‘It's a legacy': West Broadway institution Bistro Dansk seeks new ownership

Winnipeg Free Press

6 days ago

A change of pace is on the menu for the proprietors of a Winnipeg eatery that has been serving Danish and Eastern European cuisine for almost 50 years.
Paul and Pamela Vocadlo are selling Bistro Dansk, the West Broadway mainstay famous for its schnitzel. The restaurant opened at 63 Sherbrook St. in 1976, and the couple have owned and operated it since 1989.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Paul and Pamela Vocadlo have owned and operated Bistro Dansk since 1989.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Paul and Pamela Vocadlo have owned and operated Bistro Dansk since 1989.
After 36 years of working 15-plus hours a day, five days a week, 50 or more weeks a year, the Vocadlos want to slow down.
Once they sell the business, Pamela, 58, plans to retire fully so she can spend time with the couple's three grandchildren. Paul, 61, will take some time off, after which he may look for work elsewhere.
'We'd probably do it forever but … I want to be there for our grandkids and our kids,' Pamela said.
The Vocadlos listed the restaurant three weeks ago. For $284,900, someone can buy the business and assets (the restaurant space is leased). Paul is willing to help the buyer during the transition.
'We'd like to find somebody who will do the same thing that we do,' he said. 'We want Bistro Dansk to keep going because it's a legacy.'
Paul's parents, Joseph and Jaroslava, bought the restaurant in 1977. Originally from the Czech Republic, they ran Bistro Dansk for five years before selling it.
Paul started his culinary career there at age 14, washing dishes and peeling potatoes.
He was working at a different restaurant and Pamela was a bankteller when the high school sweethearts got married. A few months later, they saw Bistro Dansk was up for sale and bought it.
Pamela recalls the couple's first day owning the restaurant. It was May 8, 1989, and no customers showed up. The next day was only slightly better, with two people walking through the doors.
But the Vocadlos worked around the clock to keep the business going — Paul in the kitchen and Pamela taking orders and serving guests in the dining area. A favourable review by then-Free Press food critic Marion Warhaft, published later that year, helped bolster business.
'People were lined up all the way outside,' Paul recalled. 'When she gave us that write-up, everything turned around. That was it.'
Warhaft wrote about Bistro Dansk numerous times over the years. In her penultimate column, published in December 2015, she included it in a list of memorable restaurants she'd visited over the years and described it as 'a model of consistent excellence.'
From Marion Warhaft's column 'A few of my favourite things' which ran in the Free Press on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015.
Just as important as Warhaft's words are the customers who have frequented Bistro Dansk for decades. Because the Vocadlos spend so much time there, the guests have become a part of their family, Pamela said. Customers have celebrated marriages and grieved deaths in the restaurant.
Today, the restaurant employs seven people. The Vocadlos do all of the cooking and baking, which includes making 100 loaves of bread and 120 buns daily.
As times have changed, the restaurant, in many ways, has not. Just as they did in 1989, the Vocadlos enjoy using fresh ingredients to make big portions of food that are sold at reasonable prices.
The restaurant's food is not available through delivery services, bills are handwritten, the wood panelling on the wall is original and a black-and-white image of a snoozing monk the original owners put up still hangs behind the bar.
Bistro Dansk has long been a special place for Tony Dorman, who started going to the restaurant with his family when he was a teenager and Paul's parents owned it.
Now 61, Dorman's work as a technician for touring music acts takes him on the road roughly eight months each year. It's a lifestyle that allows him to eat at fine restaurants around the world, but few compare to Bistro Dansk, he said.
'There's nothing like Paul's cooking,' Dorman said. 'I can't say I've had a bad bite of food at his restaurant.'
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Paul and Pamela Vocadlo listed the restaurant for sale three weeks ago.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Paul and Pamela Vocadlo listed the restaurant for sale three weeks ago.
While he's disappointed the Vocadlos are selling the business, he understands their desire to move on.
Eric Napier Strong, executive director of the West Broadway Business Improvement Zone, echoed that sentiment.
'While Sherbrook Street today hosts numerous great restaurants, Paul and his family have stuck with the community through many changes and even endured through some difficult times,' Napier Strong wrote in an email.
'We're sad to see them go, but everyone deserves their retirement eventually,' he added. 'I'm optimistic that somebody will keep the flame burning — or bring us some exciting new cuisine that will let them write their own story in that space.'
The Vocadlos said they've received a few enquiries but no serious offers yet.
'We don't want anyone to panic,' Pamela said. 'We're still here, doing what we do.'
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Aaron EppReporter
Aaron Epp reports on business for the Free Press. After freelancing for the paper for a decade, he joined the staff full-time in 2024. He was previously the associate editor at Canadian Mennonite. Read more about Aaron.
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