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Calgary’s Best Taproom Beer and Burgers

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You can’t beat Citizen Brewing’s happy-hour burger and beer

Pretty much any Calgary taproom worth its salt has at least one burger on its food menu. Here are four of the best pairings.

This one’s a slam dunk. Annex Ales (4323 1 Street SE) is arguably the most adventurous craft brewery in Calgary. The attached Lil’ Empire serves some of the city’s finest burgers. Try a small-batch, seasonal brew and an Empire regular burger with cheese ($12).

Annnex Ales has arguably the most innovative craft beer in Calgary

Trolley 5 (728 17 Avenue SW) is the city’s liveliest brewpub, especially on Flames’ game nights. Its full kitchen churns out the best, most diverse pub food in Calgary (dim sum anyone?). Grab a bar seat and watch the fast-moving beertenders while you savour a Turntable lager and a hefty prime-rib burger ($19 with fries) that rivals the best in Calgary. Bonus points for a brioche bun that doesn’t fall apart. The wings and smoked brisket sandwich are damn good, too.

Trolley 5 is the liveliest brewpub in Calgary

Citizen Brewing Company (227 35 Avenue NE)—between the communities of Tuxedo and Highland Park—may have the best brewpub happy-hour deal in Calgary. From 2-5 pm Monday to Thursday, select 20-ounce pints, like the Hijacked IPA, are only $6 and ground-chuck burgers and hot fries $14. Best enjoyed on an expansive, dapple-lit patio that includes a hop and vegetable garden.

Citizen’s patio is the perfect place to savour a beer and burger

Is it wrong to pair a juicy burger with a knock-you-on your-ass Imperial iPA? Not when the delightfully named Bitter Sisters (510 Heritage Drive SW) is pouring a 16-ounce pint of Triple Haze (8.5%), a full-flavoured New England IPA featuring experimental hops and hop oil. While we’re bending norms, how about a custom-blend beef burger with jalapenos ($20)? Enjoy it all on the sun-splashed patio.

Excellent burgers and beers at Bitter Sisters

Patient Perfection at Calgary’s Q.Lab Coffee

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Q.Lab is all, and only, about coffee

You don’t go to Q.Lab, just to drink coffee. You go for the whole ceremonial experience.

Sound pretentious? No, simply a laser focus on painstakingly producing the best possible cup of coffee… without the distraction of offering food. And that takes time.

When I order a pour-over at Q.Lab’s tasting lab/café in Calgary’s Beltline, I’m asked to choose from one of eight bean varieties from parent roaster Chronicle. While I’m waiting for the pouring to complete, I have time to read, on a little card, a detailed description of my Huila, Colombia bean choice.

When you order a pour over, here are all your bean choices

Soon enough, my coffee arrives, in a glass beaker, along with a suggestion I wait two more minutes to allow the flavours to fully form. Patience, grasshopper.

I’m now ready to savour the obvious superiority of this dark nectar over garden-variety espressos. And it’s a generous pour, making the $6.50 cost quite reasonable.

A generous pour of black nectar

So if you’re serious about your coffee, give Q.Lab a try. Just don’t expect to grab and go.

Q.Lab Coffee
926 16 Avenue SW, Calgary
Weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm, Saturday 8:30 am-4 pm. Closed Sunday
368-299-1535

Calgary Cowtown Goes Vegan

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Monster Reuben at Vegan Street

Vegan Street is the name of the Inglewood restaurant. But it could just as easily be describing the influx of such eateries along busy 9th Avenue SE.

The others include Canela Vegan Bakery and the Attic, the latter a Vegan Street sister spot that serves evening, plant-based pastas and pizzas. Together, they reflect the growing popularity, especially among the city’s younger folk, of meatless cuisine.

Pretty soon, they’ll have to stop calling it Cowtown. Maybe replace it with Where’s the Beaf?

Sweet treats at Canela Vegan Bakery

The somewhat higher prices at colourful Vegan Street are offset by plenty of happy hour and taco Tuesday and thirsty Thursday specials. My featured lunch is a massive Reuben sandwich ($19), which comes with a sizeable bowl of creamy coleslaw.

Here, the conventional pastrami is replaced with seiten, the Swiss with melted “cheeze.” Not that I’d notice. Indeed, the vegan Reuben is every bit as good as any conventional version I’ve had.

Vegan Street is a funky Inglewood cafe

Vegan Street
1413 9 Avenue SE, Calgary
Lunch specials Tuesday to Friday 11:30 am-4 pm
403-454-3287

Calgary’s Hottest Chicken Sandwiches

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Does JINBAR produce Calgary’s best hot chicken sandwich?

In recent years, it seems, every other fast-food outlet and casual restaurant started introducing hot fried chicken sandwiches to their menus. A staple of Nashville dining, these spicy creations have migrated north, quickly becoming commonplace in Calgary. Here are three local standouts that, I reckon, could compete with anything south of the border.

First up is Alumni, a combination excellent sandwich shop and cocktail bar on busy 17 Avenue SW. Their hot chicken sandwich ($16) is a dense, moist piece of breast meat topped with slaw, pickles and comeback sauce, tucked inside a sturdy brioche bun. The “half” spice choice is plenty hot enough for most folks.

Hard to beat Alumni’s hot chicken sandwich

I first visited Alumni during Covid, when my packaged meal was handed out the door by a masked server. On subsequent visits, it was nice to dine inside and soak up the evening vibe.

Exhibit two is nearby Cluck n Cleaver, a collaboration of sisters Nicole and Francine Gomes. The former is a top chef Canada winner, the latter a raiser of chickens.

Cluck offers halal rotisserie chicken and a lil’ clucker sandwich. But my go-to fix is the hefty Mother Clucker ($13.75), a quarter pound of fried chicken, coated in house-made chipotle hot sauce, coleslaw, pickles and blue-cheese mayo, all stuffed into an almost overmatched bun.

Cluck n Cleaver: Big production from a tiny space

Other than a few dine-in stools, it’s mostly takeout from this tiny space. I make it as far as the car before hoovering down this sloppy, spicy goodness.

I wasn’t going to include JINBAR on this list, strictly because its hot chicken sandwich costs $23, though it’s the only one of the three contenders that comes with fries. But when I saw the happy-hour (4-5:30 pm) deal of $15—including a pile of confit garlic fries—I had to hustle down to Bridgeland.

JINBAR is located in a historic Bridgeland brick building

Must say, I was blown away by chef Jinhee Lee’s tender, two pieces of chicken breast splashed with medium-hot Korean chile glaze and a layer of mustard slaw. Though with something this succulent, I wasn’t surprised the brioche bun didn’t go the distance.

So at this price, quality and atmosphere—it’s located in an historic brick building—JINBAR is my Calgary hot chicken sandwich champion.

Alumni Sandwiches
725 17 Avenue SW, Calgary
Monday to Saturday 11 am-10 pm, Sunday 11 am-9 pm
403-455-7255

Cluck N Cleaver
1511 14 Street SW and one other Calgary location
Daily 11:30 am-10 pm

JINBAR
24 4 Street NE
Tuesday to Friday and Sunday 4 pm-10 pm, Friday-Saturday 4 pm-11pm. Closed Monday
587-349-9008

Happy With a Lonely Mouth

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A fabulous bowl of Happy Hour curry udon at Lonely Mouth Bar

Marathon Mouth (that’s me), meet Lonely Mouth. The latter is a 17th Avenue SW Calgary bar that offers Japanese-inspired meals and inscrutable reasons for the name: “When you’re not hungry, but you eat because your mouth is lonely.”

I ponder this riddle as I tuck into one of the best happy-hour deals in Calgary (2-5 pm). This includes up to 50% off a long list of cocktails, appetizers (try the bluefin tuna tartare) and sushi rolls

Like my fabulous bowl of curry udon, featuring fall-apart braised beef short rib, soft-cooked egg, transcendent overnight broth and, the highlight, chewy house-made udon noodles. Normally $24, a $12 happy-hour bargain.

There’s enough money left in the budget for two pieces of sublime hamachi (yellow fin tuna) sashimi ($4 h.h.), which slides down my throat.

Lonely Mouth is in an elegant 17th Avenue SW space, with a long bar, open kitchen, wood screens and soft lamp lighting

Lonely Mouth Bar
528 17 Avenue SW, Calgary
Happy hour daily 2 pm-5 pm
Text 403-990-5094

Give Me Mo of Those Nepalese Dumplings

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Ever heard of momo cuisine? Me neither—until I discovered it was Nepalese stuffed dumplings and had to check it out. Still, when I walked into Calgary Momo House, in a distant northwest mall, I was overwhelmed by choices. Would you like those little dumplings steamed or wok fried? In what style: tandoori, Szechuan or chili? And filled with mutton, vegetables or paneer?

Fortunately, there was a compromise—a platter of some 10 chicken dumplings, done in three styles and topped with an artful bit of salad. Better yet, this luncheon special was only $13.

As advertised, it was about a 20-minute wait, a sure sign my little Nepali street-food meal was made to order. I must say, it was delightfully different, with little bites of slightly crunchy dumplings dipped in lovely spicy and milder sauces.

Chef Prakash and wife Pooja Ale Magar opened this second Calgary location 18 months ago. It didn’t hurt to be recently featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. And yet when I subsequently dined on a Monday noon hour, I had the place to myself.

Calgary Momo House
410, 20 Crowfoot Crescent NW and one other Calgary location
Daily noon-9 pm
403-660-7043