But my sister has been relentlessly championing the burgers at A&W, a nearly 70-year-old Canadian chain. So when she proclaimed the new Steakhouse Teen Burger the “best burger around,” I had to check it out.
First, a bit of history. When I was growing up, many decades ago, the A&W Teen Burger was a highly sought-after treat, usually chased with a frosty mug of root beer. But as I grew more sophisticated (snobbish), I graduated to gourmet burgers, preferably from fresh-ground beef.
It’s a clean, efficient operation
Fast forward to today, when I darkened the door of a sparkling A&W outlet for the first time in many, many years and ordered the seasonal Teen Steakhouse Burger and russet-potato fries. Here’s the scorecard:
Steakhouse Teen Burger and fries
A&W is Canada’s original burger chain, predating McDonald’s by some 15 years.
The chain has embarked, in recent years, on a healthy kick, such as grass-fed, hormone-free beef for burgers. The only packaging for my meal was a compostable burger sleeve.
The Steakhouse Burger, in a toasted sesame bun, was indeed first rate, with avant-garde toppings such as arugula lettuce, bacon jam and peppercorn aioli.
The excellent fries were straight-from-the fryer hot. Not sure if the burger was cooked to order, but not surprising everything was ready in scant minutes.
The price: $8.49 for the steakhouse burger and $4.09 for a metal basket of fries.
The verdict: Pretty damn good for a chain.
Is it as good as the iconic American chain In-N-Out? No, but that’s a high hurdle to clear. Still, it’s definitely worth checking out.
There are many classic culinary pairings: bacon and eggs, burgers and fries, mac and cheese, peanut butter and jam. To this mix we can add beer and pizza, a longtime partnership that’s only getting stronger in Calgary as more craft breweries add gourmet pizzas to their pub food menus. So much so that you can go for the beer but stay for the pie.
Here’s a half dozen brewpubs that meet this high dual standard, sometimes baking their own pizzas and other times forging partnerships with existing pie companies.
Two House Brewing 1901 10 Avenue SW Sunday to Thursday 11 am-10 pm, Friday-Saturday 11 am-11 pm 403-287-0215
A couple of Two House pints
Tucked out of the way in Sunalta, Two House Brewing is the place to be on a sunny summer afternoon, with two spacious patios and big sliding glass doors. The eight types of pizzas keep flying out of the oven and go well with a flight of up to six beers. Prices are reasonable, with specials every day.
…and a couple of pies
Last Best Brewing & Distilling 607 11 Avenue SW and one other Calgary location Happy hour Monday to Saturday 3 pm-6 pm and late, Sunday all day 587-353-7390
Dirty Bird chicken pizza at Last Best Brewing
Talk about happy hour. Last Best offers at least five such hours every day—from $15 full-size pizzas to $5.50 16-ounce pints of beer to $10 martinis featuring house-made gin. I can sit by the pizza oven and watch my excellent Dirty Bird chicken pie bake or snag a seat on the sunny patio and sip a hazy double IPA Tokyo Drift, my favourite on-tap beer in Calgary.
Last Best pizza oven
Eighty-Eight Brewing 1070, 2600 Portland Street SE Opens daily, except Monday, at noon 403-452-5880
Replacing onetime in-house Noble Pies, 88 partner Portland Street Pizza features a unique, puffy focaccia crust and crispy squares. The beer, named in honour of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, remains excellent. Enjoy a pint of hazy Hi-Fi IPA with a spicy Magnum P.I. pizza in the tropical, funky taproom.
Eighty-Eight Brewing’s funky taproom
’The Mash 50 Greenbriar Drive NW and four other Calgary locations Opens at 3 pm Monday and Tuesday and at 11:30 am Wednesday to Sunday
The Mash’s brewpub
Here’s something different: craft pizza made from craft beer. At The Mash—just outside Calgary Farmers’ Market West—the beer on tap is from Cochrane’s Half Hitch Brewing. The spent grain, from the beer-making process, is folded into the pizza dough.
The spent beer mash goes into the pizza crust
The result is uniquely flavourful pizza, such as a 10-inch wild mushroom ($20.50), paired with a Papa Bear Prairie Ale. No doubt worthy of a monster mash.
This is a partnership between Tailgunner’s Czech-heavy beers anda dozen Acme Pizza Co. 12-inch pies. Grab a seat on the shaded Sunalta patio and try an Ajax dark lager and a Saporita pizza. The brewery’s name honours local World War II tail gunner Lint Stephenson, who survived being shot down and spending two years in an internment camp.
Tailgunner beer and pizza
Trolley 5 728 17 Avenue SW Weekdays 11:30 am to late, weekends 10 am to late 403-454-3731
Trolley 5 is at the top of the Calgary brewpub food heap for its burgers, wings and brisket sandwiches. So it’s no surprise its 10-inch pizzas rank up there, too. Try the Silvio Dante—featuring house-made San Marzano tomato sauce and smoked andouille sausage—along with a Cloudy Daze hazy pale ale.
Okay, this retro 17th Avenue spot doesn’t actually make beer, but with a name like Cold Beer & Pizza, it’s hard to exclude it from this list. They do make plenty of flavourful pizza, ranging from a slice to pie sold by the metre. How about a Dirk Diggler quarter-metre “shorty” and a $5 happy-hour pint?
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’ Empireserves 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 namedBitter 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.
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.
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 CanelaVeganBakery
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
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.
Marathon Mouth 