Salutes & Shout Outs

Congratulations to Karen Anderson! Her cookbook, Eat Alberta First: A Year of Local Recipes from Where the Prairies Meet the Mountains, won the silver medal in the Best Regional Cultural Cookbook category at the 2024 Taste Canada Awards.

More congrats go to Tool Shed’s Graham Sherman and his Notorious P.I.G. team who, after more than a decade of BBQ competitions across North America, took first place at the 2024 Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational BBQ in Lynchburg, Tennessee!

And to Paperbirch by Chartrand - the newest culinary experience at Old Strathcona Farmers' Market. Every Saturday from 8 am to 11:30 am, Indigenous Chef Shane Chartrand is cooking up his breakfast menu, with ingredients showcasing Edmonton’s fresh products in season at the market, and at 11:30 am, Paperbirch switches to a food truck-inspired lunch menu, with dishes made to order. 10310 83 Avenue Northwest, osfm.ca

Chapter 2 for Calgary’s Maven is the perfect sequel to Chef Mish’s opening chapter! Chef Leroy Borrega’s passion for cooking has taken him around the world from the Philippines to Singapore and Hong Kong, Australia and America, and calling Calgary his home, he was most recently Head Chef at Shokunin, earning a place in Canada’s Top 100 list. Now he’s heading up the kitchen at Maven, and with a menu designed like chapters of a book, each dish tells part of his journey from his childhood favourites to modern Filipino. 1006 17 Avenue SW, mavenrestaurantgroup.ca

Kudos to Chef Tony Tipping and his wife Chelsea who have made their wildest dream come true and opened a restaurant together. WildRoots Bistro in St. Albert, was their five-year wedding anniversary gift to each other! From 9 am Wednesday to Sunday, they’re serving a variety of toasts and bennies, breakfast pizzetta, dill pickle soup and more, all washed down with coffees and cocktails (and beer or wine too!). 150 15 Perron Street, wildrootsbistro.ca

Calgary has a new brunch spot too! Chef Veronica Kunbi Olalere has refurbished her Nigerian restaurant in Forest Lawn to become ‘Ahinke’ - a calming, tropical breakfast/lunch oasis. She’s blended some of her dinner menu items with Canadian brunch classics to create exciting and flavourful dishes such as Suya Chicken and Waffles with peppersoup gravy, Efo Riro Eggs Benny, and Plantain Paradise French Toast. You can still share plates of Jollof Rice Arancini and sweet, fried Puff Puff dough balls, as well as a selection of ‘Nigerian Dishes You Have to Try’ dinner favourites. A social enterprise, Ahinke supports the local economy, sourcing their ingredients from local farmers, and provides resources to support small immigrant businesses. 9 am-6 pm at 2650 36th Street SE. Closed Monday, ahinkeskitchen.com

There’s no stopping Una Pizza and Wine! In addition to their four Calgary locations and one in Saskatoon, the California-influenced, thin crust pizza restaurant (and pasta and salads) has now headed north and opened in South Edmonton Common, at 1708 99 Street. Seven days from 11 am, unapizzeria.com

Monki is expanding too! As well as locations in Calgary’s Beltline, Inglewood, and Greenwich areas, they’ve now opened at 842 Crowfoot Crescent NW, serving their popular hashes, poutines, breakfast tacos, and bennies (with their excellent Prosecco Hollandaise!) and the Little Monki kids menu too. Breakfast and lunch seven days, monkibistro.ca

And Edmonton’s Birch and Bear is growing! Now, along with Jasper Avenue and the Ritchie location inside Ale Architect, Josh Wilhelm has opened a third west coast-themed pizza and salad spot in Forest Heights, at 8210 106 Avenue. A clever spin-off from its sister, Toast Culture, the Birch pizzas are all vegetarian, and the Bear pizzas cater to meat eaters. birchandbearpizza.com

Calgary’s Marda Loop is becoming the place to eat and drink, and has a new coffee shop – Bella’s Italiana. There’s no indoor seating but this inviting, vintage-inspired, cosy café has a large and lovely outdoor patio with big heaters to keep us warm while we’re sipping our morning espresso or cappuccino, and enjoying our fresh-baked, croissants, cookies, and pastries. Seven days, 7am-2pm at 3497 18 Street SW.

And there’s a cool new vintage design café in Edmonton’s Old Strathcona. Leo’s Cafe is a “sourdough cafe” in Spur Line Alley, with a tempting menu of sourdough bagels, sourdough pizza, generous sandwiches on sourdough buns, and treats on the sweet side too. 8 am-10 pm, seven days at 10420A 82 Avenue.

The Concorde Group have done it again! Pineapple Hall is their latest concept, a food hall with six of their restaurants offering fast serve meals on the +15 level above Barbarella Bar. ‘Needs Must’ is their new cafe and juice bar with grab ‘n’ go items too, Clive Burger is here and Surfy Surfy, Double Zero is here with their pizzas, Lonely Mouth with Katsu Sandos and Hand Rolls, and the new Boardroom for sandwiches and bowls. But there’s more - a new Pigeonhole location too next door, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner! It’s as good as you hope, with delicious, eclectic shareables and really good cocktails – you’re going to have to check it all out for yourself! pineapplehall.ca

Edmonton’s El Corazon were going to open a new concept restaurant, but in addition to their Glenora location, they’ve opened a second location in Keswick at 1003 Keswick Drive instead. The same great menu of tapas, tacos, paellas, weekend brunch, and more. Lunch and dinner seven days, elcorazonrestaurants.com

After jumping through hoops and overcoming many hurdles, we’re thrilled for Chef Darren Maclean who has finally realized his dream with the new addition to Eight - After Eight! Like the super-premium restaurant, it’s an intimate speakeasy lounge, deep down in Calgary’s East Village Alt Hotel, with just eight seats where you can begin your luxury tasting menu experience with a cocktail before moving into the dining room, or end your evening after your meal. eightcdn.ca

Everyone’s talking about Calgary’s new Scozzafava Deli, and a great many people are enjoying their Italian-style sandwiches (including us!) too – they sold 600 on opening day, way more than expected! Nick Scozzafava was working as an electrician for the last 11 years, and has been doing pop-ups for a couple of years before securing the 1004 17 Avenue SW location, and with business partner, Kevin Lowry, they built everything themselves in just under five months. Eat in or take out, choose from seven varieties (the Italian Combo is a fan fave for a very good reason!) in the toasted sesame buns developed specially for them by Good Bread, and finish with a ‘flavour of the week’ cannoli. Cocktails, Chronicle coffee, beer and wine is on offer, and they cater too! From 11 am, scozzafavasdeli.com