Salutes and shout outs

Snippets of good news from our everchanging food and beverage scene!

Eau Claire Market has long been ripe for something new and hip, and now Alberta’s smallest brewery, Brüch Bar, is open evenings and weekends serving their alcoholic and non-alcoholic kombucha and unique cocktails created with these organic and gluten-free brews – if they don’t sell out! Their kombucha beer is made from just tea, hops, and water, to which spices, spirits, and juices are added for the constantly changing cocktail menu. As a nano-brewery, the batch size is only 150 L, so expect new varieties every visit. 5:00 pm-late.

If there are cars blocking the traffic on Edmonton’s Gateway Boulevard, it’s probably because Calgary’s Peter’s Drive-In opened a new location at 5151 Calgary Trail!

For everything katsu (Japanese fried cutlets) and donburi (rice bowls), Koji Katsu has opened at 1111 6 Avenue SW, Calgary. Dine in or take out hot and crispy chicken, cheese, pork or prawns with rice, miso soup, and maybe with curry too – makes you hungry doesn’t it? Generous portions at lunch and dinner – until they run out of house-cured panko! Closed Sundays.

Reimagined in Calgary’s Brasserie Kensington space, EATCROW is now open and you can read about it on page 29. Don’t miss that root veggie tartare!

Golfers in Edmonton got lucky this season when the City chose Robert Spencer Hospitality Group to run the eateries at municipal golf courses. The Greenhouse at Riverside, Rundle, and Victoria Golf Courses, serves up classic comfort food and features the great local ingredients that Chef Paul Shufelt highlights at his Workshop Eatery and Woodshed Burgers too.

From the CharCut duo, Connie & John’s Pizza is now open for take out ThursdaySunday 4-10 pm, for belly-filling 16” NYC and square 14” Detroit Deep Dish pizzas. Read more on page 29.

Calgary’s Modern Steak has switched around its restaurants between downtown and Kensington locations, so now you’ll satisfy your burger hankerings on the 1st floor and treat yourself to Modern Rooftop’s views and food at 8 Avenue SW, eat your fill of Alberta ranch-specific steak at both locations, and head upstairs in Kensington for Modern Ocean – now we’re spoiled for choice!

Mochi Donuts are the stars at Amaido Café in Calgary’s Chinatown. Owner, Melissa Luu and her family were inspired by their travels, enjoying the chewy rice flour treats in Seattle and San Francisco, and now serve rotating flavours of Thai Tea, Milk Tea, Matcha, Mango, Caramel Miso, and Black Sesame until they sell out - which is most days! Eat in or take out, with pints of ice cream and coffee from local roasters on offer too.

There’s no stopping Tuk Tuk Thai, they’ve now opened a brand new, big and shiny location at 1020 9 Avenue SE in Inglewood for dine in and takeout!

Kensington’s new fun, fast casual, Indie Counter Culture, was 14 years in the making for Rob Crnkovic, but now the time is right for this modern Indian takeaway. Don’t be misled by the lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek menu - Chefs Arshad and Gurpeet are cooking up a storm of elevated and legit Indian food, and making all their chutneys and breads in-house too. Come for the excellent Butter Chicken, and try Gump, Po Peep, Slumdog, and more – you’ll be glad you did. Licensed, with a large patio out back. Open 11 am-10 pm, 7 days.

A new (for most of us) dining experience awaits in the ex-Abruzzo location on 8 Street SW, Calgary. Welltravelled creative cook, Anas Alsurmi came to study at U of A in 2003, and has opened Yemeni Village, serving very traditional Yemeni food, such as Mandi, famous all over the Middle East for meat cooked slowly in a charcoal pit with rice to soak up the drippings from the juicy and tender goat, chicken or lamb. Alsurmi has developed a special oven and technique so it tastes the same here as it does back home! Or try the veggie and egg dishes, as well as Moofa Fish and the most superb Yemeni bread that we can’t stop eating, cooked fast in a hot clay tandoor. BYOB or try the special lime, avocado and mixed fruit juices. 11-10 pm, 7 days.

Hutch is a range of stylish, stainless steel kitchenware designed by a team in Calgary and made in their own factory, and now they’ve opened Hutch Café on 7 Street SW - an upscale French café concept where you can buy the products

and also indulge in Chef Jay’s delicious fare of truffled eggs, signature lobster rolls, and superb mushroom vol au vents. Eat in or take your salads, sandwiches, and snacks into nearby Prince’s Island Park. 9-6 pm, closed Mondays.

Nearly 150 years after Eleanor and Laurent Garneau arrived on the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River, Abel Shiferaw of Sugarbowl, is honouring

their memory with Eleanor & Laurent, a Parisian-style boulangerie and patisserie. Stop by for beautiful pastries and baking, ice cream, sandwiches, and charcuterie – we bet it’s gone before you get home! Thursday-Sunday, 9-5 pm

Edmonton Chef, David Leeder, has teamed up with upscale Wishbone to launch Grey Mare, and these burgers are a big hit. Read more on page 28.

Bearspaw’s Flores & Pine have created a fabulous bespoke dining experience, with a super high service model and exquisite food for your celebrations! Supper Club has a unique prix fixe menu created by Executive Chef Rory McGouran, with uber-social distance dining, so you’ll feel

perfectly safe as well as perfectly special with only 10-12 tables. $100 pp and optional wine pairings.

Downtown Banff has a chic new eatery in the Elk + Avenue Hotel. Farm & Fire features a menu created by acclaimed Chef Scott Hergott of award-winning Banff Gondola Sky Bistro, and centres around slowroasted, wood-fired fare, with a forno oven and a unique rotisserie imported from France, along with sustainable and locally sourced ingredients.

We’re thrilled that two of our favourite food events are still happening this summer: Open Farm Days takes place August 15/16, when farms, ranches and ag-tourism operators open their gates to us (albertafarmdays.ca); and Albertawide dine around festival, Alberta On The Plate, runs August 7-16, strengthening ties between farmers and chefs around the province with multicourse, fixed price menus highlighting local producers, growers, and beverages (albertaontheplate.com).