Restaurant in high tech building has its own high tech side

By Mike Deibert

Rudy's has iPads at the bar and a video wall.

WINNIPEG—The chef-owner of Sydney’s Fine Dining Restaurant at The Forks has opened a new eatery that mixes nostalgia with high tech, on the main floor of the Manitoba Hydro headquarters building on Portage Avenue.

Michael Schafer began serving customers at Rudy’s Eat & Drink Jan. 3 in the utility’s 22-storey structure designed to provide high energy savings and provide a healthful environment for its occupants.

Chef Michael Schaefer now owns two restaurants in Winnipeg.

Rudy’s has a 110-seat lounge, a 100-seat supper club-style dining room and a private area that can seat up to 20.

Schafer is preparing to introduce a smartphone app this month that can be downloaded from the restaurant website. It allows customers to receive notice of special offers and even gives them some control of the music played in the 110-seat lounge. They can select tunes on their phones from the restaurant’s playlist.

A 27-foot wide high definition video wall in the lounge is part of Shafer’s strategy to make good use of social media. Customers sending tweets while in the lounge can see their messages appear there, as well as videos of themselves. The wall also displays the work of Manitoba artists and shows sporting events.

IPads are spread across the bar for personal use of patrons and the restaurant offers free Wi-Fi.

While giving Manitoba diners an electronic vision of restaurants in the future, the Winnipeg operator is also taking them back in time.

This description of Rudy’s is on its website: “If you close your eyes for a second and imagine yourself in a world when men still wore ascots and women wore dresses all the time, John F Kennedy has yet to reach the White House and Brigitte Bardot was the girl that man dreamed about and every women envied. You entered a room with traditional leather couches, warm wood slat walls and where comfort food was all the hype. We here at Rudy’s are bringing back the 57s but with class, technology and a touch of fun.”

A touch of green

Rudy’s also has its green side. Shafer’s aim is to reduce the normal production of a restaurant’s landfill waste by 40 per cent. The restaurant, which Shafer designed himself, uses recycled materials for its furniture and floors, and biodegradable items throughout.

Schafer is also making a conscious effort to reduce the use of bottles. He offers unlimited amounts of water that is filtered and carbonated on the premises with a Vivante system, for two dollars a table. Twenty-two beers are on tap, as are eight red wines and four whites. The European and Canadian wines come through the taps from folding bags which keep out air, supplied by The Wine House.


The restaurant also wastes nothing when it comes to meat, buying whole carcasses which are used nose to tail—the kitchen does its own butchering and makes its own charcuterie.

Delicatessen food such as the Mile High Club (upper picture) and finer dining dishes such as scallop fettucini are served at Rudy's.

The food is New York deli at lunch, served in the lounge which offers its own menu after 4 p.m., and a higher level of dining in the restaurant section at night.

The lunch menu’s appetizers include a devilled egg trio with balsamic bacon, blue veined cheese and horseradish herb fillings ($8.95) and a plate of tuna carpaccio and tartar ($13.95). A sandwich filled with house made corned beef and pastrami is $15.95, while a steak sandwich flavoured with cognac onion gelée costs $16.95.

Steak Diane with sides that include a choice of potato pave or fries is $19.95.

Wine is $6.45 for a five-ounce glass, $15.95 for a half litre and $27.95 a litre.

The dinner menu offers the appetizers, soups, salads and sandwiches served at lunch as well as items such as a 13-ounce T-bone for $31.95 or a 1.6 kg bone-in rib eye (presumably for a group) for $55.95. Chicken Kieve is $22.95 and a lobster and shrmp combo can be had for $33.95.

If you want make your dish a little richer with a sauce you can have a red wine gastrique, a béarnaise or peppercorn for another $3.50.

Jared Fossen has moved in as head of the kitchen at Rudy’s, leaving his post as chef at Sydney’s where Mark Teague has been promoted from sous chef to take charge of the kitchen.

Schafer is executive chef for both restaurants.

Anita Wong has traded mountains and ocean for prairies, moving from Vancouver where she worked at Coast restaurant to Winnipeg where she is now general manager of Rudy’s.

Rudy’s Eat & Drink, Manitoba Hydro Place, 375 Graham Ave., Winnipeg. 204-421-9094. www.rudyseatanddrink.com. 5,500-square feet, 230 seats. Average check about $15 for lunch, $30–35 for dinner.