Food Notes for January 13, 2025

Openings

• Downtown Edmonton has another sushi restaurant called Ester, at 9828 101A Avenue (former Vicki’s Gourmet Bistro in the Citadel Theatre). It is currently only open for pick-up and delivery, with a grand opening soon.
• Cocktail bar Golden Sparrow opened last week in the former Northern Chicken space on 124 Street.
• Toronto-based chain Kinton Ramen will be opening a location in Edmonton in Terra Losa in the summer.
• A second location of Chipotle is now open in Edmonton at Manning Town Centre at 350 Ebbers Boulevard NW, Unit 1.

Closures

• The Mash has closed their Windermere location. Their Whyte Ave and St. Albert locations remain open.

Upcoming Events

• Wyrdstock, billed as “YEG’s Original Wyrdbier Adventure”, is on from January 8-February 16. You can pick up a passport and drink your way through unique beers offered at 19 craft brewers. 
• Great to see that the duo behind Vagabond Pop-ups (Chefs Christine Sandford and Roger Letourneau) are returning to Edmonton’s Monolith Taproom for a fondue experience. Unfortunately, the event on January 26 is already sold out.

Local News

• This year’s nomination form for the Tomato Top 100 Best Things to Eat or Drink list is now open – submit your favourites by January 23.
• Co-owner Rosaly DeVenz was interviewed by CBC about the closure of the Italian Bakery’s Chinatown location. The building will be put up for sale/lease.
• Lucky Supermarket’s new location was also featured on CBC.
• Edmonton AM highlighted forthcoming Chinatown café and bar Boa and Hare, which hopes to open by the end of January.
• Irrational Brewing and Doughnut Party collaborated to create the Raspberry Bismarck Pastry Sour.
• Edify checked out WildRoots Bistro in St. Albert and Lan Noodle in Old Strathcona.
• I love that Pals did their version of “Pals Wrapped”, featuring their year in numbers and favourites, including serving up a total of 29,862 nuggets, and 18,988 orders of take-out.
• I missed sharing a segment Linda and I recorded with CBC Radioactive about our Faves We Crave list.