THE BACK STORY: Keg owner thankful for many blessings

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2020 (2268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s amazing how many times the word “fortunate” comes up in a conversation with The Keg’s Dave Schaworski.

He’s nothing but grateful for the hand he has been dealt. And while Lady Luck has certainly smiled upon him in his business dealings, he has also put in plenty of blood, sweat and tears himself.

After growing up on a farm near Rossburn, Schaworski moved to Brandon when he was 11 years of age. His father, a butcher, opened JLA Food Store, and Schaworski worked there, gaining lots of experience and knowledge about operating a business.

After graduating from Vincent Massey High School, he attempted to pursue post-secondary education. It was a short-lived effort.

“I tried ACC with a good friend of mine, Brian Fowler, and we excelled — at playing cards,” Schaworski said with a laugh. “So somewhere around Christmastime, we both decided that we’d had enough and let’s get into the real world and start making money.”

Over the next few years, he worked construction and did a lot of officiating in the Western Hockey League and the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. He got a job as a mail carrier in 1975, and his entrepreneur father suggested he buy a house with an extra lot. So he did, subdivided the property, built a new house, sold the old one, and repeated that pattern a few times. His goal was to be debt-free at age 30. But once again, his father had another idea. They bought a hotel in Flin Flon, where the then-25-year-old Schaworski led a team of 30 employees and learned a whole lot about running a restaurant, bar and lounge.

Fast forward 10 years to August 1987. They’d sold the hotel, Schaworski was back in Brandon with no plans, and another friend, Wayne McGill, invited him over for a beer.

And here’s where it gets really interesting.

McGill was one of the five original owners (the others were Geoff Sutherland, Mel Beatty, George Jimas and Gary McIntosh) when the Brandon Keg opened in December 1978. Nine years later, when the conversation with Schaworski took place, McGill was one of only three still involved.

“We were just sitting around BS-ing and Wayne said, ‘What are you going to do?’” Schaworski recalled. “Seriously and jokingly, I said, ‘I’ll buy The Keg from you!’ And he kind of looked at me and smiled and said, ‘We might sell!’”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

A deal was reached, Schaworski bought out the remaining partners and got the land, the building and the business, and took over The Keg on Dec. 31, 1987.

“It was a fluke — timing,” Schaworski said, still seemingly amazed by that twist of fate. “Just a flippant comment in the backyard changed the course of my life. I was very, very fortunate.”

While he has done every job in the restaurant except cooking, and although his work weeks consisted of 60-plus hours for a lot of years, Schaworski wasn’t finished — not by a long shot. He’d tried to buy Keg franchises in Winnipeg, but was second in line and didn’t get them. And then, yet another break. The corporate head office of The Keg agreed to sell him the restaurant in Saskatoon.

But his streak was nowhere near over. At the same time as he’d tried to get The Keg in Winnipeg, he’d put his name in for Regina. Again, he was second in line. This time, however, financing fell through for whoever had hoped to buy it, so Schaworski had his third restaurant.

“That was November of ‘97,” Schaworski said. “So in the year 2000, I met a fellow named Ray Redekop, who owned the Lethbridge Keg. And I was talking to him, and I flippantly said to him, ‘You know what? I’ll buy if you want to sell.’ And he said, ‘I’m thinking I’m going to sell.’ So there again, another opportunity presented itself. So I ended up with Saskatoon, Regina and Lethbridge.”

Schaworski’s brother Randy eventually took over the Saskatoon Keg, but in 2014. Ever the pragmatic businessman, Schaworski built another location in Regina.

It has been a long road, and while he has been the driving force behind all the acquisitions, renovations and builds that have happened, Schaworski said he couldn’t have done it without the incredible people who’ve worked for him and with him over the years.

“If you want to use a sports team analogy, you are only as good as the rest of your team,” Schaworski said. “And I’ve been very, very fortunate — I’ve had a tremendous amount of wonderful people work for me. Some I still keep in contact with and think of them as equals — it’s not about a boss/employee relationship because I don’t look at it in those terms.”

Schaworski gets emotional when he talks about the people with whom he has been associated through The Keg. And of particular import is the accountant who helped him acquire the Brandon Keg in the first place.

“When I was buying this Keg, I was actually short money,” he said, his eyes misting with the memory. “My dad couldn’t help me anymore. So my accountant, a fellow named George Bardsley, who’s now 87 and I contact him on a regular basis, I remember phoning him. And I said, ‘I just got a letter from the bank — they’re not going to do the deal.’ And he said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m short X-amount of dollars.’ And he said, ‘No, you’re not.’ So he gave me the money over the phone. And to this day I still acknowledge him. Those are important things in life that people should never forget.”

Schaworski’s son Jordy now looks after all four of his father’s restaurants. And while Schaworski plans to do much more travelling once his wife Misty retires this fall, he can’t imagine stepping away from The Keg completely.

“Sometimes when you’re in business, it’s part of who you are,” he said. “You walk around and see people you’ve known for years and years and years. It’s kind of an extension of your living room sometimes.

“It’s allowed me to meet a tremendous amount of people in all walks of life and also have a tremendous amount of wonderful people work for me who have gone on to other successes in life.”

 

» Got a story idea for The Back Story? Please contact me at thebackstory@brandonsun.com.

 

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