The Paddlewheel Restaurant in the Downtown Winnipeg Bay, Jan 11 2013

Leif Norman

“The Paddlewheel restaurant, a mainstay of The Bay’s downtown store in Winnipeg, will close later this month.

Officials with the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Compass Group, a food services company, say the longtime eatery will shut down on Jan. 24. 2013

Officials did not specify why they are closing the Paddlewheel, except to say in a statement that the closure supports “The Bay’s continued efforts to improve and deliver an exceptional shopping experience to our customers.”

The restaurant in the downtown store, at the corner of Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard, features a simulated paddlewheel steamship alongside one wall and painted steam clouds on the ceiling.

Some of the seating gives the illusion of being on a paddlewheel deck.

Once an immensely popular restaurant that has served generations of Winnipeggers, the Paddlewheel appears to have fallen out of favour in recent years.

In 2011, The Bay said it was revamping 24 of its in-store restaurants across Canada, including the Paddlewheel.”

From the CBC website

The Bay’s Paddle Wheel Buffet ad from 1954

 

Old ads courtesy of;

 http://winnipegdowntownplaces.blogspot.ca/2011/02/downtown-places-paddlewheel-restaurant.html

The Bay Department store, Downtown Winnipeg, built 1926

 

The Hudson’s Bay Company store in Winnipeg, built of Tyndall Stone

 

The only thing on the 6th floor Bay is the Paddlewheel Restaurant

 

The escalators going up to the 6th floor

 

 

6th floor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 450 Portage Ave, Winnipeg

 

 

The Paddlewheel Restaurant in the Downtown Winnipeg Bay store opened in 1954

 

 

The Bay food trays with wood pattern

 

 

The Paddlewheel Restaurant, Top Floor (6th) the Bay Downtown Winnipeg

 

 

 

The Paddlewheel Restaurant, the Bay Downtown Winnipeg

 

 

 

The Paddlewheel Restaurant, the Bay Downtown Winnipeg. Nummy food in steam trays behind glass

 

Coke versus Pepsi

 

The Paddlewheel Restaurant, the Bay Downtown Winnipeg, slices of pie under cellophane

 

The enormous kitchens of The Paddlewheel Restaurant, the Bay Downtown Winnipeg

 

 

Tops to keep your food warm in the cafeteria

 

 

There used to be four cashier lines in service. I guess it once was desperately busy.

 

SaniServ Ice Cream Machine

 

Cafeteria Coffee Mugs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The floor is worn away by the cash register

 

The Paddlewheel Restaurant, the Bay Downtown Winnipeg

 

 

There used to be real water in the Paddlewheel tank.

 

 

 

Staff break room

 

 

 

Hudson’s Bay Company Ships “Prince Albert” and “Prince Rupert” 1845

 

Roast Beef Lunch at The Paddlewheel Restaurant, the Bay Downtown Winnipeg

 

Booster seats in the restaurant

 

The Paddlewheel Restaurant, the Bay Downtown Winnipeg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winnipegger’s have know the Paddlewheel Restaurant to be an place for “old people” for at least 10 years. That’s why it was so cool!

 

 

 

Old fashioned Pas Winter Queen and HBC Blanket Coats, Hudson’s Bay Company heritage

 

photo by Foote, 2nd floor of the Winnipeg Bay store, blouses and corsets, 1925

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There used to be VLT’s in this room. I’m sure it was more posh in the 70’s

 

 

 

The Beaver Magazine published by the Hudson’s Bay Company was known as “A Journal of Progress” and “A Magazine of the North” The magazine began in 1920 but changed it’s name to “Canada’s History” in 2010

“The Hudson’s Bay Company founded The Beaver as a monthly digest in 1920, following a countrywide naming competition. The editors filled its pages with tales of fur trapping, encounters with natives both genial and ferocious, and far-flung expeditions across the border, all peppered with odes to the greater glory of the Hudson’s Bay Company. “Canada’s prosperity may be attributed to no other influence so certainly than that of the Hudson’s Bay Company,” was a typical declaration published in June 1921.

The first issue, dated Christmas 1920, featured a breathless dispatch from the HBSS Nascopie, voyaging from Montreal into Hudson Bay. The passenger list “included the Eskimo murderer ‘Ovangwak’ and his intrepid captor Sergeant Douglas, who bore the long arm of British law into the Arctic Regions last year in his search for the man-killing ‘huskie.’ ” Conversely, a later issue printed the pulpy tale of Hudson’s Bay man Alec Macdonald and his forbidden love affair with Nekamoos, an 18-year-old Eskimo woman. (“My father wishes me to marry Was-tag-win,” said the girl gravely. “The deuce he does! You will refuse, won’t you?”)”

from

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/02/17/how-‘the-beaver’-lost-its-name/

 

 

 

The Zeller’s store in the basement of the Bay is also shutting down and moving out. January 2013

 

 

Store Closing, Everything Must Go, 60% off!

 

Hudson’s Bay Company, Downtown Winnipeg

 

Hudson’s Bay Company, Downtown Winnipeg

 

 

Hudson’s Bay Company, Downtown Winnipeg, built 1926

 

Hudson’s Bay Company, Downtown Winnipeg, Graham and Vaughan street

 

3 thoughts on “The Paddlewheel Restaurant in the Downtown Winnipeg Bay, Jan 11 2013

  1. The Paddlewheel is an icon. My grandfather took me there when I was a child. It was a favourite spot when I was a teen and the office coffee destination when I worked in the store as part of the Bay’s Central Region promotions department wayyyyy back in the 80s. I will miss it.
    How about a big send off Winnipeg. If you loved the Paddlewheel, come out next week. Bay management, what say you? Can you do something special for us on the last day?

Comments are closed.