The City Room can serve 3,150 people for a sit-down dinner. Executive chef Quentin Harty has a key staff of about 20,


but this swells to 90 or even 100 at peak periods. Keeping qualified people on call and managing them to put out a premium meal each time takes a huge amount of skill. Te kitchen is more like a factory with huge “walk-in” ovens, giant mixing bowls and an industrial dishwasher that can clean thousands of dishes. Klaus looks out of the floor to ceiling windows on the


third floor and marvels at the view, a bonus that he didn’t anticipate at the design stage, although windows certainly were. “Te original building was very closed in,” he notes. “Now the public can see part of the action and diners can see out.” Te design brings passers-by into the experience with a laser light show under the York Avenue overpass that will be mirrored in the interior at street level. One disappointment to Klaus is the fact that the new part of the centre has only one level of underground parking which will accommodate 150 cars. Tis was not a matter of poor planning but, rather, the reality of Winnipeg’s water table. “When the original centre and the hotel next door were built,” explains Klaus, “the St. Boniface packing plants were still operating. Tey used so much water that they ac- tually lowered the water table under the city. Now that they


18 • Spring 2016


Fireworks viewed from inside.


have been closed, the water table has risen to normal so we could only go down one level.” He looks with envy at the expansive surface parking be- hind the Workers’ Compensation Building next door. Un- fortunately, his overtures to make a deal on the space for nighttime parking privileges have fallen on deaf ears so far. He lives in hope that the Centre can eventually be accom- modated.


The Hub


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