A Capella Catering Adds Restaurant to its Roster
After more than 30 years in business, A Cappella Catering has added a restaurant to its operations: Prestons, the eatery and lounge inside downtown’s Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel.
A Cappella’s chief operating officer, Kim Mahoney, still sometimes catches herself with how surreal it feels to be running a restaurant. “I look over and my 10-year-old son is sitting at a table doing his math homework,” she laughed. “It’s like something I see in the movies. Is this real?”
Prestons reopened on March 1 after being closed since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Mahoney said the hotel approached the catering company a little more than a year ago about taking on all food services at the facility, including the first-floor restaurant.
“They third-party it because it’s not something they want to do themselves,” said Mahoney. “We catered a few events for them, and we have the experience.”
A Cappella has been offering catering and room service at the nearby Matrix Hotel for nearly a decade, and in 2021, it took over food services at Fort Edmonton Park. But a restaurant wasn’t really in the plan.
“Our founder Todd (Rutter) had run a little café before going into catering, and had no intentions of doing a restaurant again,” said Mahoney. “So the restaurant is not anything A Cappella has done before, but it’s exciting. I see so much potential.”
Prestons is open seven days a week for breakfast and dinner. It was important to Mahoney to ensure the menu reflected the best of what A Cappella could offer. “It’s hard to take a catering menu and turn it into a restaurant,” said Mahoney. “We wanted that ‘A Cappella’ flair and that ‘A Cappella’ touch.”
A popular beet salad on the catering menu inspired the Heritage Salad on the dinner menu, and the top catering seller, the Glory Bowl — made up of layers of rice noodles, protein, and vegetables — appears as the Buddha Bowl.
Items from A Cappella’s food truck, Curbside, also feature prominently, including the mac and cheese and fried chicken. Mahoney found ways to incorporate Curbside’s house-smoked meats onto the menus, too.
“We made use of the Austin brisket and Montreal smoked meat on our breakfast benny and skillet,” said Mahoney. “We’re making the brisket into an entrée as a dinner option. And the smoked meat sandwich is traditional like Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal, that big ball of meat overflowing so that you can hardly wrap your mouth around it.”
It helps to have access to built-in clientele from hotel guests, and Mahoney expects Prestons will be even busier when the Oilers playoff run begins later in April. But she hopes to raise awareness about the restaurant with those who live and work in the area, especially since Prestons had been closed for nearly three years.
“Downtown is saturated with a lot of restaurants,” said Mahoney. “But we noticed that on Sunday and Monday nights not a lot of restaurants are open. We wanted to bring back comfort food and nostalgic dinners.”
Mahoney and her team are in the process of planning their first special event, a Mother’s Day brunch with chef-attended stations. They intend to begin hosting weekly prime rib dinners (complete with Yorkshire pudding and family-style sides) on Sunday nights in mid-May.
“We have high standards for our food and quality,” said Mahoney. “Everything is scratch-made and done in-house. From the muffins to the sauces to the meats. And we pride ourselves on our service.”
Disclosure: My family and I were invited for a complimentary breakfast at Prestons, and were also given a take-and-bake meal.
Openings
- Ale Architect is the latest taproom to open on Happy Beer Street. They serve Birch and Bear Pizza. Find them at 9918 76 Avenue.
- Vietnamese restaurant Miss Saigon’s second location is now open in Windermere (6187 Currents Drive).
- Fox Burger is expanding to Leduc this summer.
- Fuzion Donuts is celebrating their grand opening at 9974 170 Street on April 22.
- The third Ribeye Butcher Shop in the Edmonton area is now open in Terra Losa (9512 170 Street).
Upcoming Events
- The annual Culinary Arts Cook-Off fundraiser returns to Highlands School on April 22, 2023. This year is a “cookie-off” edition, and tastes are sold for a loonie each.
Local News
- Atlas Steak + Fish has re-opened their location at the Starlight Casino in West Edmonton Mall.
- Congratulations to The Colombian on the fifth birthday of their Glenora location.
- L’OCA Quality Market, a full-service grocery with two restaurants, will be setting up a flagship location in Sherwood Park. It is expected to open in spring 2024, with an additional location planned for Edmonton.
- Edmonton was included on the Forbes list of 23 Best Places to Travel. RGE RD and Fu’s Repair Shop are named as culinary destinations.
- Maki Maki was closed by Alberta Health Services after a recent inspection.
What I Ate
- We’re happy to have the Fawkes Coffee and Doughnuts pop-up back on 104 Street! The Captain Crunch donut was calling my name, but the cookie monster flavour ended up being the stand-out for me.
Donuts from Fawkes
- We were fortunate to be #gifted one of A Cappella’s take-and-bake dinner for Easter. The brisket was super tender and was enough for multiple meals for our little family; we’ve purchased several of their turkey and ham take-and-bakes before, so the quantity and quality was no surprise! Thanks again to A Cappella for the gift of time.
Our Easter spread from A Cappella
Only Here for the Food 