Congratulations to Gail Norton on Calgary’s Cookbook Company Cooks’ 40th anniversary! We all know how challenging it is for small businesses, and from opening a cookbook store in a little house on 17 Avenue SW in 1984 (and selling your first book, The Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook) to the acclaimed cooking school, and much more, and to be one of only two independent cookbook stores in Canada, is impressive!
And congrats to the winners of YYC Ice Cream Fest 2024: Tajrish Market & Bistro for Best Overall Ice Cream, Hey Sugar for the Golden Scoop Award selling 378 scoops during the festival, and to Apprentice Café who took the award for Best Dairy-Free Ice Cream. The real winner though is Calgary Meals on Wheels, as it’s a crucial part of their fundraising efforts.
Maisie Eatery is open in the Sam Centre, the new 30,000-square-foot home to the fun and fascinating, interactive Stampede exhibition. Former owner of cocktail bar and restaurant, Cleaver, executive chef Barbara Spain is at the helm, naming the café after her grandmother, and she’s created a daily changing menu of breakfast and lunch dishes for this counter-service restaurant. Choose from a selection of well-executed and temptingly presented salads, sandwiches, savoury pies and pastries, and from the sweet side of the counter filled with impressive cakes and other baked goods. There are happy-hour cocktails, and Maisie also hosts private evening events in this bright, modern space. 632 13 Avenue SE, seven days 8am-5pm. maisieeatery.com
Edmonton’s Aloha Poke and Grill has opened a second location at 8716 109 Street NW, in Garneau. Choose Mainland Style, Mini Mainland, and Hawaiian Style Poke Bowls, and your choice of two toppings, to go with the furikake Japanese white rice and salmon or tuna poke, or go for a pork burrito, inari (a filled pouch of seasoned fried tofu), or kalua pig! Lunch and dinner seven days, alohagarneau.com
Edmonton has three new coffee shop cafés! In addition to their Jasper Avenue location, Coffee Bureau have opened their second, and larger, café in the Mercury Block at 12316 102 Avenue, with Viateur Bagels still overnighted fresh from Montreal every week to pick up on Wednesdays. Common Ground Coffee is now open 8am-5pm at 2727 182 Street SW, and Deville Coffee have now opened a second location at West Edmonton Mall in addition to their Macewan University Samu Building space. devillecoffee.ca
Chef Daniel Ramon is his own man, he wants to do what he wants to do. And he wants to work with flour. Working on his own pizza spot for nearly three years, now with chefs Jeremy Ouellette and Jordan Lawton, Pizza Letty (named for mother, Laeticia) is offering ‘neo-Neapolitan’ pies – Ramon’s 48-72 hour cold ferment crust, a unique combination of buckwheat flour with sourdough for flavour, and yeast for controlling the ferment. But there’s much more to love in this 50-seat room with its exposed concrete walls – an exemplary, seasonal small plate menu (don’t miss the grilled prawns, and be prepared to get messy!), Kat Brodie’s clever, crafted highball cocktail list, Friday lunch and weekend brunch. 247 12th Avenue SE, seven days 4pm-close. pizzaletty.com
Next door to Letty, at 1225 Macleod Trail SE, is Otie Bakehouse (short for ‘overtime’), where you’ll find more of Ramon’s flour handiwork. It’s all about quality here, whether focaccia sandwiches, laminated dough pastries, or desserts created by pastry chef María de los Ángeles Delgado, along with coffee from Chronicle Coffee Roasters. Seven days, 7am-4pm, otiebakes.com
With inner-city development forcing Calgary’s Mikey’s on 12th to relocate, chef Alli Said has started afresh with his new Don Taco, a take-out only taco joint (with a bench at the front for those who can’t wait to scarf down their tacos) in the Highwood neighbourhood, at 4121 4 Street NW. Living out his passion for casual Mexican food, Said is keeping it friendly and simple, with a choice of his delicious mix-and-match toppings on soft tortillas. Watch for his own bottled hot sauce, and rumours of a second location coming soon! Seven days lunch and dinner.
St. Albert has a new restaurant - Sorrentino’s (Buco and Caffè Sorrentino too), have opened Argos Bar Bistro serving up ‘Northern Mediterranean cuisine’. Choose from Spanish/Greek tapas at the tapas station, ciabatta with spreads, salads, and the signature ‘Pae-sotto’ for 2-4 people – a blend of paella and risotto with chicken, chorizo, or black truffle and porcini. ‘Land and Sea’ rounds out the mains (Seafood Bouillabaisse, yay!), and gyros are coming soon on the lunch menu. There’s a large patio, a full cocktail list, and weekly specials at Tapas Hour. 150 Bellerose Drive, seven days lunch and dinner.
Two years planning and a year in construction, Fat Ox is open in Banff, and it’s very, very good! Creative Group’s (Bonterra and Posto in Calgary and Rose & Crown in Banff) new venture is adjoining High Country Inn, in the Tichino location, which was taken down to the studs for a total renovation, resulting in this warm and inviting, rustic, 97-seat space. There’s a communal group table and plenty of bar seating, and it’s 100 percent accessible, with a table that raises and lowers for wheelchairs. Chef Glen Manzer is overseeing the food program, with the original Tichino team, including Chef Michael Samson, in the kitchen. Fat Ox has a small, elevated menu of appetizers, four excellent salads (we ate them all!), seven pasta dishes (no pizza!), and a handful of mains including steaks, a giant veal chop saltimbucco, and whole lobster risotto, with an extensive wine list and boozy and fun cocktails - aperitivo hours too, and a children’s menu for miniature gourmands. And did we mention breakfast? Do it! Service staff wear jeans with white shirts, green aprons, and braces, and the hospitality is as good as the food. 415 Banff Avenue, fatoxbanff.ca
Downtown Edmonton has a new Indigenous restaurant! Pei Pei Chei Ow’s Svitlana Kravchuk and Scott Iserhoff have opened Bernadette’s, and they’re changing perceptions; while the menu is based around seasonal ingredients, it reflects Iserhoff’s personal style from 20 years of working in restaurants - beautifully presented and creative dishes. The popular Pei Pei Chei Ow breakfast and berry barbecue brisket sandwiches are on the lunch menu, as well as rotating specials, and elevated sharing plates at dinner. The elegant space seats 23, and a patio is coming soon. 10114 104 Street NW, Tuesday-Saturday lunch and dinner.
Kensington’s Mumbai Tiger now has a sister - Ninja Tiger, a 44-seat restaurant with a completely different menu of Chef Prasad P’s Maharashtra (Mumbai is the capital) coastal region home food, many of them totally new to us. There’s a lot to enjoy here: Kalava Masala - oysters cooked in onion masala; Marathwada Magic, cooked and served in a mini pressure cooker; superb chicken curries; baked-in-house paav; and plenty of veggie, gluten- and dairy-free dishes. The star is the thali - eleven seafood, chicken, vegetable, or mutton dishes, including soup, raita, salad, and pickles. The cocktail and mocktail program is strong here too, try the signature sourfruit Kokum Fizz! 412 Memorial Drive, 5-10pm, closed Tuesdays. ninjatiger.ca
Sherwood Park has a new Italian market – but there’s a lot more to discover atL’Oca. In the totally refurbished Rona space, and three years in the making, you’ll find an impressive 45,000-square-foot of food - to eat in, to take home and eat, and to take home and cook - from the bakery, the expansive butcher’s shop, the pasta station, specialty cheese and deli counters, fresh produce market, refrigerated and frozen sections, and gelateria, with juice and smoothie bars, and lots of samples to try! There’s a Flora bar to build your own display, as well as kitchen and housewares for your home. And two restaurants - Oro serves up modern Italian fare, while Pyro’s menu focuses on steaks and dishes from the charcoal grill and wood forno. L‘Oca labs is a demo kitchen, and L’Oca Cellars is a boutique liquor store. Owned by a local Edmonton family, and supporting local producers, L’Oca has already provided 300 jobs, and there are ambitious expansion plans - watch out Red Deer and Calgary! 340 Baseline Road, seven days 8am-9pm.