City of Edmonton Makes Hawrelak Park Food Vendor Announcements
Last week, the City of Edmonton officially announced that Culina to Go will be the food provider in William Hawrelak Park. The contract length is one year.
Rhonda Norman, the Director of River Valley and Horticulture Facilities stated that, “We recognize the importance of working with local providers and we are excited to have Culina operating out of the park. This decision keeps in mind Fresh: Edmonton’s Food and Urban Agriculture Strategy.”
Culina to Go operator Brad Lazarenko had spoken publicly about Culina on the Lake back in December, and launched his crowdfunding campaign for “Edmonton’s only lakeside cafe” earlier this month. Culina previously operated concessions at the Victoria Golf Course, ACT Centre and Rundle Park, before losing those contracts in 2018, and they will resume operations at the Muttart Conservatory after renovations of that facility are complete.
Openings
- Woodrack Cafe is opening a second location, taking over Square One’s spot in the Premium Outlet Mall. They hope to open in mid-February.
Upcoming Events
- Kind Ice Cream is hosting a fundraiser called Ice Cream for Breakfast for Momentum Walk-In Counselling on February 1, 2020. All proceeds from scoops sold from 9am-noon that day will go to the charity.
- The Glenrose Foundation is hosting Charcuterie Night on February 12, 2020. Guests will learn how to put together a balanced charcuterie board; tickets are $99.
- Prairie North’s February Cidermaking 101 workshop is sold out, but they have other workshops with spaces in March, including cider tasting.
- The next Edmonton Eats event, a social enterprise featuring the cuisine of local host families, will highlight Somalia. Tickets for the March 21, 2020 dinner are $75.
Reviews
- The Journal had a mixed experience at tequila and taco bar El Beso.
- Twyla flipped for Fox Burger, noting their burgers are “dream-worthy”.
- Graham shared his picks for the best ribeye steaks to be found in the city.
- Jonny shared some photologs of his visits to SYC Brewing and Toyo Sushi.
Local News
- CBC highlighted Little Duchess that opened at Ritchie Market in October; in the story, the building’s owner shared that “Since Duchess came in we’re up 20 per cent year on year for the number of people coming through.”
- Also from CBC, they analyzed restaurant inspection violations in the Edmonton area in 2018: poor cleaning cloth practices came up the most often at 18%. Inspection reports can be easily searched online through Alberta Health Services’ database.
- This month’s episode of Avenue Magazine’s Sidebar Podcast features Phil Wilson, who discusses cold weather food and his experience as a judge on the Best Restaurants panel.
- Local podcast Yeg.Me interviewed South Island Pie owner Jamie Scott about how he started the company and his work on the food business accelerator UpRoot Food.
- Last week, I shared my (belated) 2019 Year in Review, summarizing what was notable to me over the year.
- A forthcoming book called Tapping the West: How Alberta’s Craft Beer Industry Bubbled Out of an Economy Gone Flat covers the story behind Alberta’s craft beer boom. It is available for pre-order.
- The sixth season of Kevin Kossowan’s From the Wild is now available to stream on demand.
- Victor Hugo shared his recipe for maple-orange carnitas on the Passion for Pork blog.
Beyond Edmonton
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau inspired “doughnut-gate” last week, having purchased several boxes of doughnuts from a locally-owned shop in Winnipeg. I really appreciated the shop’s response to the incredulity.
What I Ate
- Mack, Emily, and I finally stopped in at the new cafe on our street, A Bite of Brazil. They have a great deal right now: a medium brewed coffee and 3 units of cheesebread for just $3.95. The space is warm and inviting, the staff were super-friendly, and Emily couldn’t get enough of the cheesebread! We’ll be back!
Cheesebread and coffee from A Bite of Brazil
- We’ve started a tradition for Emily’s birthday gatherings to always include soft pretzels from Zwick’s, so while picking up our order, we also treated ourselves to some sandwiches. The McZwick really hit the spot.
The McZwick’s is a thing of beauty
- January can be a hard month to get through, but it is a little bit easier to do so with Love Pizza’s January feature – the mac and cheeza! We grabbed their 2 for $22 deal today on the way home for supper.
Mac and cheeza from Love Pizza
Only Here for the Food 