Cruisin’ for some choosin’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/08/2010 (5004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 WHO says ’Peggers can’t be choosers?

Not long after Dingo’s Wild & Crazy Dogs opened at 791 Corydon Ave. last June, co-owner Doug Stephen took a weekend trip to Fargo, N.D. There, Stephen stumbled across a kiosk in West Acres Shopping Centre that sold dozens of different soft drinks.

The president of WOW Hospitality already had more than a passing in interest in pop. One of Stephen’s partners at Dingo’s was Bart Hruda, the man who resurrected the Pic-A-Pop brand in 2005.

"Because of Bart, there was already a wide variety of Pic-A-Pop on the shelves, when we started," Stephen says. "But after seeing that display in Fargo, I wondered, ‘How many different kinds of soda could one place sell?’"

Answer: Besides franks topped with peanut butter, wasabi or Cap’n Crunch (they don’t call their hot dogs "Wild & Crazy" for nuttin’), Dingo’s also features soft drinks from every corner of North America, and from countries as far-flung as Australia and Jamaica. Over 300 (burp) and counting.

"It’s certainly become a bit of a drawing card," says manager Tyler Frego, asking a visitor to choose between a longneck bottle of Sioux City Cherries N Mint and Capt’n Eli’s Blueberry Pop. "Lots of people come here with their cameras to take pictures in front of the wall of drinks."

Can you blame SSRqem? After all, it’s not every day you get to wash down your lunch with Judge Wapner Root Beer or Jack Black Blood Red Cola. (Note: The latter is named for the pirate, not the actor.)

"It’s hard to say, but Sprecher’s out of Wisconsin is probably the most popular," Stephen says, mentioning that the Crush family runs a close second. "Sprecher’s comes in cherry cola and honey cream soda, and there’s even a low-cal root beer."

And although Dingo’s staff won’t mock people who order a 7-Up or Coke, they do encourage customers to be adventurous.

"The arrangement is eclectic by design — we don’t bunch all the colas together, for example," Frego says. "We want people to spend time searching. That might not be the most efficient way to do things, but hey, the hunt is half the fun."

Inspired by Dingo’s diversity, we decided to hit the streets in search of other places that would leave us muttering, "Decisions, decisions…" Here’s what we turned up.

 

LUXALUNE GASTROPUB / 734 Osborne St.

 

"What’s the sense in having the exact same beers as every other bar?"

That was the question Lawrence Warwaruk posed to his brother, Chris, just before the pair opened Luxalune Gastropub in 2008.

Fast forward 24 months: The Warwaruks now house arguably the largest selection of suds in town, with close to 140 different brands of beer in their cooler at any one time.

"We started off by going to the MLCC, and choosing unique beers that were already in stock," Chris says. "But we’ve now reached the point where we make requests. For instance, right now we’re serving Tusker, which was brought in exclusively for us from Kenya."

Regulars at Luxalune can apply for passports, which offer brief descriptions of dozens of brews. (Zyweic, for example, is a Polish beer that "has an accentuated body and noble hop bitterness.")

Careful, though: while you can quench your thirst with a Hobgoblin (United Kingdom), a Cobra (India), or a Quilmes (Argentina), don’t waste your time asking for the King of Beers.

"Sorry," Chris says. "We don’t serve Bud."

 

ORIGINAL PANCAKE HOUSE / three locations

 

Harvey Hoch, above, remembers a time when the Original Pancake House only served — horrors! — 15 different types of pancakes.

"Now I think we’re up to around 35, if you count round, crepe-style and oven-baked," says Hoch, the Original Pancake House’s senior manager.

October will mark Hoch’s 51st year with the company. And even though the Original Pancake House menu now tempts customers with everything from ham and cheese crepes to Swedish pancakes to 49er flapjacks, Hoch doesn’t waffle when asked what people pick, most often.

"The giant apple," he says. "At least once a week, ex-Winnipeggers are in here, ordering a few to take back home with them."

 

MERCATO’S GELATO CAFE / 230 Osborne St.

 

Besides skeeters, zero mountains and no coastline, there’s one other thing that separates Winnipeg from Vancouver: we adore chocolate peanut butter gelati.

"We get our gelati from Mario’s, in B.C., and he’s always surprised how much peanut butter chocolate we go through," says manager Dianna Woodcock. "It’s slow there, apparently, but not here."

At any one time, Mercato’s offers 72 different flavours. "But we rotate new ones through all the time," Woodcock says. "I think mojito sorbeto was the latest one to arrive, just last week."

Original owner Barb Heinrichs — who sold the business to He Lin five weeks ago — says the plan from Day 1 was to have the biggest selection of gelato this side of Italy.

"That was certainly our goal — we thought it would be a real selling feature," Heinrichs says.

It is. Woodcock says customers arrive from all over town, anxious to give almond avalanche, green tea or black sesame gelato a go.

 

PEMBINA HOTEL / 1011 Pembina Hwy.

 

Build it and they will come. And eat.

Trevor Druxman, owner of the Pembina Hotel, can barely contain his excitement for his latest venture, Build-A-Burger.

"Just yesterday, I had a beef burger with a sesame-seed bun, fried egg, bacon, onions, ketchup, mustard and Frank’s Red Hot — it was just awesome," Druxman says, licking his chops.

Build-A-Burger works like this. Settle into the hotel’s café, and a waitress hands you a sheet listing 46 different choices, including Texas toast, Velveeta cheese and salt-and-vinegar chips. Your job is to check the boxes next to what you want on your patty.

Your wishes are the Pemby’s commands.

"You can have as many things as you want, and the price doesn’t go up. It’s $6.95," Druxman says. "I think the record so far is 17 toppings. It was so thick, the cook had to put a few skewers in it to hold everything together."

Bonus: there’s even a wall of fame, plastered with the most outlandish orders to date.

"Look at this one," Druxman says, pulling a sheet down. "Beef, whole wheat bun, mozza and provolone cheese, coleslaw, grilled onions, jalapenos, sauerkraut, mayo and honey dill — now that’s a burger."

No, that’s a Build-A-Burger.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca