Winnipeg vs Regina-style pizza<\/a>.<\/p>\nSpiro Bonis, president of Western Pizza, has watched the Labour Day crowds arrive for years. He said the weekend is one of the busiest of the year as people travel to Regina for one of the Canadian Football League\u2019s biggest traditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour Day is one of the best weekends of the year,\u201d Bonis said. \u201cEverybody anticipates it, waits for it, and it\u2019s good because you have so many people coming in from out of town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bonis said some people come to Regina for the long weekend, while others make the trip specifically for the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get people from all over the province coming home for the long weekend to watch this rivalry that\u2019s been going on for, I guess, 60-plus years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That influx doesn\u2019t stop at the gates of Mosaic Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re filling up the hotels. They\u2019re filling up the restaurants,\u201d Bonis said.<\/p>\n
He said out-of-town visitors can be particularly noticeable on game day because many are spending the entire day in the city rather than simply heading to the stadium from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people come from out of town. They\u2019re coming to the game, they\u2019ve got pockets full of money, and they\u2019re ready to have a good time and have a beer, have a slice of pizza, have a pop,\u201d Bonis said.<\/p>\n
Another Labour Day rivalry<\/p>\n
While the Roughriders and Blue Bombers prepare to renew their rivalry on the field, the Bombers have also been aiming for something distinctly Regina: the city\u2019s pizza.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg has poked fun at Regina-style pizza on social media, something Bonis said isn\u2019t exactly new.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bombers \u2026 put out another social media post there and taunted a little bit and said how our pizza isn\u2019t that good,\u201d Bonis said.<\/p>\n
He isn\u2019t particularly bothered by the trash talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just how the rivalry goes, and that\u2019s fine,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we know what we have here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regina-style pizza is known for its thick crust and heavy layers of toppings, cheese and sauce.<\/p>\n
Bonis said the football rivalry doesn\u2019t necessarily carry over when hungry Winnipeg fans are looking for something to eat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rider fans and the Blue Bomber fans that come back home, that left Regina or come to Regina, they\u2019re enjoying Regina-style pizza all across the city here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Inside Mosaic Stadium, that translates into a lot of food.<\/p>\n
Bonis couldn\u2019t give an exact number of pizza slices typically served during a game, but said it easily reaches into the thousands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t done the math, but in the thousands for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Preparing for that demand starts well before kickoff.<\/p>\n
Bonis said years of sales data help crews estimate how much food they\u2019ll need. On Labour Day, workers arrive early to begin cooking, with additional supplies kept on hand in case demand exceeds expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of pre-game prep,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have everything pre-prepped, ready to go, and then we\u2019re here early on Labour Day and we start cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bonis has seen plenty of Labour Day Classics. Western Pizza has operated concessions at Roughrider games dating back to the team\u2019s days at Taylor Field and has been at Mosaic Stadium since it opened in 2017.<\/p>\n
For him, however, the enduring appeal of the weekend still comes down to the people in the stands and the rivalry on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always sold out. It\u2019s the fans,\u201d Bonis said. \u201cBoth sets of fans are there. They\u2019re passionate. They\u2019re dressed up, and they\u2019re green and they\u2019re blue and they\u2019re cheering.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe games always seem to be good. The games always seem to be close, and so it\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while Regina and Winnipeg may continue arguing over football and apparently pizza, Bonis knows which result he wants Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully the Riders come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rivalry between Saskatchewan and Winnipeg will play out on the field today, but the impact of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-198239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}