Crumb Queen/Andy’s Lunch in Winnipeg takes the number ten spot on the Top 10 list of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2024.
Crumb Queen/Andy’s Lunch
Winnipeg, MB
10 10
Prestigious Partners
Street Address
166 Osborne St., #2
City + Province
Winnipeg, MB
Reservations
No
Website
The only move is to start with the bread. I choose a bouldering loaf of sourdough, naturally leavened with local flour from Prairie Flour Mills. Toasted sesame seeds coat its blistered crust, their nuttiness sustained by miso in the dough. The crumb is indeed regal, even glossy, open and pliant.
Cloe Wiebe’s famous crullers.
It’s 2:15 p.m., 45 minutes to closing, and we don’t want to leave. There’s a fractal composition of trees and clouds on the dusty rose wall and Link Wray rumbling from the speakers somewhere. A chalkboard menu hints at travels to Italy, Paris and San Francisco. Behind the counter glass, trays glisten with the Instagram-famous crullers that started it all.
With only 25 seats, the space fills up faster than you can say “mortadella.”
Four years back, during lockdown, chef and baker Cloe Wiebe set a goal: to make the perfect cruller. Documenting her progress on Instagram led to an influx of orders, then micro pop-ups at Deer + Almond restaurant and finally a life and business partnership with return customer Andrew Koropatnick (a.k.a. Andy), former head chef at Oxbow. The couple set off on a whirlwind tour of Italy – traipsing from Rome to Naples to Bologna to Modena – before leasing this Osborne Village storefront sight unseen.
Sit down with tagliatelle (that’s canoodling with Manitoba chanterelles).
Take bianca sandwiches, cookies, cardamom buns and crullers to go.
At my table, the supplì have cooled enough to handle. The frangible crust cracks to reveal perfectly packed rice, barely held together with gooey cheese. With every bite, we grow more envious of the locals. The twirl of handmade tagliolini is a dish I want to take home and curl up with, its morel butter as musky as it is satisfying.
The eggplant sandwich on Andy’s stone-baked bianca – something between focaccia and the thinner Tuscan scacciata – rivals Cloe’s claim to Instagram fame. It’s dressed in sundried tomato pesto, arugula and smoked provolone, a combo that is peppery, piquant and far more complex than five ingredients have any right to be. We have trouble sharing.
Leave a review and it may end up on a tote bag or t-shirt. We nominate “nice flavours on the wiches” for their next merch run.
We finish where Cloe and Andy began: with honey and cinnamon-sugar crullers. They tear into feathery strands and melt on the tongue. By the time we finish, there’s not a crumb in sight.
Don’t miss: The well-stocked beverage fridge, with local brews like Namesake Brewing’s Time Trap IPA, Low Life Barrel House’s Small Pale Ale and Nonsuch Brewing’s Raspberry Sour.
Prestigious Partners
