Food Notes for July 3, 2023

Seoul Fried Chicken and Padmanadi Expand to Calgary

Edmonton-based restaurants Seoul Fried Chicken and Padmanadi are hoping for a warm welcome as they expand into Calgary this year.

Seoul Fried Chicken (SFC), which offers Korean fried chicken, held its soft opening in Calgary on June 30. Padmanadi, a vegan restaurant, is aiming for a Sept. 15 grand opening. Both locations have been in the works for some time.

“Ever since opening downtown, we were exploring our next move,” said SFC partner Suzanna Yu. Chef Jake Lee, who started SFC in 2016, has always had a vision to expand the brand throughout Alberta, she said. SFC added its second location in Edmonton last summer. “We considered expanding in Edmonton further but wanted to drive more awareness to the brand. So Calgary came up.”

Yu and SFC partner David Shi spent time in Calgary over the past year and a half surveying the Korean fried chicken competition.

“I think for us our product stands out,” said Yu. “The flavours we offer are unique to the ones we’ve tried, and our price point and the amount of food you get is a big factor that has helped us become successful.”

Padmanadi also has two locations in Edmonton, having added a southside location in 2019. Its expansion to Calgary came as a result of wanting to better serve existing customers in that city.

“There is demand for plant-based food in Calgary,” said Maya Richmond, co-owner of Padmanadi. “We have a lot of clients that come into our Edmonton restaurants asking if we would open in Calgary. People would buy so much food to bring back to Calgary and freeze it.”

Richmond suggested that Padmanadi brings a unique take on vegan food to Calgary. “I don’t think there is an Indonesian-Chinese plant-based restaurant in Calgary. Calgary has a lot of different kinds of plant-based restaurants, but none of them have a dine-in, family restaurant experience like Padmanadi would offer.”

Carmen Cheng, a Calgary-based food writer, predicts that Padmanadi will be well-received in the city.

“I think Padmanadi has a really loyal vegan customer base Alberta-wide,” said Cheng. “There will be Edmonton transplants in Calgary that will be happy. Padmanadi has also been delivered here through Uproot Food Collective for a number of years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a following through Uproot.”

As for Seoul Fried Chicken, Cheng said the appetite for Korean food is strong in Calgary, crediting chef Roy Oh for making Korean flavours mainstream. In fact, SFC’s Calgary location is down the block from Oh’s current restaurant, Roy’s Korean Kitchen, in the neighbourhood of Mission.

“Calgary has strong Korean fried chicken brands,” said Cheng, citing Yum Yum BBQ Chicken and WOW Chicken, among others. “So SFC will have to get their brand out there.”

Yu said SFC participated in a recent Mission-based event called the Lilac Festival in early June, and was buoyed by the response.

“The people who chatted with us and bought chicken had already heard about us and tried us in Edmonton,” said Yu. “It’s good to know there’s already customers who know about the brand and can help us promote through word of mouth.”

With the area already home to several sit-down restaurants, SFC’s Mission location at 2100 4 Street SW will have minimal seating, mirroring its original storefront in Old Strathcona that focuses more on take-out. The restaurant will offer about 10 seats indoors and a patio that will open later this summer.

Padmanadi’s restaurant at #110, 8835 McLeod Trail will offer 65 seats, and the location was scouted to meet the transportation demands of diners. “We have lots of clients who live in the suburbs, so we found a space with a lot of parking,” said Richmond. “It’s central but not so downtown that you can’t find parking.”

Both restaurants are committed to keeping prices the same across the province, in spite of higher operating expenses in Calgary (Richmond estimates that rent is 20% higher than in Edmonton). SFC will offer a duplicate menu, while Padmanadi will offer a menu that is a hybrid between the two Edmonton locations, promising that the most popular dishes — ginger beef and curry chicken — will be included.

When asked about future plans, SFC isn’t hiding its ambitions, especially given Yu and Shi have both relocated to Calgary for the expansion.

“So for Calgary specifically our goal is to have two to three restaurants in the next two years, pending how this first location does,” said Yu. “For Edmonton, we want to grow and expand even further. In Edmonton the next moves will be more south into Windermere and north into the Northgate area.”

While the family behind Padmanadi isn’t ruling out additional locations, they are taking it one step at a time. Richmond has also relocated to Calgary and said she is “pouring everything” into the expansion.

“I moved my husband and my two-year-old here. When you say to people that you have three restaurants, some people think you’re a big franchise. But we’re local, we live here,” Richmond said. “My family came to Canada 20 years ago and know that building that community is important. It’s something my dad did in Edmonton. I hope I can do it, too.”

Openings

• Carne Asada, a taqueria, opened downtown at 10508 Jasper Avenue last week.
• The Bell in Scona, a sister establishment to Blowers & Grafton, is now open with a brewery, taproom and event space in Old Strathcona (10416 80 Avenue). They took over the former Polar Park Brewing building (the bell that diners can ring just makes me nostalgic for Bee Bell Bakery, which was in that space until 2013 – I still mourn the loss of their banana cream pies).
• Jacek Chocolate announced that they will be opening their second Edmonton-area storefront at Crestwood Centre this fall. Back in May 2020, Jacek had closed its downtown boutique.

Upcoming Events

• The Old Red Barn is hosting a number of Farm Dinners throughout the summer. These include a Farm to Table Dinner with Alberta Pulse Growers on July 27 (featuring 4 courses that highlight the variety of pulses grown in the province) and a Farm to Flame Dinner with Taste Alberta (featuring 3 courses). Tickets are $160 and $175, respectively.

Local News

• The Downtown Farmers’ Market announced that they will not be renewing their lease in the GWG Building due to the costs of operating the building. The market will be seeking to relocate after the fall/winter season. My family has continued to patronize the market because I believe it is important for those in the core to have access to fresh food, but the steady decline in the market’s viability has been unfortunate but obvious. So much of the potential I wrote about when the GWG location was announced back in 2019 has gone unfulfilled. I look forward to seeing where they land, but again, only time will tell if they will be able to capture some of the magic they used to have back on 104 Street.
• Rosewood Foods and Fu’s Repair Shop donated Canada Day proceeds to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and Bent Arrow, respectively.
• Edmonton’s single-use item bylaw came into effect on July 1. Global interviewed Teresa Spinelli of the Italian Centre who said the transition has been “So far, so good.”
• Twyla covered Pitt County BBQ in the latest issue of Modern Luxuria.
• Edify checked out Thai Venue in Spruce Grove, and shared that NorQuest College president Carolyn Campbell loves Rockin’ Robyn’s Diner.
• Karlynn Johnson (aka The Kitchen Magpie) is releasing her latest cookbook in the fall, called A Very Prairie Christmas Bakebook. It is available for pre-orders until October 31.

What I Ate

• It’s been ages since I’ve been to An Chay, but I’m happy to say the food is just as good as I remembered. It was a hot day, but nothing will stop me from having noodle soup!

Bun Hue from An Chay

• For a pre-concert dinner last week (Mack and I went to the Amanda Marshall show – be still my 90s heart), we returned to our favourite neighbourhood Tzin. The service is always exceptional, and the food never disappoints. Bacon is a must-order, of course.

The bacon from Tzin

• Emily and I took advantage of Dagu’s buy-one-get-one-free bubble tea offer over the weekend. I’m slowly venturing outside my fruit bubble tea comfort zone.

Hokkaido milk tea from Dagu