Meat, Potatoes and Comfort...Not the Southern Kind

Gasthaus Gutenberger
2583 Portage Ave.
(204) 888-3133
Reservations Recommended

Gasthaus Gutenberger isn’t exactly a summertime hotspot. There is no outdoor patio nor does the menu offer a variety of lighter or barbequed meals, but, my god, they can cook meat.

Eating at Gasthaus Gutenberger is similar to eating at the Keg – you go for the meat, the larger portion sizes and warm atmosphere. All the dishes contain some type of meat – take your pick from an extensive variety of schnitzels and steaks whether it be beef, pork or veal. After an entire loaf of bread, followed by half a plate of meat, three fistful-sized balls of mashed potato and a small side of veg, I had zero room left for dessert – although I would’ve loved to try the chocolate brandy torte or Vienna apple strudel. At an average of $25 per dish, I left satisfied.

As for the atmosphere, it feels like you’re eating in a Swiss Alp chalet. There are very few windows as if to prevent you from seeing the blustery winter storm that is ravaging the outdoors. The only thing missing from the perceived outdoor chill and accordion player are loud beer clinking pub sounds. Gasthaus is not like that; it’s a place for calm filling meals with family and/or close friends after a hard days work.

Fed Up with Your Attitude

This past weekend was one of those weekends when I couldn’t help but ask myself why I became a server. How much disrespect did I have to put up with until I could shove my words down the yelling-person-opposite-me’s throat? How many snapping fingers did I have to put up with until I could mount myself onto one of the table tops and tell everyone to get out? How many veto cards did I get to play when I wanted to refuse servicing a table? How many times did I have to take back perfectly good food until I could charge the table for it anyway?

It’s nine o’clock, our last rush of the night. I look over my shoulder and standing in the doorway is a line up of hungry people that stretches into the parking lot (okay not really, but I can’t see the end of the line). My feet are throbbing; my stomach is growling. I need a break. Bam! My 12 table section is instantly full.

Fast forward to the middle of the rush and the barista station is overflowing. They can’t keep up. Tables are beginning to wait 10 minutes for a latte. Turn the corner and the cooks are sweating but aren’t nearly as busy as the barista’s. Their orders are coming up before the drinks. This isn’t good. I’m basically begging for forgiveness at every table for the wait. Many don’t sympathise. One table of ladies are debating between ordering one or two pizzas. I point to a table in the back corner also eating pizza and say that’s how big one will be. They look. I say if they ordered two pizzas it would be a filling meal and they would have plenty of leftovers. They get excited and agree to leftovers. I bring out their first pizza. Their lips curl up, their eyebrows scrunch together and their noses wrinkle at me as if I’m insane. Oh god; help me now. I can hear them bitching as I walk away. I bring out the second. The second pizza tray doesn’t even graze the table and all three of them are telling me I’m wrong. The attacks keep coming; I don’t even get a chance to remind them of the fact that they saw how big the pizza would be (only ten inches, I can eat a whole one myself) and agreed they wanted to have leftovers. All I hear is you, you! YOU! I take my chance to butt in with an apology for the miscommunication (server rule #1, always take the blame). They ignore me and continue their rant. I’m fuming. With more authority this time I say, with as much control as possible, “So you don’t want this?” Not the best way to say it, but people are staring now. I’ve had it. They are the fourth complaining table of the rush. I don’t even want to confront my manager with another complaint. I do. She’s pissed, but on my side. Sick of discounting bills she confronts the table. They say I offered to take the pizza back – did I really have a choice? They don’t pay for the second pizza.

Luckily, however, the cranky table behind them notices the pizza ladies’ behaviour and becomes patient and friendly. They tip very nicely and one lady at the end even pulls me aside to thank me for my service. I thank her but wonder if she knew how much I appreciated her extra step to thank me after a hellish night.

It’s 11 now and the final announcement that we’re closed goes off. I couldn’t be happier, but I’m cringing at the mess and the realization that I have to stay an extra hour and a half to set up the Sunday brunch. Pizza ladies are one of the last to leave. Their final words: “Well sorry.”

(Ever wonder if you have reason to complain? Check out a Winnipeg server of 25 years’ tips to you in today’s Winnipeg Free Press http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/Eat-drink-and-be-contrary-95875814.html.)

Where I've Been all Spring

“Can’t I just put anything this time?”

That’s how I felt every time I came to sit down and write another introductory sentence. My motivations to write sank to an all time low come April, yet my creative mind was racing with potential blogs, ads, montages and articles. I swear, I wanted to, but the thought of opening up another word document and facing another blank page was terrifyingly overwhelming.

Eight months of Creative Communications took my brain and twisted it, bent it, shook it and wrung out every last set of words I could possibly arrange into a grammatically correct sentence like a towel hanging from a clothes line in a violent downpour. Needless to say at the end of the downpour I needed a month or so to dry out.

But it’s summer now and it’s time to end my pity-party. I’ve got spring classes to attend, a book to write and a blog to serve – and only three months until the storm returns.

So this is my, not at all over-dramatized, way of apologizing for my absence and my way of saying I’m back and ready to sprinkle your hungry mind with some summertime dining delights and disasters.

A new love

I’ve fallen in love…with a menu.

It has everything a partner could ask for. Depending on what I want that day, it’s sweet, savory, spicy on my tongue. While it updates itself with specials, I know it won’t play games with me, every time I go I know some things will be the same. It understands I want to be healthy and provides me with such options. This menu realizes I’m busy and therefore accommodates for the limited amount of time I have to spend with it. And the best part is I haven’t had all it has to offer, so I know when I go back for more I can expect a new experience in the same comfortable environment.

Where can you find it? I probably shouldn’t tell you, but it’s okay, I can share. Located in the Exchange District my new love can be found plastered to the wall at Kay’s Delicatessen. Open Mon-Fri 9-6 and Sat 10-3 – the latter starting April 17th.

I swear it’ll have you saying: Can we do it again tomorrow?

Help! I can't read cartoons!

My boyfriend and I have been dating for four years now. Before meeting him, I didn’t watch movies, I didn’t know my Seinfeld episodes and I didn’t read graphic novels. Uh, correction, I still don’t read graphic novels. Matt has tried time and time again to sway me into the world of visual art, and I’ll admit, I’ve tried – but I can’t do it. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have to tell people you can’t read cartoons?

Don’t get me wrong, I want to read graphic novels – I do think they’re cool and I certainly think they can be beneficial. My fundamentals of literary studies class, last year at the University of Winnipeg, required me to read Frank Miller’s graphic novel, 300, and I still don’t know what that book is about. Uh, correction again, I do know what it’s about. It’s about the Battle of Thermopylae – but I only know this because I looked it up on Wikipedia two minutes before class started, panicking the professor would think I hadn’t read it. Sure enough, when he asked someone to describe the book I immediately shot my hand up, said the Battle of Thermopylae, smiled and shut up for the rest of the class – confident I had made it obvious I read the book, and certain I wouldn’t be called into questioning again.

I do think that people who can and have the patience to read graphic novels have a talent. I want to be like them. So I’ve compiled a list as to why I don’t understand graphic novels; perhaps you can help me out.

1. Graphic novels require visual literacy. The idea of linking images to words in order to create a meaning is mind-boggling to me. Where do I start?
2. Graphic novels have a reading pattern I don't understand. Yes, I know, left to right, top to bottom. But what happens when the boxes change shape? Is it up...or down...or zigzagged? Man I'm confused.
3. You're supposed to read the pictures too, right? How do I know when I'm done?
4. Books give me in-depth character development, a concrete timeline and a sense of imagination -- how do I get that out of a graphic novel?
5. Graphic novels paint the picture for you. In which part do I get to imagine?
   

The Update

For those of you who read my blog yesterday and are wondering whether or not my lunch reservations at Monticchio's ran smoothly: it did.

Lunch was served quickly and was more than a generous portion of salad that kept me full throughout the remaining IPP presentation's that afternoon.

However, interestingly enough the "discount" listed in our IPP brochure for Monticchio's says we can get a bruschetta sandwich and side salad for $6.99 -- great that's cheap right? Well the bruschetta sandwich and side salad is a dollar cheaper in the actual menu! Some "discount" they offered.

Nevertheless, the entire lunch menu is very inexpensive, between $5-8, the service is friendly and, yes, it ended up being quick despite the kerfuffle the day before.

A Quick Tiff

The second-year Creative Communications students from Red River College are currently hosting the Independent Professional Project Presentations (IPPP) at the Park Theatre in Osborne Village. The two organizers have arranged discounts at a few restaurants for anyone attending the IPPPs which is great.

However, yesterday on our one hour lunch break a group of about 10 of us headed down to Monticchio's to cash in our coupons.Already the place was starting to fill up with CreComm's who had the same idea. No big deal. But after 20 minutes of waiting at our table with no sign of a waitress we started to get worried we weren't going to be able to eat in time to get back to the presentations at 1 (it was 12:25 already).

After looking around I couldn't help but notice they had one server on and when she finally did come to our table I asked if we were going to be able to eat on time. She explained, very nicely, that there was only one cook on so it was unlikely.

Hold on.

You mean the restaurant you work for voluntarily offered a discount for those at the IPPPs and was well aware that Monticchio's could potentially have 100 people in the restaurant between 12-1 and you have 2 people working? Huge problem.

Needless to say, we could not stay for lunch yesterday, but we did make a reservation for this afternoon. The waitress promised us that this way we'd be first to get our food.

So stay tuned and I'll let you know how smoothly things run today and whether or not they've decided to staff accordingly.