Windsor

This story was originally written for my sometimes-column space in The Windsor Star (on The Scene page).

However, it was seen as passe, because the Star has done a lot of stories about this restaurant…and for good reason.

Here’s my piece on it. If anyone else out there would like to publish this, online or offline, let me know

“If you grill them, they will come.”

This had to be what went through the heads of Jay and Gino.

A leap of faith had to enter into it somewhere.

How else could they have married cows and cars?

They used to own a posh Italian eatery on Erie Street. Now, within the same walls, they own a trendy and cozy burger Mecca.

Eight years ago, Noi was a huge success in its own right prior to the financial woes of Windsor/Detroit. Transformed into Motor Burger in November of 2009, the feel, food, and future of 888 Erie Street East has been irrevocably changed.

Thinking about it in hindsight, I don’t know how they had the gumption or belief in their abilities to go from a stereotyped Italian restaurant on Erie Street to an affordable, automobile-themed, burger-based leap-of-faith.

I’m genuinely amazed. And I’m not the only one.

The National Film Board of Canada recently produced an online series called GDP. It looked at the financial woes being weathered by all kinds of folks around Canada. Gino Gesuale and Jay Souilliere’s story became a serial feature on the site as an example of a business forced to think way out of the box to be sustainable in their community.

The pair did a refurbishing of the space to accommodate for some flat screen TVs and cut-outs of cows and cars. Chalk drawings of old vehicles adorn the west wall, and beautiful burgers made of beef, pork, shrimp, lamb, turkey, and tuna decorate tabletops. A veggie burger makes the list to round out the category.

Keeping with the theme, their drinks are called lubricants, which include massively decadent milkshakes that come in the tall metal malt-shop cup. Personally, I “supercharge” the nachos every time I visit, which doubles the portion, and I regularly ask for a spoon to finish the sauces that pool at the bottom of the bowl.

One of the stand-out features, aside from the multitude of burger options, is the camaraderie. Every single time I’ve gone to Motor Burger it’s a who’s-who of local musicians, artists, writers, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and local business supporters. I have yet to go in without recognizing 20% of the clientele.

This kind of customer-base early on in their new incarnation spoke volumes about the hunger for something new in Windsor. The taste for “extraordinary” has accelerated.

Opening a automotive-themed burger joint on a street praised for Italian fine dining, with economic-recession-friendly prices, deserves the attention and full support from a city that prides itself as the Motor City of Canada.

With a green option for the vegetarians, every stomach in the city should pull over at Motor Burger and fill their tank on burgers, salads, milkshakes, and entrepreneurial drive.

They built it.
It’s time for us to dine.

Their website, with complete menu, is at http://www.motorburger.ca/

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The following column is being donated by Rino Bortolin.
I’d like you to sound off if you agree or disagree.
I know I have some things to say about this column…

The Lack of Traction in the Windsor Arts Community

This is written not as a reply to Tom’s most recent blog post (about losing talent due to free work) but as a parallel discussion and different perspective that I have had for some time now but only recently have been able to articulate.

Tom’s blog post has created much discussion about the arts community and its ability to keep people here in Windsor and allow them to thrive, both artistically and maybe more importantly, financially. There has been a noticeable shift in the last couple of years. Maybe it’s because of the proliferation of social media, but Windsor’s arts community has become more self aware, more visible and much prouder.

This is all good, good for everyone. I have seen many of my friends and colleagues leave for greener pastures over the years. For years I have endured people’s pity and pleas for me to move away. I have continually scoffed at the idea because of the immense pride I have for Windsor and all that it has to offer. I won’t go on and on about that because that’s a separate essay entirely, but it leads me to my point.

We have a vibrant and extremely talented arts community but cannot seem to get enough momentum to move it to the next level. That level being where the people involved can economically sustain themselves by creating, promoting, and simply offering a cultural experience like no other.

One of the reasons that the growth is stagnant and slow is because we lack an honest and true self awareness. We have encouraged many to write, sing, play, cook, dance, etc to the point where the arts community is bigger than ever. That can be considered a huge success. There are many more artists, cinematographers, writers, musicians etc than just 3 or 4 years ago. Step one accomplished. Herein lies the dilemma and where the movement loses steam.

How do we as Windsorites recognize and assess the quality of the talent that we have so vigorously encouraged and fostered? We don’t. Some may disagree with this point but let me explain. We have created such a large pool of talent and artistic organizations that it has become cloudy and convoluted. There is nobody here in Windsor that gives honest and true insight into the quality, both good and bad, of the community and talent that we have.

We have many that promote and write but few that critique and differentiate between art of quality and, simply put, crap. We have a propensity to air grievances about things that our local politicians do and things that happen around the city that are somewhat out of our grasp but when it comes to the self realization within the arts community we are scared to point out the good as well as the bad.

Major cities and arts communities rely on critics for everything from fashion to food and everything in-between to propel them to higher standards and greater heights. Last time I checked we don’t have any critics. Maybe that is because we don’t want to stifle the momentum needed to grow the arts community in size, but we now need some self regulation.

We have planted the seeds, watered and nurtured, but it’s time we pruned and weeded. We can discuss on and on how Windsorites won’t pay cover, don’t participate etc., but those points are just rhetoric masking the sub par quality that we’re offering at times.

For example: Why is it that when a restaurant closes its doors, it’s reasons are the economy, the passport laws, the value of the dollar, local unemployment etc.? Is that really being honest? Why is it that the restaurant, not two blocks away, is thriving in those same conditions?

The honest reality is that it was mismanaged, misguided in its target audience, inconsistent and so on. Am I a jerk for saying that? I know it’s said in private but why can’t somebody write it. How can a local theatre production company, offering modern, well written, well produced unique plays compete among the sea of theatre companies in Windsor?

There are close to 30 theatre companies in Windsor. A staggering statistic. How many local plays will an average Windsorite see over a year? One, maybe two. Now spread that number over 30 companies and you can see why many producers might be pulling their hair out. We have taken the notion of supporting local too far. We need to look locally whenever we do something (again another essay for another time) but we need to focus on things of quality that are local. How many times can we be expected to pay to go see Grease or Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat? There are only so many dollars that will be spent on the arts in this city. We have no one guiding us or the rest of the city as to where they will be best spent.

We currently have many people who try to promote and guide us in some way. Tom is one great example of this. His most recent post is so relevant because when people learn that the guidance and the efforts that people like him put forth everyday is deserving of true compensation, then, and only then, will Windsor’s arts community really gain some traction and move forward.

There are many in the community that have gained our trust and have something special to offer us. It’s proven by the fact that you’re reading this blog. For people to be truly honest they need a buffer that allows them to work in a way that does not compromise their integrity. In Windsor, magazines fear losing ad revenue, bars owners fear losing patrons, websites and blogs fear losing supporters and readership. Eventually people will not only appreciate some credible critique but demand it and thus in time opportunities will arise and become economically viable.

In the meantime we as an arts community have to learn to embrace critique and allow it to help shape and mould the talent we have and the talent we are supporting. Those who are truly producing good relevant material will only gain from this perspective and those who are just getting by and not producing quality will gain insight and learn what changes are necessary.

This year can be telling with so many changes coming to Windsor especially with a municipal election and so many projects popping up around the city. The local arts community has drifted for so long without clear leadership and true cohesion. Maybe this is the year when some step up to lead and can be honestly compensated for it. I know I’m willing to pay for it, are you?

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Watching our City Council mulling over where (if at all) to put trees around the newly proposed Performance Stage/Festival Plaza located on the Detroit River, I’m thinking about where festivals should be held.

In our fine city, festivals are funneled to certain festival areas. The main one is in front of Caesar’s Windsor, on the riverfront, with a humongous slab of concrete playing host to all the foot traffic.

As most readers of this blog know, last year’s Phog Phest took place on the street, far away from the Festival Plaza (or other predetermined festival areas). With regard to our event, it made more sense to have the event smack dab in the middle of the street in front of the venue being celebrated.

I’ve been told, time and again, that Bluesfest originated on Victoria Avenue, which is the street perpendicular to University Avenue, where Phog Phest was held. In its heyday, it has moved to the downtown Festival Plaza, and became its own one-stop-shop event.

After our festival, we were asked over and over if we were going to do another one. A bigger one. Something perhaps at the Festival Plaza. Actually, before we even held our event, I spoke with an event organizer who seemed bewildered that I was hosting it on the street, away from the river.

If Phog Phest was at the river, the overflow of customers wouldn’t have flown into Milk Coffee Bar, Empire Lounge, California Sushi (who was nice enough to send us a sushi platter during the event!), Artcite and other neighbours. It felt good to share the event with them.

If I ever choose to host another event in Windsor, I will focus my energies on situating it in the streets. Every time.
When an event is held on the waterfront, or in a park, it feels like an escape. A disconnection. Which is the point I guess. But when there’s an event downtown, most of the contributors to the success of that event park their car, and walk directly to the Festival Plaza (as little distance as humanly possible). They then celebrate, walk back to their car, and disappear.

There’s little surprise that most festival-going Windsorites and Detroiters have no idea what the landscape of the business district looks like.
Of course, naysayers will comment on this post saying that there’s nothing to see/experience downtown in the business district. That’s an argument for a different day. Few Windsorites step outside of their comfort zone to actually experience the plethora of Windsor’s independent businesses ANYWHERE in Windsor…not just downtown. That aside, we’re ignorant to our own surroundings because we don’t stand in the spaces where these places call home 7 days a week.

New entrepreneurs potentially looking for places to put their businesses aren’t lured by the downtown area, if the only time they come downtown is to park, run to the river, dance, and run back to their car. Potential customers for these current downtown businesses are in the same boat. You can’t spend money with a locally owned business if you’ve never walked past it, recognized it, and located it with your own eyes.

In my humble opinion, the excitement of experiencing a familiar space is by changing it up once in a while. Experiencing the streets as a celebratory space is far more enticing to me than retreating to the riverfront, sequestered away from all the businesses, all the areas hungry for activity. I’d much rather see the reciprocal benefits to the surrounding downtown community by locating festivals within exploration distance of the average Windsorite. If someone wants a can of pop, an espresso, chicken wings, or sunglasses, it’d be nice if they could look within the streets of taxpaying business owners to find those things rather than the current option at Festival Plaza events.

That said, I wonder what some of the readers of this blog would say would be exciting non-pre-determined festival spaces. Any ideas?

One of my ideas, shaped by my experience with the last festival, is Indian Road in west Windsor (Sandwich).
Here’s a quick vid produced by Broken City Lab showing this derelict space –

Indian Road (Windsor, Ontario) from brokencitylab on Vimeo.

The reason I thought of going there for a festival was the favourable distance between Indian Road and the very vocal minority of residents in downtown who believe that the streets should be a mausoleum. As the DWBIA knows well, residents put up a fuss because of the noise created by 2009’s new series of road closures for the freedom to mosey in the downtown enjoying food, faces, and music without fear of car traffic. They will likely have their hands full defending the reprisal of these events which breathed new life into the downtown in the summer of 2009.

I’ve imagined a life-bringing event, existing on Indian Road, with students, food, music, akin to the Dally In The Alley held in Detroit.
Residents would likely welcome the attention, the activity, the appreciation of their space. It could only serve to bring more attention to their plight for a solution to the blight they’re experiencing.
Best of all, residents would likely take to the street, to the smiling faces and action, to experience their street in a way that they never thought possible since their woes began.

Anyone want to help me plan something over there?

In closing, I’d like to say that I think that the newly proposed riverfront festival space is perfect for some events. It’d be nice if we lured in a 3-day jazz fest or something that would encourage outsiders to come to town for a long weekend and experience Windsor for the first time. Theatrical events outdoors would be cool too. I think that newcomers to Windsor are more apt to explore if they’re lured here by a big-time ticketed festival experience. They’re here because they’re curious. My hope is to encourage our own residents to do more than to avoid downtown for a carnival or festival, only to leave the core with no more awareness of the space than when they left the house.

But my choice, when scheduling festivities, will be in the streets.

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