Winnipeg: A Tale of Two Cities

Also on the eastern foot of Esplanade Riel is Le Boulevard Provencher, the main drag for the French-speaking—yet fully bilingual—area of St. Boniface. Although the boulevard is largely a commercial area with its fair share of banks, insurance companies, and printers, there are also several cafés and restaurants, all with a touch of French panache. The charming Step‘N Out (157 boul. Provencher, 204-956-7837) consistently reaps rave reviews from local and national publications for its inventive and eclectic cuisine, and across the street, Just Desserts (150 boul. Provencher, 204-233-3030) serves a jaw-dropping variety of tortes, crème brûlées, and cheesecakes. A few blocks down the boulevard is Restaurant La Vieille Gare (630 rue des Meurons, 204-237-7072), one of my favorite places for recreating romantic European nights. Located in a restored train station, it features sublime French cuisine that can also be enjoyed in an attached railway bar car.

On the other side of Esplanade Riel, at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, you come to The Forks, an expanse of riverside property that has been a meeting place for thousands of years. Aboriginal peoples from the Cree (winnipeg is Cree for “muddy water”), Assiniboine, and Ojibwa nations camped and hunted in the area, which was strategic to the fur trade. Rival traders—The Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company—erected forts in close proximity. These days, The Forks is a National Historic Site, and a hub for all kinds of activity.

The best bets are down at water level, where you will find the Splash Dash Water Bus—which taxis visitors and residents along the Red and Assiniboine—and the Assiniboine Riverwalk, which winds for more than a mile along the bank to the Manitoba Legislature, the epicenter of my daily sojourn. In winter, the area is converted into a three-kilometer groomed rink, and you can skate between St. Boniface and several neighborhoods to the west.

In the Forks Market, a plethora of specialty foods and multi-ethnic delicacies is available, and there are several dining establishments. The finest is Sydney’s (1 Forks Market Rd., 204-942-6075), a luxurious new option recently named one of Canada’s top-ten new restaurants. The menu changes every month, allowing chef Michael Schafer wide creative latitude, but the common denominators are always Asian, French, and Italian influences, a discriminating wine list, wild game, fresh seafood, extravagant desserts, and French-press coffee. Sydney’s nonsmoking patio is the hot spot for outdoor dining with a view.

Winnipeg has its share of acclaimed architecture as well. On the edge of The Forks, at Broadway and Main, look for the low green dome of Union Station. It bears a similarity to Grand Central Station in New York City, which turns out to be no accident since both were designed by Warren and Wetmore architects. And across the street is the Fort Garry Hotel, a national landmark built by the Grand Trunk Railway in 1913. One of Canada’s great railway hotels, its chateau styling bears a striking and deliberate similarity to New York’s Plaza Hotel.

The stunning Esplanade Riel is helping retell this tale of two cities, one French, the other English. Add Winnipeg’s visual recipe of the river, The Forks, the French Quarter, and the downtown skyline, and it’s an unexpected triumph on many fronts.