Salutes and Shout Outs

It seems to be a good time for successful eateries to open a second location - a recurring theme in this month’s Salutes & Shout Outs!

Amato Gelato opened their Kensington location nearly 20 years ago, and now a café bar at the base of ‘The Fifth’ apartment building, at 602 17 Avenue SW. Choose from 48 rotating flavours of gelato and sorbetto, as well as pizzas and pastries, coffee and cocktails. 7 days 9am-late.

Cinnaholic has two locations in Edmonton, and round the corner in the same building as Amato, has opened its first in Calgary (there’s three more coming soon!). Choose from 17 frostings and 26 toppings to create your own cinnamon rolls, or other treats to eat in or take away: banana bread, brownies, cookies and cinnadoodles, bite-size baby buns, and the popular chocolate chip cookie dough, all washed down with Phil & Seb coffee. Everything is baked in-house and is 100% vegan, they offer catering too. 7 days 10am-late.

Four Calgary faves have branched out and opened new locations in Edmonton! With a baker’s dozen of cafés in Calgary, Deville Coffee is now serving its small batch, direct trade coffee and baked goods at MacEwan University’s SAMU Building, 10850 104 Avenue N from 7:30am. Closed Sundays.

Flirty Bird Nashville Hot Chicken

has five locations in Calgary and Canmore, and now you can get the hottest chicken sando and tenders in Edmonton from 11am, Wednesday to Saturday, at 10455 Whyte Avenue. Jerusalem Shawarma is growing, and as well as four Calgary locations serving up their ever-popular hummus, falafel, beef and chicken shawarma, and salads, lucky Edmontonians can now find them at 2213 101 Street, every day 11am-10pm.

Good times and good food come together at Home & Away, and now they’re open in Edmonton at 10363 104 Street NW, offering snacks, burgers, bowls, pizzas, tacos, and live sports action for lunch, dinner, and party, with daily food and drink specials from 3-6pm (11-3pm weekends).

Talking of sports bars, Canadian Brewhouse launched in Edmonton twenty years ago, and now has 41 locations – 26 of which are in Alberta. Their 5th Calgary bar is at 3953 University Ave NW, with big screen TVs (and tabletop speakers when multiple sports and teams are playing!), and daily specials every night from 4pm: Taco ’bout Tuesdays, Steak and Sangria Saturdays, and Pizza Sundays - lunch specials too, such as Tuesday Poutine Party and Thursday Burger ‘N Beer. 7 days 11am-late, children allowed to 8pm.

If you’d rather eat and be active than eat and watch sports, Simtopia is open at 340 50 Avenue SE in Calgary. A community hub where you can learn to ski or improve your technique, and try out beautiful golf courses with the modern golf simulators, there are coworking spaces too for creatives to rent by the month, and a restaurant serving home-style waffles, burgers, tempura, and lots of chicken dishes, with a kiddies menu too. 7 days 9am-10pm, from 10am weekends.

Food halls have arrived in Alberta, and Robbins Health Learning Centre at MacEwan University is now home to Takam Market (“to crave” in Tagalog) - a food hall from the good folks at Filistix. As well as their much-loved modern Filipino cuisine, here you’ll find Sosyal Scoops ice cream and milkshake shack from Yelo’d, coffee at The Colombian, and baked treats from Ayco Bakery. As there’s no dining hall for students, ‘The Public’ offers prepared heat-and-eat, quick meals after the concessions close. Monday-Friday 10am-3pm, 10910 104 Avenue NW.

The big guns are out at Calgary’s new Beltline food hall, The District. You’ll be spoiled for choice with these six vendors – including some of the city’s top chefs – so do what we did, and try them all! Who’s here? First up is Chef Duncan Ly, of Foreign Concept’s Takori, a taqueria melding Mexican dishes with Asian flavours. You’ll love the tacos and burritos, but don’t miss the crispy chicken skin – it’s addictive! Next door is Chef Arce Morales’ new Oishidesu Ramen Shack location, serving soul-satisfying meat and veggie ramen, poke and rice bowls, takoyaki and more. Opposite you’ll find Chef Adam Ryan’s (of The Coup fame) Shrub Bloom, with sustainable, all-Canadian vegan and vegetarian pastas, sandwiches, chowder and salads, as well as smoothies and mocktails - healthy food that tastes great too. Moseying on down the aisle, on the right you’ll see Roy’s Korean Kitchen, Chef Roy Oh’s second location for his Korean comfort food with a Canadian

twist. Oh joy - the Soy Maple Brussels sprouts are here, as well as his KFC crispy fried chicken sandwich, and other plates from his former Anju and 4th Street SW dine-in restaurant. Next door is Modern Steak’s spin-off, Modern Burger, with their drool-worthy Benchmark Angus, ranch-specific Alberta Beef, classic or cheese burgers, wagyu hotdogs, poutine, and more! But be sure to save some room for the outstanding, sustainable seafood or vegan maki sushi and sashimi from Chef Darren MacLean and Chef Duncan Ly’s Greenfish. Open 7 days 11am-8pm, for dining in, take-out, and delivery. Edmonton has two new pizza spots! Birch & Bear Pizza opens when sister, Toast Culture closes, with a menu of classic and creative West Coast flatbread pizzas – Birch for veggies, and Bear for meat-eaters (all as calzones too!), along with salads, craft beer and sodas. Wednesday-Sunday 4-8pm, 11965 Jasper Avenue.

Bravo Pizza & Kitchen’s menu includes pastas, burgers, salads, and platters, and while their big pizza menu is mostly traditional, we’re rather excited by the more unusual toppings of alfredo chicken, garlic prawns, and bacon and egg, and we have to try the meaty fried olives (with Italian sausage)! 3240 118 Avenue, 7 days 11am-late.

Head chef Mike Hakjin Kim’s first restaurant, Ari Sushi, is open in Inglewood at 1201 9 Avenue SE, and it’s a busy spot. Over the last 18 years, he’s had plenty of practise making really delicious and very fresh appies (oh how we loved his crispy Ika (squid) Karaage!), sushi, tempura, and udon, working at the 5* JW Marriott Japanese Restaurant in Seoul. Reservations highly recommended for lunch and dinner, Wednesday-Sunday.

The Concorde Group are on a winning streak with Bridgette and Lulu Bars, Major Tom and Lonely Mouth, and now their new success-to-be, Surfy Surfy, a laidback, casual, Southern California-inspired restaurant underneath Double Zero, on the ground floor of Calgary’s Chinook Centre. With an upscale beach shack feel, and a surfboard on the wall, Chef Sandy Voerman (from Bridgette Bar) is killing it with her Asian-Cali fusion dishes. We loved her tempura corn fritters with coconut curry dip, kimchi-seasoned fries, and excellent tacos, not to mention her salads, burgers, burritos, and bowls… Local beers are on tap and Cali beers in cans, and there’s a Margarita menu too. Portions are very generous, but do save room for potato churros with burnt cinnamon ice cream!

FAMIGLIA BREADS

a tribute to the late Luigi Bontorin and his passion for simple, local ingredients that create a nutritious bread to be shared with family and friends. read the full story at www.cibl.com HEALTHY • NUTRITIOUS • FLAVOURFUL