Category: Edmonton

Roberta Brandes Gratz on Urban Development

In celebration of Edmonton’s designation as the Cultural Capital of Canada for 2007, the city has been holding a number of special events, including a speakers series inviting experts from a wide variety of areas to offer their opinions on municipal life, arts, and culture.

Roberta Brandes Gratz, an urban critic, journalist, and consultant based out of New York City, spoke to a crowd of over 200 gathered in the Maclab Theatre at the Citadel on Thursday night. My knowledge of urban planning is murky at best, and while it took me a while to really get into her speech, by the end, she had me convinced of her philosophy of growing for the local as opposed to the transient, and optimistic, based on some of her cited examples of cities reborn, for what is possible.

She clarified the difference between density and overcrowding, and alongside the well-worn idea of building up and not out, emphasized the need for areas that are not only walkable (i.e., services available within a reasonable parameter), but that also incubate local economies. I really responded to her example of a visit to a new Home Depot in what must be mid-town Manhattan. Constructed like the department stores of old (utilizing several floors in a confined space), she mentioned passing by a small boutique on her way back to the subway, and ended up buying something from the store. If not for Home Depot, she said, she likely would not have “found” the store at all. Ms. Gratz did cite Whyte Avenue, which she visited that afternoon, as Edmonton’s own successful application of this concept – where larger retail enterprises can coexist with smaller businesses.

On the topic of affordable housing, all of her observations seemed very much to be common sense – it is up to the city (and ultimately, the people who will be living in the area) to force developers include more units of affordable housing (within mixed income buildings) and create spaces with a diversity of uses (e.g. parks). Too much is at stake – the sustainability, growth, and with time, rebirth of neighbourhoods – to be left at the charitable whim of developers.

Ms. Gratz also touched on the idea of marketing and nurturing for the local as opposed to tourists. In her research on Edmonton, she came across an article about the controversial renovations to the Art Gallery of Alberta and its $88 million dollar price tag. Had the consultation process been done right, she said, residents would not have had to choose between the lesser of several designs, but would have been asked whether or not this was a worthwhile project at all. Similarly, she questioned the need for the proposed welcome gates to greet drivers coming into the city – the money is better spent for people who already live in the city; visitors are drawn to vibrant, thriving municipalities.

Ms. Gratz was gracious enough to field questions from the audience for forty-five minutes, and likely could have continued if the host did not pull her off stage. She was asked at one point about the idea of building a new hockey arena downtown. Earlier in her talk, she had mentioned that stadiums and entertainment centres were black holes of sorts for locals, and really only stood to attract visitors. To answer this question, she drew laughs by first insisting that she knew enough not to mess with the Canadian love of hockey. But that said, she indicated that it was possible to develop a harmonious arena, as long as it was right for the community and visitors were not of the ‘get in, get out’ variety. We’ll see what the newly (re)elected city councillors do with this proposal in the coming months…

All in all, it was a stimulating evening of thoughts, ideas, and precedent that left me with a sense of optimism, and a desire to learn more about urban (re)development.

Better than a Buffet: Olive Garden

It’s a wonder how I’ve managed to have this blog for nearly a year and not yet have written a post about Olive Garden.

As chain restaurants go, Olive Garden is pretty consistent – service is friendly, portions are generous, and of course, the unlimited salad/soup and breadsticks that accompany entree orders deserve praise of their own.

Dickson and I hadn’t been to the restaurant in quite some time (their long wait times are a deterrent for empty stomachs), but despite the expected 25 minutes of idle hunger that night, we stuck it out.

It didn’t take us too long to decide on our dishes – I chose the Lasagna Classico (layers of pasta, meat sauce and mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan and romano cheese), while Dickson opted for the Chicken and Gnocci Veronese (sautéed chicken with traditional Italian dumplings and roasted red peppers in a parmesan and ricotta cheese sauce). Of course, we both knew the pasta would play second fiddle to his breadstick obsession.

After some salad, soup and breadsticks, our entrees arrived. I was curious to see how their lasagna would taste compared to Sorrentino’s, and I’m sad to say that the latter won this battle. The pasta was a tad overcooked, and there wasn’t enough sauce to moisten the too-dry meat contained within the layers. Dickson’s gnocci, on the other hand, was excellent. I really should have ordered that dish instead.

Everyone has those select few establishments that seemingly can do no wrong. Olive Garden is one such place for me.

Lasagna Classico

Chicken and Gnocci Veronese

Edmonton Corn Maze 2007

Mack and I made a trip out to the Edmonton Corn Maze on Monday night, and like last year, brought a camera with us to capture the experience.

Like tourists!

This year, the maze was shaped to celebrate the Edmonton Oil Kings, though really, the aerial shots and overall design are good for publicity only – once inside the corn field, the shape is irrelevant.

We arrived at dusk as planned, paid admission, and entered the maze just after 7 o’clock. We were both shocked at how low the stalks had become. The website had warned than an early frost and winds had caused the corn to die and fall over, but it was worse than I had thought. When on the lookout bridge, Mack and I were actually able to count the number of people “getting lost” in the maze (twenty), something not possible during our visit the year before. We hope the corn stalks hold up for the Maze’s Farm of Fear event that starts next week.

Poor corn.

View from the lookout bridge

Mack, ever impatient or adventurous (more likely a bit of both), decided to take us through a stalk-infested short cut. And a few photo stops later, we were out.

Dying corn stalks

A cob of corn

The website pegs the average time spent in the maze to be over an hour, but with some creative directionality, we made it out in less than 30 minutes (besting our 40 minute route last year). It occurred to us for a second to go through it again honestly, but with the chilly conditions, we decided it wasn’t worth it.

We’ll be back next year, hopefully earlier in the season, armed again with a camera, my crank-powered flashlight, mittens, but this time with a desire to finish the maze without self-made shortcuts.

Theatre Network: “A Beautiful View”

My first show of this theatre season was Theatre Network’s A Beautiful View, showing at the Roxy Theatre (with newly renovated bathrooms!). Website synopsis in a nutshell:

“Two nameless women come together, drop out of each other’s lives, and meet again to the realization that some things are impossible to give up.”

The two women were played by Davina Stewart and Caroline Livingstone, and were the principal reason behind why I decided to see this play. But even now, after some reflection, I’m still not sure what to make of it.

The play began on a laboriously slow note – without any speaking for the first few minutes. And between the dim lighting and soundtrack of crickets, May and I struggled to keep up. The set throughout was very much bare bones (something I am not used to seeing at the Roxy), almost to the point of Fringe-like simplicity. This did ensure that the audience would not be distracted from the two leads.

The constant repetition of the phrase “nothing is enough” (whether it is interpreted as nothing can ever be sufficient, or to have nothing is fine) was and interesting thread throughout, especially as the women traversed jobs, marriages, and deaths in the family.

At the crux of it, I did resonate with the central message of the play – questioning society’s constant need to label everything (e.g. “couple”, “heterosexual”) because I know I am sometimes guilty of jumping to naming as the easy conclusion. I could see that for these women, whether they were friends and/or lovers really didn’t matter – their connection, and only the connection that they felt with one another without judgment or expectation was important.

The ending was another story entirely, and one that felt to me like a cop-out. But I am willing to admit that I may simply not have understood or appreciated the possibility of it coming across as beautifully simple.

A Beautiful View wasn’t the best way to start off the new theatre season, but then again, it can only get better from here.

Brought to you by Sugar: Vi’s for Pies

In an effort to kill two birds in one night, May and I followed up on a new restaurant with dessert at a cafe we had both been meaning to visit for some time – Vi’s for Pies (13408 Stony Plain Road).

Not too far from our next and last destination, we had just enough time to ogle the dessert case and have something to round off our meal. There were at least fifteen tempting selections to choose from, including various cheesecakes, tarts, cakes, and pies. May could not resist trying their mango cheesecake, while I opted for a lemon tart and a hot chocolate. But beyond sweets, Vi’s also serves homemade soups and sandwiches,and instead of the traditional paper menu, display their daily creations on a chalkboard and easel moved to accomodate patrons still deciding.

While we waited for our plates, we admired the cute outdoor patio (it reminded me of the location of Carrie’s simu-date in an episode of Sex & the City), and is definitely worth checking out in warmer seasons. The dining area itself wasn’t too shabby either, featuring a fireplace and walls painted in a warm red tone.

Our desserts were ready in no time, and we were both pleased with the presentation – little florets of whipped cream dusted with cocoa accented the plate. When we sampled our treats, however, we found them much too sweet for our liking. The lemon essence in my tart was much too strong; the shortbread base wasn’t bad, but the overpowering tartness of lemon flavor prevented me from enjoying my dessert as a whole. This pattern of saccharin saturation was also continued in my drink, unfortunately.

I would return to Vi’s for Pies in the future, but only to sample their hearty lunch/dinner options…or perhaps their pie.

Vi’s for Pies

Outdoor patio

May admires the dessert case

May’s mango cheesecake (top) and my lemon tarts

Another Bacon: Skinny Legs and Cowgirls

May and I were late to the party. After most of the city’s food critics jumped to review Skinny Legs and Cowgirls (9008 Jasper Avenue) in the spring, we tried valiantly to secure reservations to this “sort of bistro”, but the timing was never right. On Tuesday, we finally made it.

Pulling into the parking lot just after five, we more than beat any rush the restaurant might have seen later that night. The dining room was tiny, a total of seven tables occupying the small space. The decor was undoubtedly charming, with a cozy, autumn-perfect color scheme of orange and red running up the walls, continued on the place settings, and in the Chinese lantern stem on each table. However, the room itself was virtually unlit and seemingly unheated, forcing us rely on the tabletop candle as not only the light, but the main heating source as well.

The menu reminded me very much of Bacon (which I visited in June, but have yet to post about) – organic, sparse, and without many dishes that appealed much to my personal taste. Our server explained that all of their plates were built to be shared. Their piece de resistance was the “mixed grill”, a platter with several different kinds of meat, including rack of lamb and striploin steak, but priced at a staggering $73, it was something we couldn’t stomach on that particular evening.

Instead, we ordered the Chorizo Plate (chorizo sausage sauteed with onions, tomato, cilantro and finished with red wine), and the Franco Pollo (chicken sauteed with spices, onions, tomato, lemon juice and finished with fresh cream). In hindsight, we should have also selected an accompanying carb of some kind, but as the prices of the polenta and rice plates equalled that of the chorizo and chicken items ($15!), we didn’t think we would get our money’s worth.

With a cool, unobtrusive Sirius Radio station on in the background, dim lighting, and an intimate setting, I could see how Skinny Legs and Cowgirls would make a good date venue. The service was all right, but erred on the side of giving us too much space.

Our food arrived on very stylish rectangular plates, coupled with serving utensils that allowed for easy sharing. Our favorite was the chorizo dish – the sweet tomatoes complemented the savoury sausage slices nicely. The Franco Pollo wasn’t bad, but with a thick orange sauce, I had trouble convincing my eyes that I wasn’t eating some variation of butter chicken.

While we didn’t have a bad experience, May and I agreed that Skinny Legs and Cowgirls wasn’t appealing enough to add to our short list of restaurants. Still, I wouldn’t mind giving their mixed grill a go some time in the future…just to see what haute meat really tastes like.

Exterior

Dining room

Choizo Plate

Franco Pollo

Poor Planning and Bad Timing: Sorrentino’s

I have mentioned Dine Alberta a few times this month, it being a September program that promotes the use of local ingredients at select restaurants across the province. I finally got around to arranging for dinner at Sorrentino’s, a much-loved local Italian chain that seems to be something of an institution in Edmonton (beyond Sorrentino’s proper, the purveyors also maintain That’s Aroma!, Oliveto Trattoria, Caffe Sorrentino, a sports bar, and a pub). I poked around the website and was looking forward to trying something off of their featured Mushroom Harvest menu – specifically, the porcini mushroom risotto.

With Dickson at the wheel (though that phrase is a bit redundant…), we headed for the downtown location. Count me embarrassed when we were confronted with a closed sign. Vowing better research before future outings, we checked to make sure the southside location was open before driving there.

Arriving around 8:30pm, we were given the “S-Bar” menu, a condensed selection of dishes meant for late diners. I inquired about the Mushroom Harvest menu, but to my disappointment, was told that it wasn’t offered on Sundays. The website failed me – nowhere on their otherwise comprehensive webpage was it written that the specials were only served Monday to Saturday. So not only were we deprived of sampling the regular fare (of which a chef’s daily risotto is a part of), but I also wasn’t able to get my Dine Alberta fix.

That said, the after-9 menu isn’t bad; there were quite a few comfort dishes that were tempting. I settled on a margherita pizza, while Dickson opted for Mamma’s lasagna. The food arrived after a bit of a wait (the main dining room had been fully booked for a private function), though Dickson would have been appeased had they simply brought more baskets of their salted baguette. The pizza wasn’t great, and tasted very much like the fare I had at Three Bananas Cafe, and easily loses up against the phenomenal slices at Leva. Dickson’s pasta was quite good, but he was left wanting more because of the small portion.

When the bill was presented, we were surprised to see we had been charged full price. Checking the time our plates were entered, we realized that had we waited twenty minutes to order, we could have saved $6. Sure, that isn’t a lot of cash, but after the mushroom menu mix-up, it was another instance of our bad timing that night.

I’ll have to return to Sorrentino’s for a full, triple fact-checked dinner to see if it really can live up to the hype.

Margherita pizza
Mamma’s Lasagna

Edmonton: More to Discover

To follow-up on a post I made last month about all there was to do in Edmonton free of charge, here are more ideas for October:

That’s all, folks!

Edmonton Symphony Orchestra: Robbins Pops, a 75th Birthday Tribute to John Williams

Mack and I met up with Dickson and headed to the Winspear Centre for my second concert in three days – the first Robbins Pops of the season, a 75th birthday tribute to John Williams.

Through the wonderful Pulse8 Club, we purchased tickets for just $20 each (including service charges), and ended up with seats in the second row, orchestra centre. After this experience however, I know that the symphony is just about the only exception to the rule of stage proximity. For a view of the entire orchestra, first balcony seating, or at least further back on orchestra level, is essential. From our vantage point that night, we couldn’t see much beyond the conductor and the string musicians. Live and learn.

In between songs, conductor Bruce Hangen introduced video clips of an interview he conducted with John Williams himself. It was a treat to be able to hear Williams talk about the process he went through to compose some of his best known works, including the theme from Jaws, “Hedwig’s Theme” from Harry Potter, and music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Of all the songs, I was most looking forward to hearing the title theme from Star Wars, and of course, the choir-infused, pulse-racing marvel “Duel of the Fates” from Episode I. I was not disappointed, and couldn’t help but be brought back to the time when I watched Star Wars for the first time. The costumed characters (Darth Vader, Leia, and an array of Storm Troopers) that appeared during these pieces was admittedly over the top, but as I ended up taking a picture with one of them, I can’t say much else.

Darth Vader and Unknown Baddie (even better – Dickson’s Mum and Vader)


It’s Leia! (hair buns and all)


Dickson and I pose with a Storm Trooper

Also, who knew the Symphony was the place to be? After running into a friend and a coworker at the show on Wednesday, I saw a few other workmates on Saturday. I had no idea the ESO was so well-frequented.

There are a few upcoming shows I want to check out, and armed with a fabulous discount, I really have no excuse!

Ripped Off and Ticked Off: Wok Box

After a valid but ultimately failed attempt at catching a play at the Arts Alive! Festival in the afternoon (there’s always next year), Mack and I killed time in the downtown core, and ended up at Wok Box (10119 Jasper Avenue) for dinner.

I’ve been to the franchised takeout restaurant twice before, and after finding the fare extremely overpriced, I vowed not to return unless equipped with a coupon. Luckily, I just purchased an Entertainment Book containing a Wok Box coupon, so with a 2-for-1 mentality in mind, we saddled up to the counter to order.

But rebuffed, we were. The employee mentioned something about the store not being consulted before the address was printed on the back of the coupon, and couldn’t accept it. Because we had a show to get to in less than an hour, Mack and I sucked it up and ordered the teriyaki chicken stir fry and butter chicken (Violet’s recommendation). The bill was over $21.

Thankfully, our wait wasn’t too long (unlike my other experiences), and though the novelty of eating out of a “Chinese” take-out box still tickles me somewhat, I recognize the inflated cost of fanciful packaging. In the end, my butter chicken was all right (the sauce was rich and tasted great with the rice), but without a side of vegetables, was a fairly dense meal, and was not worth what we paid for it.

Take-out boxes are cute, but cannot make-up for the restaurant’s small portions and mistaken advertising. I’d choose a Chinatown establishment over Wok Box any day.

Mack “smiles” with his Wok Box order
Teriyaki chicken, butter chicken and “naan bread” (looking pretty unappetizing)