The good news: The Atco Blue Flame Kitchen Café, the most architecturally spectacular dining space in Calgary, has finally reopened to the public.
The bad news: The menu is minuscule and prices (at least for now) are significantly higher than the bargain pre-pandemic fare.
Perhaps as a result, the vast space was almost deserted during an early lunch hour.
ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen Cafe
Commons Building, 5302 Forand Street SW, Calgary
Weekdays 8 am-2 pm. Closed weekends
403-245-7630
I’ve had an itch lately for samosas, those South Asian fried triangle pastries, filled with spicy meats or vegetables.
The problem is one of my go-to shawarma places no longer makes them. And an East Indian grocery store that sells them for an absurdly low price is hell and gone across sprawling Calgary.
But thanks to a friend’s tip, I found some tasty samosas at Foothills Hospital of all places. Cravings Bagels is a tiny café tucked into the medical centre’s North Tower/Grace Women’s Health Centre. The eclectic menu includes bagels, grilled cheese sandwiches and Greek salads, alongside Middle Eastern specialties such as falafels, shawarmas and donairs, the latter three ranging in price from $6.50 to $8.
But on this day, I headed straight for the samosas, ordering one beef and one potato (my favourite), devouring them on a bench outside the hospital’s emergency entrance. It was a perfect, nice-sized snack for $5, bumped up to $7.50 for a light lunch of three.
My only challenge was getting past a screener who wondered why I was going (only a few steps) into the hospital without a medical appointment during a Covid outbreak. Fair enough. Picking up takeout samosas just wouldn’t have cut it, had I not agreed to some questions and a temperature check.
I’m sure the samosas were hotter than my forehead.
Cravings Bagels
1441 29 Street NW, Calgary (Foothills Hospital North Tower)
Weekdays 7 am-3 pm
403-283-2776
You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to find a decent restaurant salad in Calgary for less than $10. After all, there’s no necessity to add chicken or some other pricy protein to your greens.
But you’d be wrong. I’ve spent hours of online research, perusing local restaurant menus in search of imaginative salads at decent price points. And I’ve largely failed.
Salads in this city generally fall into two categories: uninspired and overpriced, sometimes both.
I recently purchased, for about $9, a takeout Greek salad at a Calgary market. This was your typical, tired Greek salad, lowlighted by insipid, orange, Roma tomatoes. Vine-ripened tomatoes, bursting with flavour, have been widely available for more than a decade. They can be used to enliven a Greek salad.
On the other hand, there’s the sprouting of national power-salad chains. Their bowls typically feature aspirational ingredients like mesclun, quinoa, roasted yam, pita chips, kale (of course) and a ginger sesame vinaigrette. Good stuff, I’m sure, but at, say, $15, a little outside my lunchtime budget.
Enough ranting. I finally found a salad, at Community Natural Foods, which satisfies my quest for interesting and affordable. The Veg Head is a lively mix of baby greens, cherry tomatoes, roasted chickpeas, red quinoa, pumpkin seeds, nutritional yeast and preserved lemon dressing. At $10.39, it’s just slightly above my $10 bar, though adding extra toppings can quickly increase the price.
My salad purchase marked the reopening of a reimagined cafe at Community Foods, following a long pandemic closure. But instead of loading my salad plate buffet style, I now have to order at an electronic kiosk, similar to the self-checkouts at grocery stores. Not sure how that will work on busy days with neophytes trying to figure out the system.
The food court continues the long-time health food store’s tradition of offering fine burgers, burritos, smoothies, pizzas and power bowls at affordable prices. Plus they know how to put together a salad.
Community Natural Foods
1304 10 Avenue SW and two other Calgary locations
Monday to Saturday 9 am-9 pm, Sunday 9 am-7 pm
It’s not hard to find a budget burger in most cities and towns. Just head to an old-school drive-in and, for $6 or $7, order a nondescript patty disguised by the usual fixings in a fall-apart bun.
The real challenge is discovering a bargain burger that stands out. Which is why Boogie’s Burgers is my go-to under-$10 burger joint in Calgary.
Yes, in some ways it fits the classic description of old-school burger barn. It’s been around since 1969, and has the standard menu of burgers every which way and an equally long list of milkshakes.
What’s different is the quality and imagination of ingredients. The patties are 100% Alberta beef and the toppings generous, including fried mushrooms and fried onions on even the most basic burger.
The other thing that impresses me is the heft. I often judge food by its weight, and Boogie’s doesn’t cut corners here. My bag of single-patty Fay’s Burger ($7.50, featuring two slices of bacon) and “small” fries ($2.60, hand cut from Hutterite colony potatoes) easily weighs two pounds and takes a hearty appetite to demolish.
Finally, I’m told my order will take 10 minutes to prepare, even though the place is all but empty. That’s okay. It means everything is being made to order, not sliding off a warming tray.
Boogie’s Burgers
908 Edmonton Trail NE and one other Calgary location
Monday to Saturday 11 am-9 pm, Sunday noon to 9 pm
403-230-7070
Can you go to a craft brewery taproom just for the food? You can if you’re trying to spend less than $10. And you can if said taproom is serving some of the best smoked meat in the city.
Of course, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to sample some fine brews. But my primary motivation for visiting Tool Shed Brewing, in an industrial section of northeast Calgary, was to check out the house-smoked barbecue.
It turns out co-owner Graham Sherman is a world-class competition BBQer from many forays to the shrine of Memphis. And he’s brought that experience to the Tool Shed taproom and an outside food truck operating under the name Notorious P.I.G.
In honour of my cheap-eats series, I ordered a pulled-pork sandwich ($10), a lovely, three-napkin mess of slow-cooked meat, coleslaw and stinging Memphis red barbecue sauce. Other full-flavour menu items include BBQ pork tostados ($10), smoked pork belly banh mi sandwiches ($11) and side ribs ($12, hickory smoked for six hours). They await future visits.
Fortunately, I was able to sample a flight of four fine beers, including a Belgian IPA and a kveik ale.
To celebrate the lifting of restaurant restrictions in Alberta, I’m accelerating my under-$15 Calgary lunch series to twice a week. Besides, I’ve got a lot of great places to cover. And you can help me by suggesting your own cheap-eats discoveries through the “reply” button on the upper left.
Tool Shed Brewing
801 30 Street NE
Tuesday to Saturday 11 am-9 pm, Sunday noon-5 pm
403-775-1749
As the old saying goes, just reaching To Me Vietnamese Submarine is almost half the fun.
Yes, the hefty Vietnamese sub is probably the best I’ve eaten in Calgary. And the $6 price is one of the best lunch deals in the city.
But you do earn your pleasure just getting to the drive-through kiosk window. To Me is almost literally on busy Macleod Trail southwest.
It can really only be reached by traveling northbound. And if you blink, you’ll be past it before you see the little exit ramp that doubles as the lineup. It can be a bit intimidating if that line spills onto Macleod, which seems to happen more frequently as this wee gem gets discovered.
My strategy is to show up just when the place opens, at 11 am. Happily, I’m second in line and in a few minutes have moved to a small parking area to enjoy my made-to-order coconut curry sub.
In many respects, it’s a standard Vietnamese sub, with chunks of chicken, shredded carrot and coconut, cucumber and cilantro inside a crusty baguette. What puts it over the top is the coconut curry and the special sauce. Great flavour.
The only problem with this two-napkin meal is keeping all the saucy goodness off my pants and car seats.
To Me Vietnamese Submarine
5250 Macleod Trail SW
Daily 11 am-10 pm
825-882-2828
Marathon Mouth 