Burgers to Fill 104 Street Vacancy
After Blue Plate Diner vacates their 104 Street location in favour of their new digs on 124 Street, Royale is moving in.
Helmed by Alexei Boldireff (also the chef at Baijiu), they will offer classic burgers with house-made buns. They aim for a fall opening.
Royale comes on the heels of another burger-focused restaurant, Woodshed on 124 Street.
Openings
- It looks like Pampa will be expanding with a new brand: A Bite of Brazil by Pampa is under construction in one of the bays in the former Sobey’s at 10114 104 Street.
- Gangnam Street Food is opening their second location on July 25, 2019 in West Edmonton Mall’s Phase III food court.
- Another forthcoming ghost kitchen: Sepp’s “classic New York pie with a northern twist” will be available as delivery only, from the folks behind Leva.
- Bodega is opening a fourth location in the Edmonton area, this time in St. Albert.
Upcoming Events
- Chartier is hosting a couple of events this summer: a cocktail evening on July 28, 2019 (tickets are $55 each), and a dinner at the Old Red Barn outside Leduc on August 18, 2019 as a part of Alberta Open Farm Days (tickets are $125 each).
- The 16th annual Summer Latin Fest will be hosted at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish on August 11, 2019. There will be 15 Latin American cultures represented through food, drinks, and entertainment.
- A new event for pizza fanatics to consider: Jason Gregor’s Pizza Pigout on October 23, 2019 is a fundraiser for KidSport.
Reviews
- Crystal shared her experience at Cafe Lavi.
- Graham calls the Highlands Golf Club (the dining room is open to the public) a hidden gem.
- Leduc posted a review of the buffet at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre.
Local News
- K-Days announced their New Fair Food Winners: the Harry Potter-inspired Butterbeer Soft Serve took first place. K-Days runs July 19-28, 2019. Lydia, one of the judges this year, shared her opinion on all of the contenders.
- The Taste of Edmonton, which kicked off its 35th year on July 18, 2019, has garnered some criticism for their increase in food prices. The event goes until July 28.
- Iconoclast Coffee in the Oliver Exchange Building is now open later, offering bar snacks and alcohol.
- Just in time for what finally feels like summer, the NAIT Food Guide (which features local establishments who are helmed or were founded by NAIT grads) has been updated to include a section on patios.
- Another list to consider: OpenTable released their 100 Most Scenic Restaurants in Canada; Edmonton restaurants The Butternut Tree, Fumaca Brazilian Steakhouse, and La Ronde at Chateau Lacombe all made the list.
- Diner en Blanc took place in Edmonton again last week after a two year hiatus. Their secret location this time around was Commonwealth Stadium.
- The Downtown Business Association is looking for opinions about the best Downtown patio – vote for your favourite before August 15, 2019.
- Linda shared a sponsored post about easy entertaining with help from the Italian Centre.
- This week, the Mess Hall Podcast interviews Alberta Food Tours’ Karen Anderson.
Urban Agriculture and Farming
- Camola Foods, a vendor at the Downtown Edmonton Farmers’ Market, has begun raising their own crickets in Wildwood, Alberta, about an hour west of Edmonton.
- Alberta Flavour is a working group hoping to bolster local food purchases by educating large institutions about how they can source more local products.
What I Ate
- I forgot to include this last week – we checked out the 124 Street Grand Market on Sunday, and loved the gruyere and chive bread we picked up from Erica Vliegenthart’s new venture called Laneway Bakery (she used to be the lead baker at District). She’s currently only vending at the Sunday 124 Market, and seems to sell out every week!
Erica of Laneway Bakery
- Mack, Emily, and I stopped at the Hotel Macdonald’s hot dog cart over the weekend and tried their lemonade ($5 for a large cup) and their Loaded BBQ Dog ($6) with hot sauce, house pickles, crispy potato, onions, and mustard. It was a bit of a wait (they make everything to order), but it was great to be able to enjoy the food on their beautiful patio. There were numerous families doing the same – their hot dog and ice cream cart is doing wonders to democratize their patio this summer. It’s open every day from 11am-6pm.
Loaded BBQ Dog from Hotel Macdonald
- We took in K-Days on Sunday, along with what seemed like half of Edmonton! Those Little Donuts are a summer tradition for us; I was glad to see them in town, especially after learning they didn’t make the stop in Calgary for the Stampede.
Those Little Donuts
- Taste of Edmonton returned to the Federal Plaza for a second year – although it is more costly for the festival to rent this space, it will be a hard sell for some to return the event to Churchill Square. The grounds were packed during our visit tonight, though I was sad to see that the fountains were off (hopefully only temporarily!). We tried a handful of items, and really enjoyed the jerk chicken on rice from Irie Foods and the passionfruit and mango sorbet from Little Bear Gelato. We also returned to a few tried and true favourites: the spicy lentils from Langano Skies and the dry spicy chicken from The Lingnan. Speaking of The Lingnan, it was great to learn that Miles Quon will be stepping into the role of Chair after more than ten years of serving on the board.
Dry spicy chicken from The Lingnan
Only Here for the Food 