Tunnel Bar-B-Q – 1954

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• it has been a VERY long time since I've been here, I think one of the things which has taken me from this place is I find them extremely pricy? Is anyone else is agreement with me?
  Although, like I said, it's been a very long time, 7 years or more perhaps since I've been there...How is the food, and service in everyone else's opinion?

• I find their prices in order, all considered. My wife orders off the menu, which always has decent daily specials, but I always get the old stand-by - their full strip of ribs dinner. Granted the price of that dinner is a few bucks more than Swiss Chalet's "full" rib dinner, but there's no comparing TBQ's ribs with Swiss Chalet or anything else around town for that matter. Plus you get a fresh breadbasket (not a tiny frozen roll), a huge honkin' bowl of coleslaw, those famous TBQ sauces, and generally larger portion overall. 'Ya gets what ya pays for.' The service is above average. They always seem to have the same staff there, so they have their routine down. Best of all it's one place downtown you *can* park right next to - for free. It's in my rotation of favs, and like Andrew said - use it or lose it. The future of dining in this city is going to be all places like Applebees and Montanas if we don't start supporting places like TBQ.

• John is right. IF we don't support our LOCALLY owned restaurants then we will be forced to eat at disgusting places like Applebee's, Boston Pizza and the same cookie-cutter restaurants that will only locate in the borders of the city.

  True, I find the prices a bit high but in this city ribs are expensive no matter where you get them from. However, I am willing to pay the money for such a long established restaurant. Try the Racksburger, great deal and very tasty.

  Andrew thanks for showing a picture of what the restaurant used to look like. I always wondered if the exterior was original or not. Now I know.

• i used to like going into their dessert area for take out, but changes in certain desserts has left me less than happy. more times than not i've had problems with things once i got them home and had to return them or throw them out.

  the staff there though have always been so kind.

  when i worked at the chicken court, they were always our competition.

• I wonder why I haven't noticed any advertisements from them anymore. Every week, I see Pepper's and Coco Pellies in downtown advertising ther specials in the Windsor Star, but nothing from Tunnel BBQ. If they did and I didn't recognize it, then maybe they're doing something that just doesn't stand out like Pepper's and Coco Pellies. If something happens to them ,it's because they didn't do a good job of marketing themselves or paying attention to what customers want from a restaurant these days. The days of just passively running a restaurant in Windsor are long gone. Even the bars at night have promoters on the street that try to escort you to their bar and patronize their establishments with drink specials. They could even try something like a lunch buffet to get people coming back. If they go under, then it's just poor management decisions. There's many many ways they can reinvent themselves while keeping their historical brand name,

  Noting how full the city owned parking garage on Goyeau is during the day and all the developers spending millions on small parcels of land in the downtown area has me now believing that downtown isn't as bad off as it seems.

  Have I eaten there before? Yes, but nothing really special there to make me want to return instead of trying something new.

• Another good one is the United Grill on University E.

• SBW - That's the only other one that's still open in my booklet. I'll post that one tomorrow.

  Everytime I've tried to go to the UnitedGrill it's been closed. :(

• Andrew, I think the United caters to the daytime mon-fri "bankers hours" traffic generated by city hall workers, etc. It's shame because we're going to need to start seeing places like that open during the day on weekends and such if we're going to see families going downtown to spend a good part of the day. Remember that event that drew 16,000+ downtown and there we were tugging on their door in vain. ;)

• Count me in for the "door closed" crowd. I agree that businesses have to step up to the plate and stay open later regardless if they are a restaurant or product -ased business.

  David, TBQ's is still in receivership and therefore ha very if any money left to advertise. I would like to point out that Pepper's has horrible food. I have eaten there three times and each time the service was horrible and the food even worse. How do these places stay open?

• ME, how does Pepper's say in business? Easy, good marketing. They advertise specials in the paper each week.

  As for TBQ, they should put a sign outside that says noon hour buffet $7--that'll get more people inside. You know, I don't even remember the last time a Chinese or other low cost buffet went bankrupt in Windsor, so buffets must be doing something right in Windsor. The only buffet that should go out of business is Casino's Windsor $30 a head buffet, like WTF, that's too much for a lunch buffet. I bet they end up with tonnes of food that goes to the wastebasket. I go to Vegas and I can get a buffet at a Casino for like $4 or a 18 oz NY Strip for $5. What's wrong with the people running this casino??