar, mid-century modern tables and chairs (the 1,100-square-foot space was too small for the large, overstuffed turn-of-the-century furniture at 529 Wellington).
Sleek signage will wrap around the existing pillars in the lobby.
Approximately 1,600 square feet of kitchens will be built on the lobby level where it will take 20 seconds to deliver food in heated airline food carts to a one-story elevator strategically located right next to the bar.
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PROVIDED
529 Uptown, soon to be located in the lobby of 201 Portage Avenue, will be a sister restaurant to Winnipeg’s iconic steakhouse, 529 Wellington.
Under the direction of chef Östen Rice, 529 Uptown will include some 529 Wellington classics, but will also have a Japanese influence. (Rice was recently in Wasabi Sabi and spent over a year in Japan.)
For example, it will become the only restaurant in town to offer Wagyu beef on the menu. The first draft of the menu includes ultra-premium Japanese beef – four-ounce steaks can cost around $120 – in a burger and as a very thinly sliced brisket on rye.
“What we’re hoping is that when people come into the building, they can grab their coffee and their croissant or their granola and walk into the office and at lunchtime slip in for a burger and meet clients at the end of the day for a drink and some of our small plates,” Stephen said.
The restaurant won’t be open late – “We don’t want to cannibalize 529,” Stephen said – and will be closed on weekends.
Hill Blaisdell calls 529’s presence in his apartment building a game changer.
“We are not just providers of a space to put your office. It’s an all-day experience,” she said. “Everyone needs to eat and socialize. Everyone wants a cool factor. Everyone wants a place to drink and dine their customers. And having a convenience like 529 at your doorstep, what amazing and exciting energy.
It’s not hard to imagine how 529 could help transform a once-institutional and somewhat sterile office building lobby.
“We’re creating places here,” Hill Blaisdell said. “It’s going to be a hub.”
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PROVIDED
The restaurant terrace will have windbreaks
Stephen said Wow’s investment in the business would be approximately $1.2 million and Harvard Developments is managing all infrastructure costs.
On Nov. 16, Harvard is hosting its own open house to unveil the results of major investments in the building, including a total redesign of the outdoor plaza, which will include a 529 Uptown patio. (Of course there will be wind barriers, because… Portage and Main.)
With the latest Harvard survey indicating nearly 90% of tenants are back in the office, the timing seems right.
“I have a restaurant down the street that I can relate to and Peasant is finally coming back,” said Stephen, adding that the iconic 529 Wellington had its best year for the year ending in September.
Stephen has hired Dale Yuel as General Manager, a longtime industry veteran in Winnipeg who spent time at Dubrovnik, and he knows the professionalism that must be part of the presentation.
Even as he walks into a market that already has a Hy’s across the street in the Richardson Building and the brand new Earls a block away at 300 Main, Stephen thinks his brand will add something to the hotel offer in the bustling downtown business district.
The lobby of 201 Portage is accessible via the city’s network of walkways, so it can flow from all four corners of Portage and Main and all the way to the Canada Life Centre.
Stephen, who is the sole owner of Wow Hospitality after buying out former partners a few years ago, said his health issue was a reality check. He’s lost 100 pounds and has admitted at times over the past year that he wasn’t sure he’d get there.
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PROVIDED
An upscale coffee bar will be located on the south side of the lobby at 529 Uptown.
“I actually had to put a clause in the lease that if I didn’t get through it because of health issues, the deal was void,” he said.
But he said he’s been blessed with a job he really loves.
“I love the people I work with and I love our guests and everything I’ve done in my business,” he said. “I have a few other things I would like to accomplish before I call it a day, literally or figuratively. I’m always nervous when I get up in the morning and think. “We could do something pretty amazing on the corner of Portage and Main.”
![Martin Cash](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666450530_772_529-Wellington-opens-restaurant-coffee-bar-patio-and-burger-bar.jpg)
Martin Cash
Journalist
Martin Cash has written a column and business news for the Free Press since 1989. During those years he wrote through a number of economic cycles and the rise and fall (and rise) of the fortunes of many local businesses .
Read the full biography
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