Taking Root in Community
Talia Syrie, owner of The Tallest Poppy, learned to cook for a crowd in a tree-planting camp.
She had been working there as a tree planter, but when she was sidelined by an injury, she hoped that endearing herself to the cooks might ensure she could stay at the camp until she healed and could return to work.
As it turned out, she discovered a new career in cooking and catering, moving on to work at huge events like Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert of northwest Nevada, where she ran commissary.
When she decided to leave her nomadic ways behind in 2007, she found a commercial kitchen to begin a Winnipeg catering business. The place was fit the bill, but it came with a hitch. She had to establish a restaurant there. The Tallest Poppy became part of The Red Road Lodge on the corner of Logan and Main Street.
“Through a series of bizarre circumstances, I had to figure out how to run a restaurant,” said Syrie. “It was like playing restaurant. Since then I’ve grown up,” she said, helping to open other restaurants.
In 2014, The Tallest Poppy opened in the current location at the Sherbrook Inn at 103 Sherbrook St. The menu hasn’t strayed too far from the original, or Syrie’s roots in European and Jewish comfort foot, with an additional influence from her ex-wife’s tradition in southern food. “It’s a poor person’s food,” she said, “they all go well together.” Examples from the menu include her grandmother’s chicken and matzah ball soup, a brisket sandwich, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken and chicken and waffles.
From the time of “play restaurant” to now, Syrie values the lessons she gathered along the way. “People have no idea what it’s like to run a restaurant,” she said, based on the romantic cooking-channel images. “They make it look so glamourous.”
Now the glam arrives in the restaurant’s series of drag queen brunches, organized via Synonym Art Consultation, an organization dedicated to providing employment and mentorship to artists and celebrating diversity and culture.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done to provide a safer space in the community. It feels good to contribute something to the neighbourhood.”
If asked for advice by people who want to get started in their own business, she offers a rule of four. “It’s always four times what you think it’s going to be,” she said, from four times the work, four times the cost, four times the crying and four times the laughs.
“But I’ve learned it might not work out the way you think it will, but it will work out in some way. Something good will come of it.”
All photos by Claudine Gervais
