On October 17, 2011, the Harvest Room at the Hotel MacDonald reopened after a nine-month hiatus. The space had to be meticulously repaired after extensive water damage to the ceiling, but the closure also meant that Executive Chef Andrew Ihasz had ample time and space to revamp the menu and locate local producers to source [...]

Edmonton may be descending towards winter, but the temperature outdoors was far from everyone’s minds at the Blue Chair Cafe on Friday. For two nights, the restaurant was transformed into a juke joint, with blues artist Kat Danser at the helm (or as Kat put it, a “Saskatchewan bush party with a roof”). Mack, Jill [...]

Even as the seasons are changing, enthusiasm for food trucks in Edmonton continues. Interestingly enough, the truck that is propelling that momentum into autumn isn’t really a truck at all! Well, at least not yet. Chris Delaney, owner of Big City Sandwich, will be launching his truck in May 2012. Until then, to help generate [...]

On Saturday night, Mack and I joined a dozen others at the Queen of Tarts who had snagged a reservation to their first ever dinner. A $45 prix fixe meal, this special event was a way for the cafe to ease into evening service. Although proprietor Linda Kearney has said that she would like to [...]

Two weeks ago, I finally made it out to The Marc. At one point this year, The Marc was the “most talked about” establishment, partly due to the lineage that connects it to the dearly departed Il Portico (Patrick Saurette was the restaurant’s general manager). But in the months that followed, it had been supplanted [...]

Mack had a meeting on Saturday afternoon in Old Strathcona, so we decided that it would be a good excuse to spend part of the day there – have brunch, check out the market, go window shopping. It was such a beautiful fall day, perfect for a stroll. I also love the nuggets that only [...]

Prior to checking out a show at Western Canada Fashion Week two weeks ago, May and I were intent on grabbing a bite to eat downtown. Though our original plan was to meet at MRKT, it turned out the restaurant was booked for a private function. As a result, we ended up heading down the [...]

Although there are many restaurants within walking distance of my office, some which are quite good (Padmanadi, Basil Leaf and Pho Tau Bay included), when winter descends, I often wish for a closer alternative that is equally consistent. The day may have finally arrived! Ellen’s Aunt and Uncle, Ken and Lisa Quach, took over Pho [...]

Though we would have preferred to have had every meal from a food truck, that just wasn’t possible with so many vendors out of commission over the weekend. So we filled in the blanks with restaurants, which didn’t turn out so bad at all either. Blink Though we had good intentions to walk over to [...]

I’ve written in the past that Fort Edmonton Park is my favourite City attraction, but it has been a while since I’ve been able to enjoy it in on my own. So for my birthday this year, I asked Mack to take me to the Park. The day started out with the kind of weather [...]