Vita restaurant moves to South Junction

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This article was published 18/01/2023 (849 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A staple of the rural restaurant landscape has moved from Vita to South Junction, where it will continue serving up familiar favourites and a new breakfast menu too.

Eva’s, a restaurant and pizzeria run by Eva Dyck, reopened Jan. 5 inside the Clearview Co-op in South Junction.

The Carillon caught up with Dyck after the first lunch rush had cleared out.

“It was full in here an hour ago,” she said, gesturing to the nine-table dining area attached to the Co-op’s convenience store. “But I like the rush.”

The move to South Junction ended Eva’s nearly nine-year presence in Vita, where Dyck started the restaurant with her son, Vincent, who now attends university in Alberta.

Dyck said the chance to run the restaurant from a location closer to her home in Vassar was too good to pass up. Her commute is now eight minutes, down from 40.

“The short drive is just really nice,” she said. “I forgot something this morning and it wasn’t a big deal.”

As a longtime area resident, Dyck is just as likely to know her customers by name in South Junction as she was in Vita.

“I know everybody here—mind you, I do in Vita too,” she said.

The South Junction Co-op is an anomaly among Clearview locations, due to its restaurant and motel. Prior to the arrival of Eva’s, Clearview employed a manager to run the restaurant.

The idea of moving Eva’s to South Junction isn’t new. Dyck said when she first opened her restaurant in Vita, it caught the eye of Co-op staff working at the gas bar across the street. Soon the head office was approaching her to run the restaurant in South Junction.

This fall, facing another winter commute punctuated by sprinting wildlife and snow drifts, Dyck figured the time was right to make the move.

The restaurant’s old space in Vita is now up for sale. Dyck said she felt “a little nostalgic” about leaving the building where she turned her dream of running her own restaurant into a reality.

“I really enjoyed my time there,” she said. “Great people in Vita, great customers.”

Many of them have told her they will make the drive to South Junction to continue eating at Eva’s. She expects her clientele in South Junction will also include snowmobilers, hunters, truck drivers, road trippers, and U.S. travellers.

All the favourites are still on the menu, including chicken, fries, salads, and appetizers, plus the most popular items: pizza and burgers.

“I do the crusts from scratch—I have thick and thin crust—and all the buns are made from scratch,” Dyck said. “It’s very labour intensive. I spent all day yesterday baking bread.”

She is also rolling out a new breakfast menu to coincide with the restaurant’s new hours of operation.

In addition to dine-in, everything on the menu is available to-go, which Dyck said is a big plus in an area with few takeout options.

The new location comes with some adjustments, like getting used to gas appliances instead of electric ones, and figuring out a different type of pizza oven.

Dyck will run the restaurant with the help of five to six staff. If the foot traffic on the first day was any indication, “I think I will be hiring more,” she said.

The restaurant’s move to South Junction is the latest chapter in Dyck’s career in food service. Born in Mexico, she arrived in Canada at the age of 12.

Her culinary training was all on the job. She began in the fast food industry, working at McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Arby’s. All three quickly promoted her. She went on to work at two beloved Steinbach eateries of yesteryear, Green Tree Café and Dutch Connection.

Dyck said her favourite part of being a restaurateur is a customer’s positive reaction when she sets down the plate.

“It feeds your soul,” she said.

Eva’s winter hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The restaurant is closed Mondays.