ESCAPE ORDINARY EXPLORE OPTIONS

Looking for a unique way to WOW your guests?

Bring the hippest street food vibe to your special day.

Meraki On The Go is our gourmet ‘chef’s at the wheel’, food-focused travelling kitchen.

It’s available for private functions –spring, summer and fall.

From classic food truck fare to out of this world gourmet, you can personalize your food truck experience.

Prefer a more traditional style of dining?

Need to feed 2 – 120 people? Meraki Cuisine will cater and deliver, or seriously impress your guests with on-site chef services.

3, 4 or 5 course customized and inventive menu options for lunch, brunch, afternoon tea or dinner.

Shabbat Dinners • High Holidays • Passover

Shiva Meals • Simchas

With new Health Canada guidelines on drinking, Linda

During my university days, I toted a carton of milk to parties, while my pals downed bargain basement beer, Black Tower and Baby Duck. Finally, I yielded to peer pressure and during a theatre tour (in which, surprisingly, I was the female lead) obligingly bought a bottle of wine at a northern Alberta liquor store. It was Prince of Denmark Cherry Heering. I downed the whole thing over several hours, passed out and this made everybody happy. Funny how people are thrilled to see a teetotaller drink.

I have not bought a bottle of that stuff since. But I am no longer a goody two shoes. I have learned to tell the difference between a fine buttery chardonnay and the stuff that comes in cardboard boxes.

On a stressful children’s theatre tour in northern B.C., the other woman in the company and I drowned our sorrows at dives and bars in too many towns to remember. She taught me to drink white rum and seven, and also how to behave in a bar fight, which is surprisingly useful information.

When I lived in Los Angeles, my drinking was limited to inexpensive wine and margaritas. When a gentleman friend invited me to the Polo Lounge, the quality of cocktail was higher, but I have no memory of what I drank, only that a famous actor liked our looks and bought us a round of drinks. Then I became a scotch drinker. This is when I served on several national boards, and decided I was A Person To Be Reckoned With. I drank gallons of scotch, mostly in late night strategy sessions in Toronto hotel suites with The Men of the West. I felt that to be taken seriously, I absolutely had to match the men (all huge and brawny) drink for drink. I will never forget one gothic hangover, in which I opened the door to room service at 7 a.m. (after falling into bed, drowning in scotch, at 4 a.m.) to see the room service waiter, a lovely Spaniard, literally recoil in shock at the sight of me. He held out his hands as if to quell a baby, and in a very distressed, yet comforting voice, said, “Madam, it will be okay. I will be back with more coffee right away. It will be all right.”

Those days are gone. I can’t imagine being able to drink like that again. The first time I was invited to appear at Wordfest, I was so full of myself that I bought a bottle of absinthe to celebrate, thinking I was channeling Toulouse Lautrec, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and whoever else hung around the Boulevards de Paris. I have not bought a bottle of absinthe since, not only because of the cost, but also because of its potency. I wonder if my liver has ever forgiven me.

Older, a little wiser, still a pandemic hermit, I drink with more curated taste. Now I limit my very pleasurable drinking to smooth chardonnay, and Writer’s Tears Irish Whiskey. This makes life much simpler. For many, alcohol has become a way to dull the boredom and anxiety. I think we are all just trying to do the best we can, and if a drink (or two a week, if we're obeying the doctors) helps, so be it. And who am I to judge?

YYC FOOD & DRINK EXPERIENCE

March 17-26, 2023

Celebrate Calgary’s largest prix-fixe dining festival at over 70 of YYC’s favourite restaurants. Enjoy 10 delectable days of dining and creative culinary events.

— YYC EXP SIGNATURE EVENTS—

River Café with Vancouver’s St. Lawrence, FRIDAY MAR 17

Rancher’s Dinner at Modern Steak, SATURDAY MAR 18

Clos de la Oyster Barre with Vancouver’s Boulevard at Teatro, SATURDAY MAR 25 foodanddrinkexp.com | #YYCEXP2023

Fortuna’s Row with Top Chef Canada Winner Tre Sanderson, SUNDAY MAR 26 and more to come!