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Owner of Blondie's looks to flip burger joint on to the right buyer

The owner of an well-known Winnipeg burger joint known for the size and taste of its patties is looking to flip her business over to someone else.

Sandy Doyle has run Blondie's on Main Street for 26½ years, doing much of the work herself: serving, cooking and washing dishes. Customers come for the burgers, milkshakes and fries, served with a side of sass.

"I've built the business from the ground up and I want to hand it off to somebody that will do the very same thing. You'll only find one of me," said Doyle, with a twinkle in her eye.

"It has to be a very different kind of person and a person who is willing to do everything the same, the same recipes, absolutely everything … but it's time for me, because that's all I've done is work for 26 years."

Doyle, now 64, opened Blondie's at 1969 Main St. on a "spur of the moment" decision based mainly on the fact that the rented space came equipped with a full kitchen. Then she needed a concept.

"I thought, 'I need to do something different. Something that nobody does and nobody can do,'" she said.

Big burgers became her bag — served fresh, fast, and from meat delivered daily. At the start, she sent the butcher away four times before the beef he brought her was lean enough to cook quickly.

"It just took off. It just took off. Because nobody makes big burgers like I do," she said.

"They just keep growing and growing and growing."

Burger Challenge

One of her menu items grew to the size of a healthy newborn and requires a $100 damage deposit before she'll make it. That nine-pound "giant" burger has been conquered by a customer only once, back in 2012.

"It was the best $100 I ever lost," said Doyle.

"I was kind of happy that somebody finally did it. Finally. And it was a girl," she added, smiling. Jana Lau's photo is still up on the wall behind the cash register.

Blondie's has been featured on the Food Network, various news outlets and TV shows and in a viral video for the Credit Unions of Canada. But Doyle cites her customers as the accomplishment she's most proud of.

"Watching them grow up with their parents, meet a girl, get engaged — the couple over there sitting at the table, he proposed to her here," she said.

"Then they have children and then their children are coming here, and I'm like, 'My God, I'm like a dinosaur.' But it's so wonderful to see that generation after generation still want to come here. Like, that makes someone feel really, really good."

One of her many treasured customers, Tara Wojchichowski, ate at Blondie's nearly every day during her pregnancy and is now coming to terms with Doyle's departure.

"I bawled my eyes out. I did, because I just love it here," she said.

"I can't get enough of their burgers. Such a nice and cozy environment. She's hilarious. It's just sad she's going to be going."

Nine-year-old Mac Pudavick came for his birthday on Sunday and wasn't aware the restaurant would soon be changing hands.

"I would feel OK about it if they kept it Blondie's, but if they change the restaurant, I wouldn't be very happy because Blondie's is a really good place to have family memories," he said.

House rules

But it's not for everyone. Three separate sets of rules for "proper etiquette" are plastered on walls, the door and menu for good measure, instructing customers to not bring in picnic food, sit at a dirty table, order a milkshake when it's busy (the penalty is death) and to "do us all a favour and go somewhere else if you expect food in 10 minutes," to name a few.

"A lot of them are just jokes. If you don't have a sense of humour, really, this is not the place to come," said Doyle, slapping the table as she laughs.

"People get so angry when they start reading the rules. They knock the chairs over, storm out the door, the red door, and they try to slam it and it won't slam! And they're pulling it and I'm in the kitchen just laughing so hard I'm crying."

She said the restaurant's reputation is due just as much to her enforcement of the boundaries as to the burgers themselves.

"It's still hard for women to compete in a world with men," she said.

"Because we're judged for dumb things. Because if you're a strong, strong person, you're a b****.… If people want to come in here to be rude and ignorant, just go somewhere else. I won't put up with it, and people find that hard. I don't know why," she said, laughing.

Road ahead

While she admits the notion of moving on is "bittersweet," she's eager to travel, meet new people and take a much-needed break from the grill. She hopes the handover will take six months, so there's still lots of time for people to get their burger fix.

She said several restaurants in that spot before her "never made a go of it," but she's certain she did, after 26 years. Despite that, she's been through much more than she ever bargained for, from bullets flying through her front window from a drive-by shooting, to getting robbed while inside the building to having to deal with abuse.

"It was hard times. Lots of really, really, really hard times. But you muddle through it, put your big girl panties on and just keep on going. And here we are."