If you travel to major cities in Canada you may have noticed the new urban practice of creating spaces with multiple purposes. Winnipeg restaurants are catching on too as you may have noticed at Fools & Horses on Broadway, Thom Bargen on Sherbrook and now Bouchee Boucher (101-300 Tache Ave.). In the case of the latter a butcher shop and a full service restaurant share the space on the corner of Marion and Tache Ave. in St. Boniface.

I have had the pleasure of visiting for brunch and then lunch later that same week. With all the new and established places on my long list to check out, why did I do so? Bouchee Boucher is that good!

The kitchen kindly split our salad onto two plates.

The day I met a work companion, we arrived early to ensure that we got a seat. We started by sharing a cucumber salad enhanced with green beans, edamame beans, radish, polenta chips and ricotta. The combination was both clean and crunchy with the ricotta adding a creamy texture.

For mains my lunch date chose the Creole shrimp rice bowl. We traded tastes and I agreed with her exclamations of oohs and awws. There were layers of flavours and textures with Creole spice providing the smoky heat, cucumber and peppers adding crunch and fresh tastes, avocado contributing silkiness and arugula, basil and parsley supplying complexity.

Even though I was very tempted to order the crispy fried eggplant, tomato and mozzarella sandwich, I veered towards the butcher’s salad because it gave me the opportunity to sample some butcher shop offerings. I especially loved the ham. I can’t stand when ham is overly salty and wet. Their ham was anything but. The bowl was chocked full of other offerings and with plenty of freshly made green goddess dressing, it was all delectable.

Chef Alexander Svenne & Danielle Carignan Svenne formerly of Bistro 7 1/4 are the butcher shop and café owners. Bouchee Boucher is open Monday to Thursday from 11 am-10 pm, Friday & Saturday from 11 am-11 pm and Sunday from 10 am-2 pm. Their Dinner & Lunch Menus change weekly and their Brunch menu changes monthly. They are wheelchair accessible.

Watch for Food Musings every second Wednesday in your copy of The Headliner, The Herald, The Lance, The Metro, The Sou’wester and The Times.

Kath’s quote: “After I won the Oscar, my salary doubled, my friends tripled, my children became more popular at school, my butcher made a pass at me, and my maid hit me up for a raise”. -Shirley Jones

Love never fails.

 

 

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