The Red Ember: Hot Hot Hot!

There are always a few things that I look for in a new eating experience, location, menu choices, the price of the items on the menu all rank high on how I form a first impression. But few things wow me like a serious line of hungry patrons waiting for service. The fact that people are cued up on a busy downtown street spending their lunch hour waiting in line screams eat here!

The Big Red Truck, AKA The Red Ember.

Well folks The Red Ember pizza truck at the far end of Broadway Ave down by the legislature on Kennedy was packing in the masses for lunchtime on Thursday for sure. It’s hard to miss this transformer like mash-up of a bright fire engine red and big rig styled wood fired pizza joint on wheels. Many of the apartments in the tenements on Broadway no doubt are smaller than this monstrosity and I can pretty much guarantee that the food coming out of those kitchens can’t hold a candle to the applause worthy pies coming out of The Red Ember’s wood fired pizza oven. Yep, a wood fired oven on a truck in Winnipeg, grab your skates and sticks, Hell has officially frozen over folks!

I can’t wait a minute, IKEA is coming.

Yes I know that is a bit of shameless Grinchy stealing but hey sometimes we all give into to shameless advertising.

In my case it’s IKEA, the sexy Swedish simple superstore set to take over the southeast corner of Winnipeg next week.  I have been invited along with my editor to tour and give a preview of the mega mart next Monday.

So what do I know about it already?   Well I have been in exactly one IKEA thus far and I found it pretty astounding.  Being a in home cook and kitchen devotee I loved the kitchen and pantry section in Edmonton.  So I can not wait to get into the new Winnipeg edition.

Clocking in at around 400,000 square feet of floor space it’s one of the largest single retail spaces in North America, let alone Canada.  It’s a mega mart among mega marts.

Buzz has already been forming, network news clips highlighting the Swedish meatballs and dining area are saturating the Winnipeg airwaves.  Come Monday I will be taking a more critical approach, the shopping experience.  Will this new facility be user-friendly?   All signs point to yes, but come crunch time will the staff and the building be up to the press of three provinces and many states worth of the shopping public?

Will they be ready for the panic?  I hope so, Winnipeg could use the boost to the economy.  We’re not exactly hurting but a little extra is always nice, and the bump that a positive message on IKEA would defiantly do great things for our economy.

In any event we will be checking it out two days before the public.
I hope that we see good things and that those crafty Swedes are as efficient as they usually are.