Oh nuts … RAW:almond not coming to The Forks this winter

RAW:almond, the restaurant pop up along the river at The Forks, will not happen this winter.

Deer + Almond, which has run the pop-up for seven years, is taking a break, said Larissa Peck, spokesperson for The Forks.

"Our hope would be that we do see them back on the river and operating a restaurant again in the future," Peck said.

"It's those kinds of creative endeavours by the community that we absolutely love to be able to foster here at The Forks."

Running a restaurant is plenty of work as it stands, but running a smaller, makeshift version in frigid temperatures on or next to a frozen river is another level, she said.

"That's so unique and so, so cool, but, I'm sure, exhausting," Peck said.

Peck doesn't believe this year's break has anything to do with river ice conditions; in some previous iterations, the restaurant was on the historic rail bridge instead of the river.

In fact, the river conditions played no role in the decision, said Deer + Almond owner and chef Mandel Hitzer.

The decision to not run the pop-up was made around late September, before they river levels became a factor, he said.

Deer + Almond chose to hold off so they could do some research and development on how to make the pop-up more environmentally friendly in the future, and other setup designs for the pop-up, Hitzer said.

"Our pop-up restaurant here in Winnipeg is like our baby. It's become a winter tradition," he said.

"It's been an incredible journey, and we're not done that journey."

RAW:almond has done seven pop-ups in 14 months, Hitzer said, and they realized there had been no time to think of ways to run the show in Winnipeg.

"We'd be really scrambling at this point, if we were going down to the ice and it wasn't ready."

Hitzer hinted at "some big plans" coming in the new year but would not spill details.

He also promised RAW:almond would be back next year.

River level 'unprecedented'

The Forks inspects the river levels and its conditions every day, multiple times per day — especially in winter as it sets up the popular river trail, used by skaters, walkers and winter cyclists.

"This year, the river level is unprecedented," Peck said. "This is something we have not worked with before."

In 2000, there was also a poor freeze that resulted in frazil ice — similar to what you'd see in a Slushie — and that prompted the on-land trails.

The river ice trail can attract more people to The Forks than the crowd that gathers on Canada Day, so not having a river trail would hurt, Peck said.

The Forks is still brainstorming ideas to safely get on the ice this winter and has not written off the idea of a trail yet.

However, if the trail doesn't happen, Peck said there are other winter activities that will draw people to the area, such as the Arctic Glacier Winter Park.

"There will be no shortage of activities to take in at our winter city," she said.

Last year, the river trail was open for a record 76 days.

"We just work with what we got from Mother Nature," Peck said.