Characters Fine Dining cooks last meals

Restaurant to close after 20 years A fine dining restaurant in Edmonton's downtown will close on New Year's Eve. CTV Edmonton's Timm Bruch has the details.

After two decades, a downtown restaurant will serve Edmontonians for the last time on New Year’s Eve.

Shonn Oborowsky, owner and head chef of Characters Fine Dining, opened the restaurant in 1998.

In the years since, he’s served Edmontonians anything and everything—from the location’s well-known steak tartar to baby octopus.

“I always put a dish on the menu that I didn’t think Edmonton would eat at all,” he said. “And they surprised me.”

Oborowsky plans to spend more time with family, but did say the fine dining industry has been impacted by the minimum wage increase and rising taxes.

“Edmonton needs restaurants like this. It helps with tourism, putting Edmonton on the food map,” the chef said.

However, the years have left him with many friends and many memories.

“This has been a second home to me. This has been a second family to me, so it’s tough to say goodbye,” Oborowsky said.

But he won’t leave empty handed: “I’m going to take my knives, my ice cream maker, and my John Wayne picture [that says], ‘Life is hard, it’s harder if you’re stupid.’”

The property will be taken over by Bear Hill Brewing Company.

With files from Timm Bruch