Pop Wine Bar on 20th Street in Saskatoon is on the 100 Best Bars in Canada list again. No surprise on my end!
Last year, I hosted a panel at Memofest at the Remai, where I interviewed a few of my favourite chefs in the city, including Chef Christie Peters and Chef Kyle Michael, owners of Pop Wine Bar (and Primal Pasta). Here’s what strikes you when you talk to them: they have a vision, they know exactly what they’re doing, and they genuinely do not give a shit if that makes you uncomfortable. That’s rare. Most restaurants spend their energy trying to be everything to everyone and end up being nothing to nobody.
What Kyle and Christie have built is a genuinely world-class hang out with European sensibility, serious technique, and real knowledge, but framed in a Saskatchewan context. In a way that feels completely intentional, embracing all that we are, rather than being apologetic that we’re not in some bigger, cooler city. The room matches the ethos: funky, sustainable, a classed-up vintage shop vibe that hints at what you’re in for before you’ve even ordered anything.
Pop Wine Bar is in heavy rotation for me and my wife, Jenny, and we swung by recently for dinner and drinks. When I order a drink there, I always stare at the cocktail menu for 10 minutes, telling myself I’m going to try something new this time. Then I order the damn martini, every time. Pop has the best martini in the city. Freezing cold vodka, dirty, with extra olives (and not just any olives, but Perello Olives, with a spicy little kick in the chops from the guindilla chillies). I tucked into a martini and Jenny went for the rhubarb margarita. (When the food is imminent, we usually migrate to wine from their curated natural wine selection).
Pop is still cocktail and wine forward but the menu has grown since they opened. Oysters is one of their big draws, as well as caviar, charcuterie/cheese, and other fun bar snacks. They do the Mini Morty, a mortadella sandwich that tips its hat to Bourdain’s famous version. And of course, pasta. The menu changes sometimes to accommodate seasonal goods or the chefs’ creativity. However, we generally hit Pop for a very specific meal.
One note before we get into the food: my wife is allergic to dairy and Pop has always been fantastic about accommodating that. It means some dishes come with sauces on the side, that kind of thing. So, if your plate looks different from my photos, that’s why.
We started with the crispy rabbit: breaded, fried, served with carrots and a honey-mustard-ish sauce. The meat is tender and delicious beneath the crust. It’s mild, a little sweet, closer to white meat than anything wild.
The main event though, and as I said, the main reason we frequent the place, is for the steak. I don’t like to throw out a lot of hyperbole, but as with the martini, Pop is probably making the best steak in the city.
There are a couple of cuts available, usually a tenderloin and the T-bone — we always split the T-bone, a serious piece of meat. The sauce has dairy so we had it on the side, but the steak is always seasoned well and cooked to such a precise temperature that it’s remarkable even without sauce.
However, do allow me to talk sauce for a second. We went to Joe Beef in Montreal last year and I had two rich, French sauces there. They were the actual highlight of an already exceptional meal. The Pop steak sauce is deep and flavourful, and I will put it against the Joe Beef sauces any day. (Note that the sauce, or even how the steak is prepared, may change over time, but it’s always stellar).
The fries are awesome, fresh cut and made in-house. I know that sounds commonplace — and it should be — but you’d be shocked at how many places will put real effort into a beautiful piece of meat or a handmade dish and then dump a pile of frozen, processed frites onto the plate beside it. Pop don’t phone that shit in.
There’s also a small VLT section, which caused some hilarious online pearl-clutching when it launched. Predictably, Christie and Kyle did not cave to the discourse. Gambling isn’t really my scene, but if it keeps a genuinely singular restaurant sustainable in an economy that can be actively hostile to interesting food and beverage concepts, then they should absolutely do it.
Places like Pop Wine Bar don’t just happen. They’re built by people with a clear point of view who are willing to stick to it or figure out how to make it work. To ride that bleeding edge between their belief in sustainability and bringing cool trends happening all over the world — and what people right here in Saskatchewan will actually go for.
We don’t have a ton of spots like that. It’s the kind of place that Saskatchewan deserves, but doesn’t always realize it. If they try to take it from us, I will be there, martini in one hand and steak knife in the other, ready to fight and draw blood, to protect it.
