Local News
Oscar Grubert among newest groups of restaurateurs inducted into Manitoba Restaurant and Food Services Association Hall of Fame
By MYRON LOVE Many readers of a certain age will no doubt remember the late Oscar Grubert. In their day, he and his long time partner, Bill Goldberg, had an outsized presence in Winnipeg’s foodservice industry and beyond.
While Grubert eventually left Winnipeg for Toronto – and passed away in 2014, his fellow restaurateurs here have not forgotten him. On Thursday, February 19, Grubert, the founder of Champ’s Kentucky Fried Chicken in Winnipeg, was one of three local restaurateurs who were inducted into the two-year-old Manitoba Restaurant and Food Services Association Hall of Fame.
Grubert’s fellow inductees this year were Silver Heights Restaurant and Lounge’s Jimmy Siwicki and Richard Enright, who brought the Boston Pizza franchise to Manitoba.)
“It was a lovely evening,” reports Grubert’s daughter, Beth. “I worried that – considering how long ago he left Winnipeg – people would have forgotten about him. This gala evening was an opportunity for people to get to know him again.
” What made the evening even more meaningful is that the other inductees remembered and were able to reminisce with me about my dad.”
In speaking of her father being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Beth Grubert noted that she “was also overwhelmed by the sheer number of noteworthy events in Oscar’s very big life. He built businesses. He built partnerships. He built friendships that lasted decades. And he built a family that is still trying to keep up with his ideas.”
As she recounted, it all began for best friends Grubert and Goldberg with the opening of Champ’s Drive-In on north Main Street – in partnership with Meyer Gilfix, in 1958. (Gilfix left the partnership when Grubert and Goldberg took on the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.) (Drive-in restaurants were the place to go and hang out on a Saturday evening the late 1950s and 60s, anyone of a certain age might recall.)
Beth Grubert described her father and Bill Goldberg as true partners. “They complemented each other in almost every way,” she said. “They had a beautiful friendship and partnership until the day Bill passed away suddenly in 1994. Bill Goldberg was a wonderful man.”
She reported that the partners signed on with the iconic Colonel Harlan Sanders in 1958 with just a hand shake. “Why would a lawyer like my dad decide that was a good idea?,” she queried. “The answer is clear if you really knew my dad. He was fearless. He had the truest entrepreneurial spirit. And he lived for the excitement of something new. As he built Kentucky Fried Chicken across Manitoba, he and Bill forged friendships and alliances across the country with fellow franchisees and restaurateurs.”
At its peak, she continued. Champs Kentucky Fried Chicken operated 24 stores, including outlets in Emerson and Grand Forks. “As the franchise grew and there was high demand for chicken,” she recalled, “my dad figured out that his chicken suppliers couldn’t keep up. So, as was his way, my dad decided to buy a chicken farm in Neepawa. Even after the franchise was sold, we still owned that chicken farm.”
Among those who sampled Champ’s Kentucky Fried Chicken, Beth recounted, was Queen Elizabeth – who received buckets of chicken on her train as she traversed the country – along with Princess Margaret and Princess Anne.
“KFC in 1958 was the foundation for everything that followed,” she pointed out. “The Colonel really was a part of our lives. He came to my brother (Nolan)’s bar mitzvah. Growing up for me, he was always a presence. There’s a picture of our family in our backyard with the Colonel. KFC is still part of my very being. So, many years after my dad sold his franchise back to Pepsi — everything they did, any bad marketing campaign, any good marketing campaign, we took it personally. We sang jingles in our house, we lived and breathed it.”
Champs, though, was only the beginning of Oscar Grubert and Bill Goldberg’s soon to be burgeoning efforts on behalf of Winnipeggers seeking new dining experiences. Some of the 33 other – better known restaurants – and restaurant chains, the duo opened over the years included: Mother Tucker’s downtown, Koko’s steak house, Thomas Buttons, H Salt Fish and Chips, and Grubee’s. (Beth said she still has her orange and brown polyester uniform and hat from Grubee’s), the Garden Creperie Butcher, The Rec Room, Mama Trossi’s , Carlton Street Fish Market, and the Palomino Club.
Grubert, Beth noted, early on also became an active member of the Manitoba Restaurant Association, which led to his election as president. In 1970 he became president of the Canadian Restaurant Association. “That was a very busy year in our household,” she recalled. “Our parents travelled all over Canada. The year was marked by advocacy, meetings with fellow restaurateurs, businessmen, politicians, and even celebrities. There were a lot of formal dinners that year. Connections and friendships were made and endured for years to come.
“My dad continued to work hard,” she reminisced. “As Champs became more established, my dad wanted to expand his horizons — to try new concepts and to really allow his creativity to shine. We called those “the crazy years.” There was so much going on. So many wonderful people – and for me it was the most fun and exciting childhood one could ever have experienced.”
Her dad though would always bristle at being referred to as the “restaurant king” or “czar,” Beth noted. “While restaurants were one of his passions, there was a lot more to him than that. There was passion for his family, his faith, his community, and his philanthropy. Passion creates leaders — and he led. He led by volunteering his time and donating to the causes he believed in. He was a proud Jewish man, and he would want you to know that. He was honoured and recognized for his contributions to the business community and Jewish community throughout his life. Each time he was grateful and overwhelmed by that recognition. “
“My dad loved Winnipeg,” Beth concluded. “ He loved Manitoba. Even when he moved to Toronto later in life, this was home. The restaurants, the people, the association, the conversations — this community shaped him, and he helped shape it in return. Everyone knew him. He shook hands when contracts were a page long. He believed that restaurants were about more than food — they were about gathering, about energy, about hospitality.
“This honour would have embarrassed him slightly —but I think we can agree it was well deserved. On behalf of our family — my children Julia and Micah, my brother Nolan, his wife Carol and their family, and all of us who grew up in and around those kitchens and dining rooms — thank you to the Manitoba Restaurant Association for recognizing Oscar’s contribution.”
Incidentally, the restaurant business has continued into the second generation –with Beth operating Baked Expectations – a restaurant which she opened in Osborne Village in 1983 – while Nolan worked closely with their father for many years in Winnipeg and then in Toronto and was really his partner after Bill Goldberg passed away.
Local News
Nakba exhbit at CMHR – you can see it right here and make your own assessment
By BERNIE BELLAN (Posted June 26, updated July 19) The Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Exhibit for Human Rights opened to the public June 27. The morning before the exhibit was set to open to the public, (it had a private opening for invited guests the evening of June 26) we received a press release from the CMHR. That press release gave a very detailed description of what was in the exhibit, along with photos (supplied by Annie Kierans of the CMHR).
There is also a link right at the beginning of the press release that will allow you to watch the same videos that anyone attending the exhibit can watch. We reprinted what was sent to us without making one edit. We leave it to you to form your own opinion as to whether the exhibit is fair in its presentation, and whether it is lacking “context” – which is an accusation that has been levelled at the exhibit’s organizers by some representatives of Jewish organizations.
We have received many emails in reaction to the exhibit. If you have an opinion and would like to see it published on this website, you can send it to jewishp@mymts.net, but please indicate whether you would be willing to have it published on this website.
Here is what we received the morning of June 26:
Winnipeg, MB — June 26, 2026 — The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will open a new exhibit tomorrow that explores human rights violations related to the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinian Canadians.
Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present will be on display in the Rights Today gallery on Level 5 until 2028. Featuring personal stories told through artifacts and video testimonies, the exhibit presents Palestinian Canadians reflecting on their ongoing struggle for human rights. The small exhibit reveals enduring patterns of loss and resilience, helping visitors understand more about this contemporary human rights story.
Palestinian Canadian stories are now included alongside many other stories of forced displacement and human rights violations featured in the Museum’s galleries. Each of these stories contribute to our visitors understanding of human rights and help the Museum fulfill its mandate to foster reflection and dialogue.
Exhibition highlights
Personal stories and artifacts: Experience firsthand accounts from Palestinian Canadians sharing their journeys of displacement and memory through a series of five artifacts. Cases display artifacts like property deeds, house keys, and a traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, accompanied by short videos that deepen understanding of the impacts of displacement.
Powerful artworks: In her painting Bound Together in Gaza, Malak Mattar, a Gazan artist, captures the struggles and resilience of her generation shaped by conflict. Her work pays homage to Guernica, Picasso’s powerful masterpiece depicting civilian suffering during war.
Curfews and Closures, by Rajie Cook, bears witness to life under military occupation during the 2000–2005 Palestinian uprising, when curfews and closures were expanded and further limited basic rights and freedoms.
Cultural heritage: Discover traditional Palestinian embroidery called tatreez. Tatreez motifs and colours are tied to place, family history and regional identity. Patterns are associated with particular towns, villages or areas of Palestine. In this way, tatreez is a form of storytelling: a way of preserving memory, sustaining identity and expressing resilience across displacement and exile.
Poetry and reflection: Engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s evocative verses, inspiring personal reflection on exile, voice, and responsibility. Visitors can take a card containing Darwish’s poem and add a personal note, fostering ongoing dialogue beyond the exhibit.
Contemporary context: Witness striking images of current events in Gaza and the West Bank, connecting past displacement to ongoing struggles.
Quotes:
“No force can silence the truth we carry. Growing up in Canada, my children lived the Nakba through our stories. And now we watch it happen again, live, on our phones. When I see the images coming out of Gaza, I am not watching the news. I am watching my history repeat itself.” -Fouad Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian featured in the exhibit
“We developed this exhibit with a clear awareness that Palestinian Canadian voices have too often been marginalized, silenced or spoken over — and that anti-Palestinian racism affects whose stories are heard and whose suffering is recognized. That is why we intentionally centred Palestinian Canadian voices throughout the exhibit.” -Isabelle Masson, Curator of Palestine Uprooted
“Human rights matter precisely when they are inconvenient, when the question of who deserves the dignity of having their rights recognized is genuinely contested. These are the moments where having a national museum for human rights is most important.
There are people who believe this exhibit should not exist in its current form. There are people who believe it should have existed sooner. There are people who will visit this exhibit and feel that it does not say enough, and others who will feel it says too much.
We have listened to every one of these voices. We have reflected. And we have renewed our resolve to continue the difficult, sometimes contested, and often controversial work of building understanding about human rights. We are a museum grounded in Canada’s human rights framework, whose mandate requires us to bear witness to the full complexity of the human story. We are proud to open this exhibit because the story it tells will help achieve that mandate, and because this story belongs in the collective memory of Canadians.”
- – Isha Khan, CEO
Local News
A photo that’s being circulated on the internet about me
For those of you not familiar with nutjob Michael Kalo – the psycho who created the notorious “$hitler’s List” years ago and the same psycho who went after Ben Carr, well – now he’s obviously taken a strong disliking to the stance I’ve taken on the Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. (You can read elsewhere on this website how I simply posted the entire exhibit as it is – and asked readers to form their own opinions.)
Kalo likes to send out emails to various individual using phony names – such as Frank Ostrowski. When people ask me (or asked Ben Carr) why we don’t take action against him, my answer is: What’s the use? He only basks in the attention.
So Michael – enjoy the attention you’re receiving. I know how much of an embarrassment you are to your wonderfully talented daughters.
Local News
Ami Hassan returning as owner of Falafel Place
By BERNIE BELLAN In a surprise move – and after more than a six-year absence as owner of Falafel Place (Corydon at Wilton) the legendary Ami Hassan has decided to return as owner of one of Winnipeg’s most famous eateries.
Long known for his sometimes irreverent attitude to his customers, e.g., “If you’re finished, get out!”, Ami decided to return to running Falafel Place after having retired years ago (or so he thought) from running the Corydon Avenue restaurant.
We asked Ami whether he’ll be sending a special invitation to Julia Roberts to come visit him at Falafel Place. He asked again: “Who’s Julia Roberts?” (Just kidding – he really does know how Julia Roberts is.) Read the story how Ami told her to leave the restaurant and come back later at Julia Roberts turned away from Falafel Place
Ami did note that when customers saw him inside the restaurant one recent day as he was getting it ready for the reopening Monday, August 10, over 20 of them came in asking him if he was open already.
We asked Ami whether the menu will be the same as it was when he last ran the place and he said everything will be the same.
Falafel Place will be open 7 days a week from 7 am – 2 pm. Remember, if you’re finished – get out!
