Saturday 18 July 2009

Nom Nom Nom in The Peg: Gunn's Bakery


Another North End Winnipeg institution is Gunn's Bakery on Selkirk Avenue. It's a family-run business (brothers Fivie and Bernie Gunn are pictured above). Be sure to take a number as soon as you walk in the door because there will be a lot of customers before you! Everything Gunn's Bakery makes is good but when I lived in Winnipeg, they were especially known for their bagels. They made real bagels -- boiled and baked, dense and chewy. Unfortunately, a big bite (so to speak) was taken out of their bagel business by the popularity and easy availability of all the pseudo-bagels produced by today's supermarket chains and restaurants like Real Canadian Bagel. Those fake bagels are really just regular baked buns with a hole in the centre -- feh!

Twenty years ago, the Gunns also had a bakery cafe in downtown Winnipeg that served light lunches (featuring all their own breads and baking, of course). They served a wonderful cream of broccoli soup in a pumpernickel bread bowl which you would then eat as well. My mother loved this special treat (as did my sister and I) and we would go there whenever she visited the city. The cafe is gone now and my Mom is frail and immobilized in a nursing home. How I wish we could wave a magic wand, go back in time and enjoy our favourite Winnipeg lunch together once again, just like the old days.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

they look like two nice guys and yes, i have caught up on my sleep and the hound is still breathing which is a bonus x