Savour Selects

The Guru pizza at Avatara

Avatara Pizza 3406 3rd Ave. N.W. 403.457.4992 avatarapizza.com

Veg In YYC East Meets West Bowl.

Veg-In YYC 215 6th Ave. S.E. 587.351.5253 veginyyc.com GLUTEN-FREE PIZZA NEVER TASTED BETTER For 11 years, Avatara Pizza has been providing Calgarians with authentic- tasting pizza. They started back in the day toting a pizza cart, progressed to the Avatara Food Truck and finally a sit-down restaurant in Parkdale. Three years later, they changed their menu to provide healthier choices and gluten-free pizza increasing their customer following to include those willing to drive across town to indulge. Owner and General Operations Manager Chris Iturbe has a passion for the science behind food and works hard to perfect new recipes using methods he tests many times before adding to the menu. His travels inspire new recipes like the Taco Fiesta pizza he created this year for the (unfortunately cancelled) Calgary Stampede. During a trip to Mexico, he obtained an authentic family recipe for tacos al pastor, this became the inspiration for this pizza available on his menu. Sauces are made in house, ingredients sourced locally, and toppings always fresh. Follow them on social for future expansion plans.*

SMALL SPACE BIG HEART

When Sehra Bindal, a vegetarian, started Veg-In YYC four years ago, she set her mind on opening a restaurant featuring vegan and vegetarian cuisine fused with Indian flavours. With previous experience owning restaurants and hotels, Bindal wanted to create a unique dining experience in downtown Calgary for plant-based eaters. The menu offers vegan burgers, samosa chaat, veggito wraps, bowls, flatbreads and chai tea. Her team is involved in community, supporting local events where there is a fit, has won awards in a variety of categories and is often sought out by celebrities visiting Calgary as her walls are adorned with photos of those who have dropped in for a bite. Bindal also seeks out local bakeries who make vegan desserts to offer in her cafe so she can focus on the savoury items.* A NAME YOU CAN TRUST Cal & Gary is the newest brand addition to Calgary Co-op grocery stores and based on the name of our city. The products feature ‘isms’ that Calgarians will understand and appreciate. For example, milkchocolate raisins are sweet, like a game-seven victory. Chocolate bridge mix is finally a bridge we can agree on and kettlecooked peanuts are nuttier than parade day traffic. The Artizan bread is crusty like rush hour on Deerfoot. You get the picture. Cal & Gary knows a thing or two about how Calgarians eat. A line-up of new items includes several of the well-known food items you love to buy and eat, like burgers, utilizing many locally sourced products. Founders & Farmers is the means to providing quality goods in the stores ensuring their products play a role in your food story. A local company, supporting local, bringing you the best of the best, this is what Calgary Co-op is all about.*

A WELL-TRAVELED MENU Accomplished fine dining chef, Ashish Damle, has worked in kitchens around the world over the last 25 years of his career. He left India more than 20 years ago with a few stops along the way before finally landing in Calgary. He spent some time as the chef de cuisine at OEB working in both locations before scooping the empty space they left on Edmonton Trail a couple of years ago. It’s here he and his wife Mira opened Namo Café and Bistro, a breakfast and lunch café that has dabbled in opening for dinner but are currently closed in the evenings. One look at his menu and you will see the inspiration from his travels. The menu is meat based but many of the meals can be made vegan or vegetarian. As they try to navigate these strange times, the plan is to focus more on take-out and delivery in the future and re-open for the evening crowd. We enjoyed the black forest bacon benny and look forward to returning for the marsala chicken and waffles, far east duck bowl and vegan farmers perogies.* Calgary Co-op Grocery Stores calgarycoop.com

Black Forest Bacon Benny

Namo Café Bistro 824 Edmonton Tr. N.E. 403.475.7010 namonaturals.com

Beirut Street Food's shawarma

Beirut Street Food Bay C, 7220 Fairmount Dr. S.E. 403.512.7772 beirutstreetfood.ca AUTHENTIC LEBANESE FOOD WITH A TWIST Within a few minutes of speaking with Ramzal Salem, you immediately feel comfortable, like chatting with an old friend you haven’t seen in years. Ramzal Salem's parents are from Lebanon, and she, like so many other entrepreneurs, wanted to showcase her food and family traditions by opening a restaurant. Four years ago, Salem set to work designing, purchasing, decorating and creating the recipes which led to opening Beirut Street Food. What sets her apart from other shawarma eateries is they use a charcoal grill that she uses to cook the meat on a spit horizontally infusing it with a hint of smoke you won’t find in other Lebanese restaurants. She makes fresh pita bread every day, forming and cooking the bread one pita at a time, on a grill right behind the counter where you can watch the magic. In addition, she uses local, fresh ingredients and imports spices from the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon to grind them making her own delicious za'atar, also available for purchase.

V-IS FOR VICTORY… AND V-BURGER

Chef Andrea Harling (Made Foods) has come up with a spectacular vegan menu at 17th Ave.’ V-Burger. With a vast choice of patties, sides, sauces and Camie Leard desserts, this cute little burger joint is a dream for vegan diners. Chef Andrea’s favourite? The chickpea kimchi burger. We had the creamy mushroom burger and loved it. But the star of the show for us was the milkshake. Choose from soy, oat or coconut milk bases for V-Burger’s proprietary ice cream mix and Chef Andrea Harling at V-Burger prepare to enjoy one of the finest milkshakes you’ve ever tasted. We had the strawberry with coconut milk ice cream, but are confident any of the 11 flavours would be fantastic. Watch for more of these as the model is designed for franchising and a health-conscious fast-food place like this is sure to catch on.*

V-Burger 819 17th Ave. S.W. 587.387.7272 heyvburger.com

BREW ON PREMISE

Village Craft Winemaker is simply the best!

Meet passionate Sommelier, Lori. She loves to share her knowledge to help you craft your favourite wine. It’ll be a fraction of the cost – in the state-ofthe art Uwinemaker. The only Brew on Premise store in Calgary with a Sommelier.

45 minutes of your time gives you 30 bottles of quality wine

villagecraftwinemaker.ca

Close to the north end of Chinook Centre #105, 358-58th Ave. SW Calgary 403.276.1967

Farm and Fire's chicken rillette

Farm and Fire Banff, AB banffjaspercollection. com/dining/farm-fire

The Beltliner's beef carpaccio

The Beltliner 243 12th Ave. S.W. 587.955.1555 thebeltliner.com FARM, FIRE AND FALL If you’re headed to Banff this fall (and you should, it’s beautiful this time of year!) don’t miss the latest offering from Pursuit Group: Farm and Fire in the Elk and Avenue hotel. This beautiful new space offers a robust menu of thoughtful but accessible food by Head Chef David Ryc. For the starter, don’t miss the chicken rillette with bannock featuring a sweet Saskatoon-berry preserve that provides a perfect counterbalance to the profoundly flavourful rillette. This is one of our more pleasant surprises of dining in 2020 so far. We very much enjoyed the porchetta for our main course and a great twist on an old classic “Baked Alberta” for dessert. Make a night of it, book a room and enjoy some of their great cocktails as well.*

STARBELLY TAKES ON THE BELTLINER We love this marriage of two great Calgary eateries as the Starbelly Group (under the leadership of Managing Partner Derek Mihalik) took ownership of The Beltliner in June with a vision to have fun with high-low concepts, expand the dinner and cocktail menus and grow the Coffeeland takeaway program with decadent, from-scratch pastries and house-made sandwiches. We had the beef carpaccio, which was beautiful as well as a delicious and also enjoyed the sweet and cool banoffee pie – a diner classic done well here. The expanded cocktail menu also has a few delightful surprises and, when health regulations allow, the Beltliner will feature a weekly tableside sousvide cocktail for your sipping pleasure.* WHO’S WHO OF THE WHO’S NEW While the pandemic has unfortunately seen the closure of some of our favourite eateries, others have opened their doors over the last few months. We’ve been able to try a few of these great newcomers and are looking forward to noshing on the rest! Here’s a list of what’s new on Calgary’s food scene: Pizza is on the menu with Fresh Slice opening in East Village and Our Daily Brett’s pivot to Actually Pretty Good Pizza in Bankview. Asian influences pervade as Paper Lantern serves up some Vietnamese deliciousness in Chinatown and Terry Ke (Tokyo Street Market, Ke) opens his third spot, Ikusa, in Bridgeland. Speaking of Bridgeland, Made by Marcus and L’il Empire take over the old Tazza spot across from Bridgeland Market. Leslie Echnio expands Annabelle’s Kitchen into the core to take over the Blink spot on Stephen Avenue, while the folks at Thank You Hospitality (Native Tongues, Calcutta Cricket Club) transform Two Penny to the very cool shopand-eat A-1 Bodega in Victoria Park.

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