An exceptional dining experience built on a friendship and a shared dream — Sabor

A Restaurant Built On Friendship

SABOR is very easy on the eyes, relatively easy on the ears and kindest to the stomach. In fact, no matter where inside Sabor you sit, and no matter how long you sit there, you will experience the comfort of family and home while enjoying the flavours of Iberian coastal cuisine.

WORDS BY BRANDY BELITSKY PHOTOGRAPHY BY JELENA KOVACEVIC & TWEEDY STUDIOS

Owned by life-long best friends Christian Mena and Adelino (Lino) Oliveira, SABOR was a kismet venture that accidentally started a local restaurant empire. Born in Chile and Portugal, Christian and Lino grew up together in northeast Edmonton’s Cromdale neighbourhood — a cultural melting pot. The two eventually found themselves working together before school and on the weekends, for a local rib joint called “Bones”, which was then downtown Edmonton’s go-to rib spot. Fast forward to 2008, Christian and Lino were scouting out buildings for their future restaurant and happened to drive by the old Bones location. To their astonishment, they found a “restaurant opportunity” sign hanging in the window. However, SABOR didn’t just start here.

In 1993, inspired by his family’s love for food, Lino moved back to Portugal with his wife Debbie to open up a restaurant, while Christian started a singing career as lead singer of Latin pop-funk band Maracujah.The two kept in touch over the years and still talked of someday owning a restaurant together. Lino dove deep into his family roots, mastering family recipes and learning everything he could about Portuguese cuisine. With honesty being a strong trait of the Portuguese people, his customers became his teachers, and he very quickly learned what people loved to eat - and what they didn’t.

In 2007, with the downturn in the European economy, Lino and Debbie returned to Edmonton. With over a decade of

experience in Portuguese cuisine under their belts, plans went underway to open a restaurant fueled by Lino and Christian’s combined passions for food and music. It was here that SABOR was born.

With the plans being born during a boom, SABOR, originally named Sabor Divino, unexpectedly opened its doors right at the beginning of an unprecedented recession. The first few years were anything but easy, but after a rebrand to “SABOR”, a few menu changes and the opening of the Ice District, the crowds began to flood in. This inspired Christian and Lino

to build a bar downstairs to accommodate guests that were waiting for their tables. They offered drinks and a small tapas menu and over time, realized that some people were just going for the wine and tapas bar. They decided to give this area its own branding which they called “Bodega”. This was the beginning of something even bigger than SABOR.

You can now find five Bodega locations across the city, including three in Edmonton, one in St. Albert and a brand new location in Sherwood Park. Bodega is the perfect spot if you’re looking for a more casual dining experience, offering authentic tapas and a wide array of house and feature wines. The Bodega locations are quite famous for their themed white walls. Christian and Lino have spent countless hours hunting for unique items in thrift shops and on Facebook’s Marketplace. These items are spray painted white and strategically placed on one of four of the Bodega location’s walls. If you’re looking for an incredible fine dining experience however, SABOR is the place to be. SABOR’s menu, designed by Chef Lino, is stacked with authentic dishes that will whisk you away to Spain and Portugal. With a little bit of something for everyone, their menu features an excellent selection of tapas, meat and cheese boards, soups, salads, rice and pasta dishes, fresh sustainable seafood, landfood and more. They also occasionally offer a seafood bar which was shut down during Covid, but has recently been making reappearances over the past weeks.

Whether you’re catching a concert or a game at Roger’s Place, or just looking for a great dining experience downtown with your friends, SABOR welcomes you into the hearts of two friends who built a restaurant empire from a shared dream.

www.sabor.ca