WINNIPEG — The Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservice Association (MRFA) has inducted long-time restaurant owner Doug Stephen into its hall of fame.
For more than 40 years, Stephen, founder of WOW! Hospitality Concepts, has been an integral part of the Winnipeg dining and hospitality sector. Born in Dauphin, Man., a chance meeting with the owner of Clear Lake’s pizza parlor as a teenager saw him learning to cook and quickly taking over management duties at the restaurant.
During post-secondary school, he worked as a server at the Old Spaghetti Factory and eventually left Winnipeg to gain hospitality experience in Toronto, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Ottawa before returning to take over OSF and Brandy’s in 1980.
Prior to co-founding WOW! Hospitality Concepts in 1995, Stephen spent many years as area partner for The Keg restaurants in Winnipeg and also opened Stephen & Andrews Food and Wine Shoppe, Pasta la Vista and Green Gates.
He went on to launch WOW!’s well-known establishments, from 529 Wellington to Peasant Cookery to Muddy Waters Eatery to Prairie’s Edge.
The company has also provided full-time, part-time and work-integrated learning opportunities for students at RRC Polytech in both front-of-house operations for the Hotel and Restaurant Management program and back-of-house for Culinary Arts and Professional Baking and Pastry.
A long-time partner and supporter of the college, Stephen began serving on its culinary advisory council back in 1981, and has also served with the MRFA in many capacities over the years. He and his wife, Kerri Irvin-Ross, sponsor a scholarship in the Culinary Arts program, as does WOW! Hospitality Concepts.
