Handsome addition

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2019 (2647 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What do a late-night rock concert, a carefully-curated six-course meal featuring local beer pairings, and a classic The Simpsons trivia night have in common?

You can enjoy all three at The Handsome Daughter.

If you’re not familiar with mise en abyme, it’s a term in art and literature that refers to a picture within a picture — a small copy within a larger work that mirrors it.

Mise en abyme can come in the form of an image, anecdote, or piece of dialogue, but always encapsulates the larger work’s theme and reflect what the macro story is all about at a micro level.

The Handsome Daughter is a mise en abyme. The Sherbrook Street bar — better known simply as “The Daughter” — has evolved into an invaluable community hub and destination, reflecting the evolution of its larger West Broadway setting, which, in recent years, has been morphing into a hip, eclectic, and trendy neighbourhood.

“Mostly, it’s the people and the smaller, newer businesses that are really making the neighbourhood what it is: a vibrant place,” general manager Mischa Decter says. “The neighbourhood has a lot of problems and a lot of room to grow. But it’s coming along and it is fun to be a part of.”

Decter estimates the bar — which opened in 2014 in the former Rose n’ Bee Pub location between Cousins Deli and Bistro Dansk — hosts 300 events per year.

“We’ve had anything and every type of event you can imagine here,” Decter says, including film screenings and poetry slams.

Other events include vintage video game nights, where 20- and 30-somethings compete in rounds of Super Smash Bros. or circuits of Mario Kart 64 and discover their button-mashing thumbs get a lot more sore than when they were kids; tiki lounges where guests don Hawaiian shirts, sip tropical cocktails, and forget about the polar vortex; and open mic comedy nights, where first-timers and old hands alike step onstage and get people smiling.

“There’s nothing we haven’t done yet, I think”, Decter says.

“It’s a community space. You know, it’s a bar but it’s also somewhere where anyone can throw an event as long as it aligns with our values.”

The Handsome Daughter attracts all sorts and strives to be a place where everyone feels welcome and safe. It has a written code of conduct that outlines a “zero-tolerance policy on hateful, sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic actions or speech.”

“We don’t cater to anyone in particular,” Decter says. “ The neighbourhood itself is very diverse… We just want everyone to kind of have a space where they can gather and not have any fears. Everyone is welcome here as long as you’re not being unwelcoming of anyone else.”

The Handsome Daughter’s most consistent draw is live music. While The Daughter’s back space and stage — with its cold concrete floors and smattering of well-worn furniture — isn’t nearly as chic as the more urbane front bar, it’s well-used. The space plays host to between 150 and 170 concerts per year.

“The original intention with the space was to be a live music venue,” Decter says, noting most of the staff, himself included, have been deeply rooted in the local music scene for years.

“We’ve been involved with the scene so much we’ve seen the problems with certain places. We’ve wanted to do things, in our eyes, what’s right for the music community. We’re not specific to one genre of music. We’re very diverse in the kind of acts we get.”

Local concert promoter, booking agent, and musician Adam Soloway has high praise for The Handsome Daughter.

“As far as bolstering the music community, The Handsome Daughter has been at the forefront over the past five years… There was kind of like a void for a year or two before The Handsome Daughter opened. It was kind of a dark time for local music because no one really knew where to play, nobody was really taking chances.”

Weekend and Thursday shows are the most common. The latter is when Real Love Winnipeg — which Soloway co-founded — puts on Real Love Thursday.

Real Love Thursday is a standing engagement at The Daughter and accounts for nearly half of the 60 shows Real Love Winnipeg stages each year. The shows always feature three bands (usually one new and one touring) for a $10 cover.

“(The Daughter) give(s) us the creativity and flexibility to basically do what we want because they trust the Real Love Thursday brand so much — which is sweet because it allows us to take chances on bands and book bands for their first shows and be able to put new artists in front of music fans,” Soloway says.

The Handsome Daughter plays an especially big role introducing new talent to the city, Soloway says.

“It’s one of the best places to play in the city, if not the best place, for a developing band, a new band that’s trying to make fans or have their first show or something like that…” Soloway says. “To be able to have a professional sound system to make them sound the way they should sound; the Handsome Daughter promotes their shows extremely well.”

Decter, meanwhile, praises Soloway for doing “a really good job” bringing new bands to the space.

You can find another mise en abyme in The Handsome Daughter’s kitchen, where the offerings are a cut well above the usual pub fare.

When The Daughter opened, the kitchen had no equipment, and hence offered only simple cold snacks and small sharing plates. Later, the menu included hot dogs and tacos, followed by Asian-inspired dishes such as ramen and baos.

Last fall, chef Mike O’Connell returned after a year working at The Roost on Corydon, and opened Magic Bird Fried Chicken in the compact kitchen. O’Connell and fellow chef Grant Danyluk serve up a full menu of crispy bird, sumptuous sandwiches, and hearty sides such as curly fries and devilled macaroni salad. They even have a wing night every Tuesday.

Magic Bird was recently voted winner of Fried Chicken Fest for the “Cone Ranger,” a waffle cone filled with fried chicken pieces, crispy chicken skin, and pimento mac and cheese.

“Before we were doing the chicken we weren’t really a dinner destination place… it was just a side part of the business that we did,” Decter says. “It was like ‘Oh! We also have food.’”

“Mike has really, really nailed it with the chicken and we’ve had great responses and a whole new clientele because of it,” he continues.

On a windy Thursday around supper time, the bar was quiet as Winnipeg struggled to dig out of back-to-back snowstorms. However, Matthew Yuen and Shauna Alcorn still fought their way through rush hour and rutted roads from their West End home for a fried-chicken fix — wings for him and a feature sandwich for her.

“The chicken is insane,” Yuen says succinctly.

Yuen and Alcorn are regulars, and when asked how often they visit, Alcorn says “way more than we should.” Yuen says it’s more like “twice every three weeks.”

“I’ve seen the ebb and flow of venues in this town, and the homes for kind of an alternative community,” Alcorn says. “Since it’s been (The Handsome Daughter) they’ve been good staples of the community in music terms.”

While Yuen and Alcorn’s dinner was quiet, Decter was gearing up for a busy night with a pair of events: open mic comedy at 8 p.m. followed by Real Love Thursday at 10 p.m.

Decter says while he is “really happy with where we are,” there’s always room for growth.

“We could always be doing things better,” he says. “I’m always thinking of new events we can do and change things up, because I don’t want to be doing the same programming here all the time.

“I want to try and keep things fresh, give new people a reason to come here and give our regular clientele a reason to keep coming here.”