Good times in Tolstoi as Elsie’s Hotel returns

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This article was published 26/11/2022 (881 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ben Holodryga will tell you he’s an ironworker, not a bartender, but mixing a Caesar cocktail behind the counter at Elsie’s Hotel in Tolstoi on Friday, his ear-to-ear grin suggests otherwise.

“I like this,” Holodryga said as he took a glass down from the rack. “But I tell people, ‘I’m not a bartender, you’re not going to get your drink in two seconds.’”

Holodryga is the new owner-operator of the beloved hotel and beverage room, which closed in 2008 when its namesake, Elsie Kolodzinski, retired after 68 years on the job.

On Nov. 5—after 14 months of kitchen renovations, permitting, licensing, and inspections, Holodryga welcomed the first customers in 14 years.

“This hotel is like Baba’s house,” he said from a seat in the back games room, which houses a billiards table and a rare V-shaped shuffleboard table.

“It’s like home.”

The response from the community has been swift and enthusiastic. Customers have come in from across southern Manitoba and up from the United States.

“They’re coming in by the busload,” Holodryga said with a laugh. “The Caesars are selling like crazy.”

Those Ceasars, by the way, are garnished just the way they always were, with a homemade pickle in place of the usual celery rib. Adele Kolodzinski-Mayberry, Kolodzinski’s daughter, now supplies the pickles her late mother used to make.

Holodryga, who grew up in Tolstoi the youngest of 12 kids, remembered bringing his own children to the hotel.

“Elsie would go and get a bag of chips for each kid,” he recalled.

He now runs into many familiar faces as he crisscrosses the beverage room delivering cold drinks and plates of food prepared in the establishment’s new commercial kitchen. It’s not unusual for customers to stay and socialize for two hours after finishing their meals.

“I just like to see people come and sit and enjoy themselves,” he said. “That’s exactly what I bought this place for.”

Holodryga’s girlfriend, Tara Reimer, studied hospitality in university, and is helping her ironworker boyfriend learn the ins and outs of running a hotel, bar, and beer vendor.

“She came up with the menu,” Holodryga said.

In addition to the usual pub fare like chicken wings, customers can try the One Mile Nachos, named after the mile road south of town where Holodryga grew up.

Hungrier patrons might reach for the Big Ben Burger, which Holodryga makes with two beef patties, “because I always like lots of meat.” And then there’s the Tolstoi Dog, sure to appeal to Ukrainian palettes with its onions, sauerkraut, bacon, perogy bits, and mustard.

Why is the Elsie Burger topped with a pineapple ring?

“Because she was a sweet little lady,” Holodryga replied.

Ingredients are sourced locally where possible, including from Ridgeville Hutterite Colony near Dominion City. Next summer, fresh produce will be harvested from the gardens out back.

Highway 59 had neither asphalt nor telephone lines when the hotel opened in 1929. The Kolodzinskis, Walter and Elsie, married in 1940. Within months, they were running the hotel and living in the attached residence. The lobby held a switchboard and the Grey Goose bus stopped outside.

In the early days, the hotel’s eight rooms, now reduced to six, were a home away from home for many weary customs officers, Hydro linemen, and MTS workers. (These days, bookings tend to come from folks on hunting trips or social visits who don’t want to drive home in the dark.)

In the 1950s, the bar was extended and seating capacity was doubled, though the beverage room remained men-only until 1983. Walter died the same year, but Elsie carried on, adding the games room in 2000.

Today, the wood-paneled, memorabilia-filled beverage room is one of the last remaining in rural Manitoba. The significance of the place isn’t lost on Holodryga.

“How many small towns do you know of opening up a bar?” he said. “It’s unheard of. They’re all burning down or shutting.”

Holodryga bought the property from the Kolodzinski family in September 2021. More than one curveball came his way in the months that followed as he worked to get the place ready for customers.

“Every bump that there was on the road, it hit me,” he said.

Thankfully, many of the delays took place while COVID-19 restrictions were keeping people in their homes anyway.

“There was no sense in getting frustrated. At times, maybe I was disappointed,” Holodryga said. “But everything has a procedure it must follow.”

At last, there was nothing left to do but open the doors. Customers will find the look of the place hasn’t changed, save for a trio of flatscreen TVs on the wall and some Manitoba craft beers in the fridge. Holodryga didn’t dare change the name of the establishment but allowed himself a small ‘Ben’s bar’ neon sign in the front window.

Now that Elsie’s is up and running, Holodryga plans to gradually scale back at his day job supervising the paint shop at Sperling Industries. He also plans to move into the attached residence.

A three-day grand opening bash is being planned for next summer, complete with a different live band each night.

Elsie’s Hotel is open Fridays and Saturdays until 2 a.m. and Sundays until 6 p.m.