Openings
- Toronto-based Rosie’s Burgers (serving up smashburgers and milkshakes) is opening up a location in Edmonton in the Brewery District, #108, 11928 104 Avenue NW. It will be their second in Alberta, joining a branch already open in Calgary.
- Brewco Craft Kitchen and Brewery is opening soon at West Edmonton Mall. As the name suggests, it will serve in-house brewed beer.
- Firema promises Edmonton’s “first charcoal shawarma experience”, offering Jordanian flavour. The food truck is parked at 13530 Fort Road NW.
- New Freeze Land is a chain founded in India in 1983, serves grilled sandwiches, cold coffee, and shakes. They opened their first Edmonton location last week at 270 91 Street SW.
- Sangam Social is a new Indian restaurant opening soon in Sherwood Park, at 975 Broadmoor Blvd.
- Ontario-based chain Daal Roti is opening up an Edmonton location at 3645 Gateway Blvd NW.
- Walker Lake Meat Shop is opening a second location, this time on the north side.
- The fifth Chick-Fil-A in the Edmonton region is opening soon in St. Albert, 815 St. Albert Trail, Unit #5A.
Closures
- The Den, the Mercer Warehouse location opened by The Growlery, closed on May 16: “The downtown location has become unsustainable, and we need to focus on the brewery as a whole.” The Den was one of three recipients of the Downtown Retail Project grant in 2023. With its closure, along with Good Goods back in September 2024, Obj3cts is now the only business supported by the grant that remains open.
Upcoming Events
- UFest, Western Canada’s largest Ukrainian Festival, runs May 29-30 in Borden Park. Expect food, entertainment, and vendors.
- Edmonton International BeerFest will be taking place in Churchill Square June 4-9.
Local News
- Kind Ice Cream’s sister location Bestie Ice Cream in Crestwood opened for the season on May 13.
- YEG Exotic, the city’s exotic pop shop, moved to 15003 118 Avenue NW.
- Woodshed Burgers is hosting a gluten-free day on May 20, and The Lingnan is offering a gluten-friendly Chinese buffet on May 28. It’s also worth mentioning that Siu Yeh’s fryers are gluten-free.
- Canadian band The Arkells were in town over the weekend, and enjoyed food at Rosewood during their stop. They shared a glowing post about Rosewood’s food and humanity.
- New Asian Village is celebrating 40 years in business, and was one of the first Indian restaurants that opened in Edmonton. The three daughters of founder Harmeet Kapur each own one of the three current locations.
- Erika Eats Everything reviewed The Colombian.
- Edify rounds up where some food trucks are parked early on this season.
- Explore Edmonton’s Eat Play Laugh pass includes 15 Taste of Edmonton tickets, a 10-day pass to K-Days, and one ticket to the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival. The cost is $59.
Beyond Edmonton
- Dunkin’ Donuts is returning to Canada in late 2026 or early 2027. It officially left the Canadian market in 2018.
What I Ate
- Another work trip down to Calgary meant another fantastic dinner with colleagues, this time at Bridgette Bar. The standouts were the beef ribs with whey polenta and the maple BBQ Alberta rainbow trout.
Beef ribs with whey polenta from Bridgette Bar
- Instead of banh mi for the bus ride home, I was craving a poke bowl, so picked one up at Hula Poke. The tuna portion was pretty good, especially compared with the one from Splash Poke I had a few weeks back.
Ponzu from Hula Poke
- I also stopped in Hey Sugar in Bankers Hall, the first business I’ve encountered close to home where in store, you order and pay on a screen instead of interacting with a staff. Their cupcakes were okay.
Cupcakes from Hey Sugar
- The weather cooperated enough on Monday so we could plant our community garden plot! In addition to our stalwart Sundog Organic tomatoes, the kids picked out corn and zucchini to plant, which we’ve not yet tried in our plot. We will see how it goes.
Here’s to another garden season!
Only Here for the Food 