Clearspring Centre welcomes two restaurants

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This article was published 20/12/2022 (865 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two ‘fast casual’ eateries have opened in Clearspring Centre, expanding Steinbach’s restaurant landscape just in time for hungry Christmas shoppers.

BarBurrito and Prairie Donair now occupy the space formerly home to Uncle Jake’s Family Restaurant, which closed in May 2020, leaving the shopping centre without a restaurant in the building.

“The number one thing that I heard was, ‘We need a restaurant back in the mall,’ so now we have two,” Gerald Jeske, general manager of Clearspring Centre, said Monday at a ribbon cutting for BarBurrito.

Hanover Dental expanded into the remaining available space.

Jeske said it proved easier to attract two smaller restaurants than one big one, given the challenges that the pandemic created in the food services sector.

“It was very difficult to attract a larger restaurant during COVID, while these quick-serve restaurants seem to do really well all the time.”

For Jeske, it was also an opportunity to get beyond burgers, fries, and pizza, all of which could already be had on the wider Clearspring Centre campus.

“We wanted to bring a restaurant that was different from all the other restaurants we have on site,” Jeske said.

Both BarBurrito and Prairie Donair have their own exterior entrance near the mall’s middle doors, so they can operate later while remaining easily accessible.

BarBurrito, which opened earlier this month, bills itself as a ‘fresh Mexican grill.’ Its menu includes burritos, bowls, tacos, quesadillas, and sides, plus churros—fried dough tossed in sweet coatings like cinnamon-sugar—for dessert. There are plans for a patio come summer.

The most popular menu item is the crunchy chicken burrito, said owner Surendra Badwal, who runs three more BarBurrito locations in Winnipeg.

The first BarBurrito opened in Toronto in 2005. The chain now operates in eight provinces, including six locations in Winnipeg and one each in Brandon, Portage la Prairie, and Winkler.

To bring the franchise to Steinbach, Badwal partnered with Vishal Patel, who will manage the Steinbach location’s day-to-day operations.

“He knows his job very, very well, this is why he’s in the position,” Badwal said of Patel.

Patel, a former supervisor at Five Guys, a burger and fries joint in Winnipeg, said BarBurrito offers customers “quality food in a relaxed environment with good music and a clean dining area.”

Staff made quick work of a lunch queue that formed immediately following Monday’s ribbon cutting ceremony, which was attended by Mayor Earl Funk and MLA Kelvin Goertzen.

BarBurrito is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Badwal said evening hours will be extended to midnight as the summer months approach.

Next door at Prairie Donair, which opened its doors Nov. 15, owner Jay Pansuriya was tossing seasoned meat and vegetables on a sizzling grill next to a row of three upright rotisseries, each slow-cooking a cone of kebab meat.

Pansuriya explained Prairie Donair specializes in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern-style donairs, as well as a version drizzled with a sweet garlic sauce popular in Halifax and throughout the Maritimes.

Pansuriya distinguished the Prairie Donair menu from that of downtown competitor Doener Grill Express, which serves a style of donair influenced by the culinary traditions of Germany and Western Europe more broadly.

The history of the popular street food, which traditionally comes wrapped in flatbread, is a case study in globalization. The practice of shaving seasoned, slow-cooked meat from vertical rotisseries originated 200 years ago in the Ottoman Empire and influenced everything from Turkish shawarma to Greek gyros to Mexican al pastor to East Coast donairs.

In addition to the titular donairs, the menu at Prairie Donair includes platters and skillets, poutines, salads, and “Dunkers,” which Pansuriya likened to a chicken nugget filled with seasoned donair meat.

Personalized orders are encouraged, with 20 toppings—including traditional options like pickled turnips—and more than 20 sauces available.

“So if people want to customize their order, they can do that as well, like Subway,” Pansuriya said.

Thus far, the most popular menu item in Steinbach is the PD Famous Skillet, which swaps the usual pita wrap for a bed of French fries.

Established in Regina in 2010, Prairie Donair is a Canadian chain whose growth strategy has so far focused on smaller cities like Sault Ste Marie, Ont. and Yorkton, Sask.

Neepawa is home to the only other location in Manitoba, but not for long. Pansuriya said a Portage la Prairie location and three Winnipeg locations will open in the coming months, with even more Winnipeg locations to follow.

Prairie Donair is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. A grand opening is planned for April 2023.