Did It Ever Open?

I got a bit of a surprise today.  It had been a while since I walked down 2nd Avenue.  Passing by the building at 120 Second Avenue North I noticed a notice on the door.  Dating from mid December it advised that the building had been deemed unsafe by city inspectors. 

This building has had restaurants of various sorts in the lower level forever, such as the Greek restaurant Olympia.  The most recent occupant had been an Italian restaurant, Bottega, but it closed up sometime in 2015.  The space had been under renovation, and was supposed to reopen as the Oak and Iron.  Anyone know if it did?  I never saw any indication it did, but I may have missed it if it wasn't open long before the forced closure of the building.  The upstairs of the building has been occupied by The Heights bar.

It seems odd that whatever the problems the building has hadn't been spotted before December given how much work has been done.  You'd think they would have had inspectors in during construction who would have spotted something.  I would imagine there's a real financial mess building up around this, which may make the local news sooner or later.

A Growing Food Trend.

A Villa Madina outlet has been added the food court at the Centre at Circle and 8th.  Like a lot of recent businesses it uses electronic signage instead of old fashioned printed signs.  One of the pieces of information on its video loop is that the meat at Villa Madina is certified halal.

Saskatoon's Muslim population has increased considerably in recent years.  Along with that increase has been increased visibility of halal food products.  You can find them both in stores catering to local Muslims, and in places like Real Canadian Superstore.  So a restaurant that advertises the halal status of its food is no surprise.  On the other hand I'm sure it's a pleasant surprise for those looking for more halal eating options.

I don't expect we'll see halal meat in a lot of the older fast food places.  It probably wouldn't be worth the bother given that other menu items won't be halal, like anything that includes pork products.  And of course Muslims will vary in their willingness to accept non-halal food products.  For some it will be a very important issue, for others it will be quite far down the list of what they worry about.

Incidentally I went up to the mall to visit Co Op to pick up some frozen hamburgers.  The hamburgers in question have no indication of halal certification on the box.  Not that I was looking for such certification when I bought them, not being a Muslim. 

When I Rule The World 24.

All restaurants will have to post their complete menus, including prices, at the front entrance.  Just think of all the trouble you'll save not going into a restaurant you can't afford, or has a menu composed of things you'd don't want to eat.

That Smell.

How do people who work in Subway restaurants put up with that smell?  That weird smell they all have.  I guess they get used to it after a while.

Spare Me A Buck Or Two?

Well, okay, it's more like a billion, but hey, you know I'm good for it, right?  It's been reported that Wendy's intends to sell off their Arby's division due to the latter's poorer than expected performance.  The two companies only came together in 2008, making for a pretty quick marriage and divorce.  Sources estimate Arby's will sell for an estimated 500 to 600 million, and I'm sure one of you reading this can spare that kind of money for a bit.  I promise I'll let you have all the free Arby's roast beef sandwiches you want.  Or if you're willing to put up a bit more I can buy Long John Silver's and/or A&W, although I'm less interested in the latter since it doesn't include the Canadian restaurants of the chain, which currently have no connection to the US parent.

On a more serious note I've always wondered about Arby's operations here.  They used to have outlets in a number of mall food courts but these have all vanished.  The chain is left with two stand alone restaurants, neither of which, at least at the times I've been in them, seems to do heavy business.  Obviously they must do enough business since they're still around.  More importantly these restaurants are both on the city's west side, and there is no Arby's on 8th Street, which despite its innocuous name is one of Saskatoon's main business areas and an obvious place to put a restaurant if you want lots of customers.  It will be interesting to see if the sale has any effect on the fate of the two here, as the first thing a new buyer may want to do is shed underperforming locations if possible.

Woe Is Me.

I ate too much for supper, and I'm sure feeling it.  This shows the perils of all you can eat restaurants.  Good boy that I am I did finish off everything I took.

Minor Surprise.

It was my dad's birthday today so we went out to Chili's Restaurant.  The food was good, but a minor surprise was the noise level.  It was quieter than I was expecting given how loud some recent restaurants seem to be.  This was of course greatly appreciated.  We also arrived at the right time, as things seemed to get pretty busy a bit after our food came.  You can see their menu here.

Loud.

I just came back from having supper with my parents and aunt and uncle at the Saskatoon branch of Original Joe's Restaurant. We all liked our food, but the restaurant itself is loud. Very loud, which is kind of a turnoff for me. I wondered at one point if the waitresses end their shifts with ringing ears. Management seems to favour short skirts on their waitresses, as only one was wearing pants. It certainly looks a lot different from the Burger King it used to be.