St. B eatery puts diners to chili challenge

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This article was published 13/09/2015 (4012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Open wide and say “ow.”

A restaurant that’s only been on the scene a few months is making a name for itself thanks to a dish that gives new meaning to the term “hot-n-ready.”

Not long after the Diner’s Grill opened for business on June 2, owner and head chef Joshua Mesojednik decided to spice things up a tad by adding a food challenge to the mix. The 24-year-old chef’s dare works like this: any customer willing — and able — to down a dozen chicken wings laced with a few grams of crushed Trinidad scorpion Butch T pepper — one of the most piquant chilies on the planet — wins a $50 gift card, redeemable at the cosy St. Boniface locale. But first, those who accept the challenge are required to sign a waiver, absolving Mesojednik of all blame in the event any of their body parts get scorched in the process.

“At the beginning, I tell them to be very careful because if they start tearing up and touch their eyes without washing their hands first — that’s gonna sting,” Mesojednik said with a chuckle.

He’s been in the service industry for close to a decade. It never failed, he said. Every time he was on duty and an order came back for “the hottest wings you’ve got,” they were never blistering enough. So when he finally got a place of his own he figured, “You want hot? I’ll give you hot.”

“Basically, you get 15 minutes to finish, followed by a 10-minute ‘enduring-time’ where you have to sit there — no napkins, no drink, nothing — and just feel it,” Mesojednik explained. “At the end of 10 minutes, you get a glass of milk to wash everything down. We are licensed but beer isn’t the best thing for you in a situation like this, I’ve found.”  

If wings aren’t your cup of tea, Mesojednik also rewards folks who can tackle a burger and order of fries prepared with the same amount of pepper. To date, only three people have successfully completed the task. When asked if he is considering starting a wall of flame, er, fame, Mesojednik laughed again and said that’s definitely a plan, down the road.

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The Diner’s Grill is located in a nondescript strip mall in a St. Boniface industrial park, its neighbours ranging from roofers to metal workers to refrigerator repairmen. Despite the fact it’s in a part of town commuters tend to avoid due to a never-ending parade of trains crossing nearby Panet Road, that hasn’t dissuaded folks who’ve popped by from contacting producers of programs such as You Gotta Eat Here to tell ’em, hey, they’ve gotta eat there.

“Everybody’s been pretty complimentary so far and from what I’ve read on Facebook, there have been a few people lobbying some of those shows, on our behalf,” said Mesojednik, who describes his fare as diner food with a gourmet twist. (No word from the Grits, Tories or New Democrats yet, but Manitoba’s Rhinoceros party took time out from the campaign trail to endorse the Diner’s Grill on its web page, hailing its daily breakfast special, which consists of three eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, ham and toast, as the “best in town.”)

Mesojednik grew up in the Weston area, near Logan Avenue. He enrolled in the culinary arts program at Tec Voc, primarily so he could prepare his own lunches for school. It didn’t take him long, however, to discover just how much he enjoyed being in the kitchen.

“If there was something I learned at school I thought was interesting or cool, I always wanted to make it at home for my family,” he said, mentioning his made-from-scratch pasta sauce as a frequent request. 

Mesojednik was 16 when he landed a job at Boston Pizza, near Polo Park. After graduating from high school, he caught on at Larters at St. Andrews Golf & Country Club and later, at an establishment in Pickle Lake, Ont., He met his fiancée and Diner’s Grill co-owner Yang Meng in 2012, while he was working as a sous-chef at the Park West Inn. Almost immediately, the two discussed opening a place of their own, one day.

‘You want hot? I’ll give you hot’

“Once you decide cooking is what you want to do, I think most people dream of having their own restaurant. Whether or not it becomes a reality is something else,” he said.

In April, Mesojednik was combing through real estate listings when he spotted a blurb advertising a 40-seat eatery at 405 Turenne Rd. He and Meng headed there for a bite — at the time it was called Mark’s the Spot — and fell in love with the place immediately. (Anybody who ate at Mark’s the Spot has fond memories of its funky decor. Secured to the walls was a mix of tin advertising signs, TV memorabilia and a dozen or so game boards from family favourites such as Operation, Clue and the Game of Life.)

“At first we were considering something a bit bigger but we quickly decided it might be a better option to start small — a place with a little lower risk,” said Mesojednik, who signed a three-year lease in May. When it was time to redo the room, Mesojednik went with a rock ’n’ roll theme.

Come winter, Mesojednik, the former guitarist for a rock and blues outfit called the Stray Vinyls, intends to host a few open-mike nights for musicians who are looking for a venue to strut their stuff.   

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Before founding Burger Club Winnipeg — a faction of foodies who, for several years, has been hunting high and low for this city’s primo patty — Tim Turner was the leader of the Reuben Rabble, an eight-person guild whose mission was to sink their collective teeth into the best Reuben sandwich in Winnipeg.

Given that resumé, you can imagine how thrilled Turner was to discover one of the signature sandwiches at the Diner’s Grill is a behemoth called the Reuben burger — a fully dressed Diner’s burger (cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, onion, tomato, pickle and barbecue sauce) topped with corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese.

“Ridonkulous,” was the first word out of Turner’s mouth, after his server parked his selection in front of him.

A few bites in, Turner, who used to frequent the premises a decade or so ago when it was known as the Riviera, couldn’t figure out why he’d never thought of marrying two of his favourite foodstuffs — he dubbed it “the love child of a bacon cheeseburger and Reuben,” later on Twitter.

“This is crazy — and delicious,” he said, stating he will definitely be making a return visit to the Diner’s Grill, this time with his Burger Club cohorts in tow.

Turner should probably give Mesojednik a heads-up when that event occurs; lunchtime has been standing room only, lately, with people travelling from as far as St. James and Charleswood to sample weekly specials such as pulled pork pizza, shepherd’s pie and Elvis sandwiches — the latter crowned with peanut butter, banana and bacon.

“Sales have been slowly increasing so it’s all good, but I’m the type who tends to over-think and over-worry to the point where sometimes it’s ridiculous,” Mesojednik said.

“It’s just that I want it to work so bad… and for everybody who comes here to be happy.”

 

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca