MR MIKES SteakhouseCasual officially opened in Portage on January 24th and could never have predicted the kind of spring and summer they ended up having.

Franchise owner Stan Killam says that prior to the pandemic, the restaurant had been very successful. “In a matter of four weeks we had 9245 guests through our restaurant,” explains Killam. “We were busy, the staff was on point, and we did very well.” Mid-March brought a halt to this success, says Killam. “We were open for seven weeks and then shut down,” says Killam.

“We had to stop sit-down service inside our restaurant, all we had left was takeout. At the time we didn’t have delivery. Then we had Dash Delivers come to Portage. We set that up probably 3 weeks after COVID hit.” Killam says that while pizza franchises do well with delivery, restaurants like MR MIKES aren’t much of a takeout place. “We have burgers and steaks which people don’t always call to take out or deliver,” says Killam.

However, Killam says he appreciates the support from the surrounding community and wants to give back. “We’re doing okay. The community has been wonderful in supporting us, and we’re doing our best to support the community as well,” reveals Killam. “We did the PAWS fundraiser in May when we weren’t even open, and now we’re doing the Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraiser to give back to the community.”

The restaurant has re-opened at half-capacity with social distancing, which Killam says introduces some new operational challenges. “The difficulty is how many staff do you put in?” explains Killam. “We know when we have a full restaurant, how many staff we require to operate that. When you have a half restaurant, you can’t mathematically just take half the staff. It doesn’t work that way. We’re doing the best we can.” Killam says the MR MIKES head office has been very helpful during this unusual time. “We have an amazing head office,” exclaims Killam. “We had daily Zoom meetings and they assisted us with everything from the subsidy program, the rent program. They’ve just been absolutely wonderful the entire time.”

Killam notes their objective had been to give Portage la Prairie another place to go out and eat. “That’s why we’re doing our absolute best to keep the restaurant open for our community,” says Killam. “You just don’t build a restaurant and work 2 years on this project just to be shut down 7 weeks after you open. It was startling to us, but we’re proud we were able to hang on. I love the community response, the community support that we’ve had.”

This year the company as a whole is celebrating its 60th anniversary. “MR MIKES was started in Vancouver 60 years ago by two brothers,” says Killam. “Neither one of them was named Mike.” To celebrate the company’s 60th anniversary, MR MIKES is hosting a charity barbecue in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters. “Big Brothers Big Sisters had to cancel their duck race this year,” explains Killam. “We decided that we would give them a hand.”

In addition to the fundraising barbecue, MR MIKES is also celebrating with 60-dollar gift card promotion. “Purchase 60 dollars in gift cards and get a punch card for 6 free Mikeburgers.” Killam adds that more promotions like this will be announced as MR MIKES celebrates 60 years all summer up until September 6th. MR MIKES charity fundraising barbecue in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters will be happening on Friday, July 31st at 11:30 in the morning. Killam advises the fundraiser will run until 2 o’clock or until they run out of food - whichever comes first - so you may want to get there early. “Last time (we ran out of food) in an hour and five minutes!”