COLUMN: Carillon Flashback August 17, 1983 – Elsie’s Tolstoi Hotel no longer ‘men-only’

Another stronghold of traditional male dominance fell, as women’s liberation scored a long-awaited victory at the old Tolstoi Hotel.

Owner Elsie Kolodzinski invited friends, family and visitors to her hotel bar for a three-day “opening.” Although the small, homey facility has housed one of the province’s few remaining men-only beer parlors for the past 41 years, it was finally reintroduced as a mixed beverage room last Tuesday.

The historic, quaint and picturesque establishment, complete with its old-fashioned beer parlor, has been written up in numerous travel brochures and guides, newspapers and books. Elsie and Walter bought and moved into the hotel a year after they were married and have been operating it ever since.

Although Elsie experienced a difficult emotional and physical setback after her husband of 43 years died suddenly of a massive heart attack a few days before his 69th birthday, she has now decided to carry on the business with the help of friends and family.

Elsie’s first step in efforts to revive the dwindling business was to renovate the tiny, dark beer parlor. The population of Tolstoi, located about five miles north of the U.S. border, has steadily decreased through the years. Highways, telephone and hydro crews don’t stop in at the hotel the way they used to, and some business has been going to another motel down the road, where a mixed beverage room was built a few years ago.

For years, Walter was proud of his beer parlor, a bastion of a dying species. It was one of a handful, “and we’re the only ones who have never relocated,” he used to boast.

But after careful deliberation, the couple finally decided last year that “going with the times” might not be such a bad idea. In November, they received a licence to serve liquor in addition to beer, and had plans to renovate soon and open the bar doors to women, too.

After Walter’s death, Elsie chose to move ahead with plans for conversion.

“A lot of people come through here from the States. We used to have to send them to the Corner Inn, if the wife wanted to come in. Now we don’t have to. We can keep them at home here. We’re going to gain a little business.”

Elsie, who has always been a hard-working woman, managed renovations to the hotel. A ladies’ washroom was added. New carpet, chairs, doors and table covers were added. The bar was fixed up and video games were brought in. By removing the shuffleboard, seating capacity was increased. Elsie estimates she can seat 52 people.

For opening night of the new mixed beverage room, 50 people came in. Elsie held celebrations Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week, and hired a music man. She served food and sold beer, liquor and wine for $1 a drink.

“People would come and go all night, but some who came at 9 p.m. stayed right until midnight,” Elsie reports with satisfaction.

Elsie plus employee Morris Donaleyko were kept busy with well-wishing customers throughout the evening.

Some years after Elsie opened her Tolstoi men-only beer parlor to women, she threw a party to celebrate her 50 years in business. One of the guests, George Gershman of the Manitoba Hotel Association, also gave Elsie a plaque, and a framed watercolor of the historic hotel. Tributes flowed in from the prime minister, premier, opposition leaders, the mayor of Winnipeg and the Manitoba Telephone System, where she served as operator for many years.

Molson Breweries toasted the occasion with 400 cases of Elsie’s patrons’ favorite brew, complete with a picture of Elsie and a special inscription on the label.

For the well-wishers at the celebration, the first two drinks harkened back to the early days of the Tolstoi Hotel, when draft beer went for a dime and a bottle cost just a quarter.

– with files from Carol Talbot