Food Notes for February 10, 2025

Openings

• Ben Staley’s latest project, cocktail bar Kin, is now open in the former Shojo Izakaya space, 10425 121 Street.
• A reader left a comment about Lady Bea’s English Tea House, which opened on February 7 in the former Manor Café on High Street (10109 125 Street)..
• DRTY Ice Cream, which started as a hobby for Abby Ulanimo back in 2020, soft opened their location on February 1. It is located at Station Park in Old Strathcona at 107, 8125 Gateway Blvd.
• The Alfred has replaced Home & Away in the Mercer Warehouse at 10363 104 Street.
• I missed the grand opening of Lagos Flavors back in November, offering Nigerian food and cocktails. Find it north of MacEwan at 10514 111 Street.

Closures

• Okinawa Onigiri has closed.
• Fuwa Fuwa’s location in Windermere closed on January 26. Fuwa Fuwa’s other location on Whyte remains open.

Upcoming Events

• Old Strathcona’s Sweet Treats & Latte Festival has returned, and runs February 7-17. 30 participating businesses are offering a featured drink and/or treats.

Local News

• Cloverdale Coffee hopes to add another reason for folks to visit the river valley. The business joins a family of Riverdale-based businesses, including Little Brick, Dogpatch, and Bread + Butter.
• Bon Ton Bakery’s additional space is definitely a good news story amongst many closures/business changes so far this year.
• Swiss2Go’s Beverly location is now closed, but they will be moving to another location in the “same community”. They are renovating the space and will announce an opening date.
• It’s fun when restaurants approach Valentine’s Day with some sass – Dolly’s has a special Love Hangover menu, for instance, with a drink called Such a Samantha, while Green Onion Cake Man is serving up a Singles Heartbroken Menu to “heal your soul with delicious comfort food”.
• Edify checked out Don’ya Ukraine’s Kitchen, which recently opened their cafe.
• The Gateway sampled Smoke’s Poutinerie’s first Edmonton location.
• RGE RD was featured in Sunset Magazine.
• With all of the talk of tariffs, it’s no better time to think about buying local. Riverbend Garden’s 2025 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) just opened for purchase. Our family had a great experience with this CSA last year.
• On the topic of buying Canadian – given labelling is far from straightforward, explainers like this one from CBC are necessary to really understand where items are sourced and made. Others have taken to creating apps, like this Edmonton-made one called Shop Canadian that allows consumers to scan barcodes to determine whether a product is Canadian-made.

What I Ate

• I was invited to attend the media preview of the Callaloo + Chow: Trini-Chinese Culinary Pop-Up last week. In lieu of their usual dining week, Feed the Soul will be focusing on a couple of special events this year, including this pop-up that celebrates “a fusion of Trinidad & Tobago seasonings and Chinese dishes”, with dishes from Winnie Chen of Fu’s Repair Shop and Nadine Lewis and Pat Ross of Cafe Caribbean. The pop-up takes place at Fu’s from February 19-23, and includes dishes like a geera pow (it was delicious), and sorrel margaritas (very refreshing). Thanks for having me!

Sorrel margaritas from Callaloo + Chow

• I satisfied a craving for King Noodle House last week. We love that their Chinatown Dining Week deal is year-round (at least after 3pm), and is also valid for take-out.

Bun bo hue from King Noodle