Modern Luxuria Vol 10 March 2021

ALBERTA BEEF SHORT RIB Smokey Bear $38 | 8223 104 Street NW | www.smokeybearyeg.com

Smokey Bear is a truly unique and ambitious restaurant. Chef owner Riley Aitken is an Alberta boy who followed his culinary impulses first to Denmark and then on to Australia. There he trained with chef James Viles at one of Australia’s top ranked restaurants, Biota Dining, where Viles had elevated Aussie open-fire barbeque to the level of modern haute cuisine. When Aitken returned to Canada, he bought the former Accent Lounge space off Whyte and traded acacia logs for Canadian maple, applying these primeval techniques to Albertan ingredients. This brightly oak-clad minimalist space is a joy, gently perfumed by smoke and the swirling juice of Edmonton’s largest natural wine list.

Smokey Bear’s beef short rib connects all the dots from Down Under up over to Whyte Ave. They take these gorgeous grass-fed cuts—sourced from Pine Haven Farm in Wetaskiwin—and quickly seal them over a scorching hot flame, then place them in a braise for several hours. They’re then ferried onto a higher mantle above the fire to further soften and gather in clean maple smoke. Finally, they’re seared on the grill and shined up with a malt glaze and a dazzling flakey salt that melts in your mouth about as fast as the beef. If that wasn’t enough, they include a dollop of their harissa paste made from house charred then fermented peppers. Wash it all back with a natty big red (yes, natty big reds do exist!) and you too can feel like the first person to tame fire.