"At Winnipeg’s first lockdown, chef Mandel Hitzer decided to use the time and a government loan to renovate his dining room at Deer + Almond. That took two and a half months. With the reopening and return of indoor dining, he introduced a more refined service, finessing his plating style. Then came a second lockdown and, finally, a reopening with 50-per-cent indoor-dining seating capacity. In that, he saw another upgrade opportunity. “I didn’t want to work so hard to do our usual 15 to 17 à la carte dishes for half the customers,” Hitzer recalls. “So, I thought, Let’s do a tasting menu.”"