WINNIPEG, MAN.-This city won’t be lurking at the edge of the Canadian consciousness for much longer. Its brag-worthy food scene mixes hipster, local, aboriginal, Jewish and French with assorted multicultural eats. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights — an architectural wonder and socio-cultural eye-opener — is reason alone to spend a long weekend here, and it’s next door to the Forks, the top tourism draw. Most people don’t know much about either place, or about Winnipeg’s quirky connection to Winnie-the-Pooh.

Call this place Winterpeg if you must, but do so lovingly. I caught a Winnipeg Jets game (OK, the arena was heated) and visited a Nordic spa despite the -26C cold snap. The population may be just 720,000, but it’s climbing and Winnipeg keeps punching far above its weight.

Friday

11:30 a.m.: First Nations Foray

More First Nations and Metis people live here than in any other Canadian city. Christa Bruneau-Guenther opened Feast Café Bistro (587 Ellice Ave.) a year ago in the West End after owning a daycare drove home food’s vital role in healthy lives. “It’s about putting indigenous food on the map again,” she says. Her simple menu revolves around bison, berries, wild rice, pickerel and the “Three Sisters” (squash, corn and beans). Get the butternut squash bannock pizza.

There’s nothing like the indigenous-owned Neechi Commons (865 Main St.) in the North End, with a supermarket and bakery downstairs, and the Bison Berry Restaurant (get the warm wild rice pudding) and Neechi Niche arts and crafts store upstairs selling the work of 355 aboriginal or local artists on consignment. “We’re all about trying to build pride in the community,” says Neechi Foods Co-op president Louise Champagne.

2:30 p.m.: Canadian Coins

Currency buffs can geek out on the free tours at the Royal Canadian Mint (520 Lagimodière Blvd.), where guides will regale you with tales of how the Loonie came to be in 1987 because of an unsolved disappearance of a master die of what was supposed to be a voyageur-themed dollar coin. See how coins are made, packed and shipped and discover what happens when they go out of circulation. The flags out front represent most of the countries we’ve made coins for. There’s a pricey boutique.

5 p.m.: Small Plates

It was a tough call between Segovia Tapas Bar (484 Stradbrook Ave.) and Deer + Almond (85 Princess St.), but I picked the latter because it’s helping drive the Exchange District’s renaissance. Try Salt of the Earth — beet ice cream with pickled blueberries. Chef/owner Mandel Hitzer is best known for his annual RAW:almond 21-day pop-up on the frozen river, but it sells out in a snap.

6:30 p.m.: Spa Time

Canada needs more Scandinavian-inspired spas. Thermea by Nordik Spa-Nature (775 Crescent Dr.) opened here in 2015 (there’s one near Ottawa) with a three-part thermal cycle where you warm up in dry saunas or steam rooms, cool off in cold waterfalls, a cold pool or a temperate pool, and then rest in outdoor or indoor relaxation areas. Mind the signs asking for silence or whispers. There’s a restaurant and massages, as well.

Saturday

8 a.m.: Beautiful Brunch

Go early to beat the weekend lineups at Clementine Café (123 Princess St.), which has a crazy creative menu and is minutes from the Alt Hotel Winnipeg, where I stayed. I went for the Braised Bacon Benedict with maple sabayon, dill and poached eggs on cheddar biscuits with a house beet sumac soda and side of fried beets with smoked cashews and curry aioli.

9:30 a.m.: Northern Journey

It’s all about the polar bears at Assinboine Park Zoo (2355 Corydon Ave.), home to the award-winning Journey to Churchill exhibit and interactive polar bear conservation centre since July 2014. There’s a welcoming inukshuk for photo ops, a domed theatre and polar playground, but you’re here to see polar bears and seals frolic from the underwater viewing tunnels.

11 a.m.: Architectural Wonders

The Exchange District (“Winnipeg’s original downtown”) is now an arts and cultural hub and 20-square-block National Historic Site full of architecturally important buildings, cutting-edge restaurants, shops, art galleries and museums. Pop into Mike Del Buono’s King + Bannatyne (Unit 4, 100 King St.) for handcrafted, slow-roasted meat sandwiches, such as The King + Banh-Mi. If it’s sushi burritos you’re after, go next door to Chosabi, but either way save room for Bronuts, a brother-owned handmade doughnut spot.

1 p.m.: Tourist Magnet

The Forks, at the Assiniboine and Red Rivers (1 Forks Market Rd.), draws more than four million visitors each year to its 23 hectares of restaurants, shops, parks, gardens, arts attractions, hotel and more. The Forks Market Market gets my undying love for the cinnamon bun-croissant hybrids at Tall Grass Prairie Bread Co., “heroshima” grilled meat skewer sandwiches with Japanese toppings at Kyu Grill, and Manitoba beer flights at the Common craft beer and wine kiosk.

2:30 p.m.: Game Changer

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The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (85 Israel Asper Way), a $351-million national museum dreamed up by the late media mogul Izzy Asper, is considered a game changer for tourism since opening in September 2014. It’s an architectural stunner by Antoine Predock, with complex geometry, human rights symbolism and references to the Canadian landscape. The world’s first museum dedicated to human rights is far from being a downer. It’s inspiring and family friendly.

7 p.m.: Retro Steak

Rae & Jerry’sRae & Jerry’s (1405 Portage Ave.) is unabashedly retro and hasn’t changed since it opened at this location in 1957 with red leather restaurant and cocktail lounge décor. Order a martini (“one is not enough, two is too much”) and a steak with chilled Heinz tomato juice (instead of soup) alongside a bottle of Worchestershire sauce. “It’s supposed to be a good digestive,” says Steve Hrousalas, who bought the joint in 1975 from John Rae and Jerry Hemsworth and hasn’t messed with much, except changing the waitresses’ retro red dresses to smart black pants and white shirts, and swapping out new red carpet for the old red carpet. Meals end with complimentary Ovation chocolate mint sticks.

Sunday

8 a.m.: City Tour

Michelle Gervais from Ô Tours (which does group and custom tours) loves Winnipeg for its “small-city feel but big-city amenities.” She showed off the Franco-Manitoban neighbourhood of St. Boniface, where we devoured Alix Loiselle’s almond croissants at La Belle Baguette (248 Ave. de la Cathédrale), went gaga for the creations at Chocolatier Constance Popp (180 Provencher Blvd.), looked at Louis Riel’s grave and admired the iconic St. Boniface Cathedral-Basilica, built within the fire-ravaged ruins of the original church. We ducked into the Manitoba Legislative Building to learn about sphinxes, Golden Boy and Freemasonic symbols. (Heartland International Travel & ToursHeartland International Travel & Tours does full-blown hermetic code tours between April and October.)

To explore the Winnipeg/Winnie-the-Pooh connection, Gervais and I went to the park side of Assinboine Park Zoo. A Canadian vet/soldier named Lt. Harry Colebourn bought a black bear cub in White River, Ont., on his way to the First World War and named her Winnie after his adopted hometown of Winnipeg. Winnie spent time with the regiment before being given to the London Zoo for safekeeping, where she delighted a young Christopher Robin Milne and his writer father A.A. Milne and inspired the famous children’s book character. There’s a statue of the real Winnie and Colebourn in the park’s Nature Playground. In the Pooh Gallery at the park’s pavilion, check out the “Remembering the Real Winnie” exhibit. Alas, Disney oversees the Winnie-the-Pooh empire, so Winnipeg has to tread carefully on the Winnie front.

Noon: Jewish Nosh

For Jewish fare, there’s old-school Bernstein’s Delicatessen (1700 Corydon Ave. in River Heights) and “newish Jewish” at Sherbrook Street Delicatessen (102 Sherbrook St.). Sherbrook’s chef/owner Jon Hochman fuses New York deli with the flavours of Eastern Europe and Winnipeg to sling sandwiches (like the Izzy Asper with beef salami and mustard) alongside stalwarts like potato latkes, cheese blintzes and chopped liver.

2 p.m.: Hockey Time in Canada

Don’t miss O Canada if you catch the Winnipeg Jets downtown at the MTS Centre (345 Graham Ave.), the NHL’s smallest arena. When the line “The True North strong and free” comes in the national anthem, fans belt out the words “true north” in a controversial homage to Jets’ owner True North Sports and Entertainment for bringing the NHL back in 2011.

5:30 p.m.: Airport Admiration

Airports rarely get kudos, but when Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport’s new main terminal opened in 2011 as Canada’s first LEED-certified airport, it gave Manitoba a “front door” to be proud of. It’s credited with inspiring the rest of the city to up its game.

Jennifer Bain was hosted by Tourism Winnipeg and Travel Manitoba, neither of which reviewed or approved this story.

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