Tag Archives: travel

Calgary’s 10 Best Coffee Shops

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After visiting some 40 Calgary coffeehouses over a couple of months, it’s time to pick my top 10—from the best java and neighbourhood hangouts to the quirkiest.

1. Q.lab (105, 206 11 Avenue SW) is all about the coffee. Order a pour over and you’re asked to choose from eight bean varieties roasted by parent company Chronicle. Once the coffee arrives in a little glass beaker, you’re asked to wait two more minutes to let the flavours bloom. And there’s no food, offered, though you can bring in a baked treat from Butter Block across the street.

Q.lab is my number one Calgary coffeehouse

2. Sought X Found (916 Centre Street North) is arguably the best combination roaster and coffee shop in Calgary. It’s well worth visiting the brick-walled café for a hand-brewed drip coffee and a pastry from the celebrated Butter Block. Even the milk for its drinks comes from an organic farm.

Sought X Found is an excellent, cool coffeehouse and roaster

3. Sierra Cafe (39, 6439 Crowchild Trail SW) is my idea of a neighbourhood coffeehouse, with folks from the southwest community of Lakeview congregating in this narrow space to chat over good coffee and scones. Other great neighbourhood hangouts: Friends Cafe in Edgemont and Higher Grounds in Hillhurst.

Sierra Cafe is everything a neighbourhood coffee shop should be

4. Rosso Coffee Roaster’s flagship cafe (15, 803 24 Avenue SE) is in a historic Ramsay building, with an expansive patio. Watch award-winning baristas pull shots while you munch on a fabulous, toasted and buttered cheese bun (recipe from the owner’s mother).

Rosso Coffee Roaster’s flagship cafe is in an historic Ramsay building

5. The Roasterie (314, 10 Street NW) It’s dimly lit and cramped, the chugging coffee roaster rubbing shoulders with patrons at a handful of small tables. No matter. This longtime Sunnyside fixture produces the best dark-roast coffee in Calgary, the rich flavour of my not-drowned-in-hot-water Americano lingering on the tongue. Bonus points for a dedication to cold-brew coffee, to stay or go.

The Roasterie has been producing fine coffee for four decades

6. Want to seriously up your coffee game? Just pop by Eight Ounce Coffee (2040, 2600 Portland Street SE), in an industrial district,and peruse hundreds of roasted beans, from as far away as Florence, or perhaps invest in a $5,200 espresso machine. Or sample a much cheaper flight of coffees.

Eight Ounce Coffee offers roasted beans from around the world

7. Mob Squad Cafe (150 9 Avenue SW) is certainly unique. It involves taking a 21-floor elevator ride to a lofty coffeehouse perch overlooking the office towers of downtown Calgary.

Mob Squad Cafe sits 21 floors up in downtown Calgary

8. Semantics Cafe (1010 1 Street SE) is perhaps the artsiest coffee shop in Calgary. Beneath its impossibly high ceiling are local art, a drum kit, old vinyl records and books. Bonus points for the fresh Butter Block pastries and Chronicle-roasted beans.

Semantics Cafe fits all the local arts under a high-high ceiling

9. During the day, Qamaria Yemeni Coffee (1441 17 Avenue SW) operates as a typical Beltline coffeeshop, albeit with a Middle East-leaning pastry and drink menu. It really comes alive late at night as a lively Muslim gathering spot, especially during fast-ending Ramadan.


10. Velet (105, 206 11 Avenue SE) is Calgary’s quirkiest cafe—a bike/ski repair and tuneup shop, on the edge of downtown, that also serves excellent coffee and treats. Oh, and the entrance is from a back alley.

Velet is a back-alley bike and ski shop that also serves fine coffee

Calgary’s Best Brewpub Pizzas and Beers

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Last Best pizza and beer

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.

Tailgunner Brewing Company
1602 10 Avenue SW
Tuesday to Sunday opens at 11 am, Monday 3 pm
825-407-8599

Tailgunner Brewing in the Sunalta neighbourhood

This is a partnership between Tailgunner’s Czech-heavy beers and a 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.

A Trolley 5 10-incher to go

Cold Beer & Pizza
102, 1019 17 Avenue SW
Weekdays 11:30 am-10 pm, weekends 11:30 am-1 am
1-825-540-1434

Cold Beer & Pizza’s square slice

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?

Ryuko Rocks

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At Ryuko, fabulous lunchtime Japanese spread for only $18

I’ve never been a big fan of sushi, largely because of the cost and the quality. Well, I’ve found a newish Japanese restaurant in southwest Calgary that blows this argument out of the water. Indeed, a recent meal at Ryuko, in Christie Park, is arguably my best lunch deal and experience of the year to date.

It starts when I walk down the long corridor of this tres-elegante space, with soft jazz creating a calm that belies the bustling staff and steadily arriving customers. I grab a counter seat where I can watch three chefs wielding sharp knives and one using a blow torch to blister a sushi roll.

A quiet, elegant spot for lunch

But the highlight is the arrival of a lunch-set special that Ryuko offers from Monday to Thursday. I choose a sushi menu that, for the criminally low price of $18, delivers me the following: four pieces of nigiri (including yellow fin and B.C. salmon), four pieces of California roll, a warm bowl of miso soup and several pieces of yam tempura. I splurge with a large pot of excellent roasted green tea ($5). Bliss.

Wielding a blow torch just one of a chef’s skills

Beyond the lunch specials is an expansive menu ranging from a 48-hour ramen broth to bibimbap bowls, the latter reflecting the owners’ Korean roots. Of course, there’s plenty of nigiri and sashimi choices, starting at $3.50 a piece and extending to premium fish flown in from Japan and then cured and aged inhouse. Note: nigiri is fish and rice, sashimi just fish.

I’ll be back soon, perhaps to check out other set-lunch menus like udon and katsu.

Ryuko
3150, 40 Christie Park View SW and one other Calgary location
Lunch-set hours Monday to Thursday noon-5 pm
403-991-3208

Best Calgary Coffee Roaster: Devil’s Head Coffee

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Devil’s Head Coffee has a wee coffee bar in front and roasting gear in the back

Devil’s Head Coffee had me (a former mountaineer) as soon as I walked in the door of their little Calgary roastery and saw photos of owners Chris and Tanis climbing rock and ice routes in the Ghost Valley.

But then they checked all the boxes of what I’m looking for in a roaster. First and foremost is the excellent quality of the coffee, featuring a dozen single-origin and custom-blended beans from farms and co-ops around the world. Those beans are small-batch roasted several days a week.

And Devil’s Head does what every coffee roaster should do but usually doesn’t: print the roast date right on the bags. That way you know the coffee is fresh.

The sign of freshness: the roasting date right on the package

So far, I’ve been to the roastery and little coffee bar only twice; they’re located way down in industrial southeast Calgary. No matter. They regularly deliver to every part of the city, and it’s free if your order is $40 or more.

Several times, I’ve ordered in the morning and had a parcel on my doorstep that afternoon. Beat that Amazon!

Devil’s Head Coffee
Bay 5, 5700 Barlow Trail SE, Calgary
Monday to Thursday 9 am-5 pm, Friday 9 am-4 pm. Closed weekends.
403-561-8274

Best Calgary Eats and Drinks

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Fresh-baked pitas are just the start of the excellent shawarmas at Beirut Street Food

A new year, a new project. Inspired by this resolution: Schedule more spontaneous acts into my day.

The project is to discover and celebrate the best eats and drinks in Calgary. The best burgers, the best croissants, the best coffee roasteries, the best brewpubs, the best Lebanese poutine. It’s a long list.

Sought X Found is arguably Calgary’s best combo roastery and coffee shop

The rules: Calgary-based, independent places, serving up excellent fare. (small, regional chains are okay). Bonus points for interesting, even quirky spaces; hello Cold Garden Brewery! I’ll try to stick to one “best of” pick per category, though there will be instances of runners up and “also recommended”.

Cold Garden is certainly Calgary’s quirkiest, dog friendly brewpub.

Prices. I’ve pledged to banish “cheap eats” from my vocabulary, since they scarcely exist anymore. “Affordable” isn’t much better; affordable for who? I try to steer clear of high-end places but am no doubt fighting a losing battle against $20 breakfasts and $25 burgers and fries.

Subjective as hell? Maybe. I favour IPA beers and darker-roast coffees, which may prejudice some picks. The good news is you can comment here on my choices and offer superior alternatives and maybe gems I’ve never heard of.

There’s enough potential best-of categories to make a weekly pick last a year or two. I’ll try to restrict my posts to a paragraph or two. So let’s dig in.

The world’s best carrots beckon

Every couple of weeks, for the past 15-plus years, I’ve made a pilgrimage to the Calgary Farmers Market to pick up a 10-pound bag of Beck carrots. Yes, I’m seriously addicted to this Innisfail-based (central Alberta) grower’s super sweet Nantes carrots.

Ten pounds of the world’s best carrots

Indeed, I defy you to just eat one. Once you’ve been introduced to Becks, you’ll never go back to grocery store imposters that taste like wood. You can thank me later.

Beck Farms
Available at Calgary Farmers’ Market south (Thursday to Sunday) and west (Wednesday to Sunday) locations, opening at 9 am

Happy in Canmore

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There’s nothing like sharing Happy Hour appetizers

There’s one thing residents and visitors can agree on: Canmore is seriously overcrowded.

For a mountain town of 17,000 residents, that means traffic jams, wandering pedestrians, bewildering parking fees and lineups pretty much any time of day, any season of the year. God forbid if you head into town on a sunny summer weekend.

The good news is there’s a commensurate number of first-class, diversified places to eat and drink. Indeed, I would argue Canmore boasts more such places, on a per capita basis, than any town or city in Alberta.

Of course, most of these establishments charge mountain tourist prices for their fare. But there’s one way residents and visitors can snag a deal: Happy hour.

Big deal, you might argue. Happy hours are a dime a dozen in almost every municipality, big and small, in North America.

But here’s where Canmore is different. Given the large number of eateries, there’s a lot of competition amongst them, especially during the dead, late afternoon dining hours of happy hour. And that’s when a growing number of Canmorites (Canmorons?) venture out for a bargain burger and pint or pizza.

Here are a few to get you started.

Bridgette Bar is a mini, chef-driven chain (also Calgary and Toronto locations) that seems to have jumpstarted the recent interest in Canmore’s happy-hour scene. On a recent mid-week afternoon, more than 50 patrons were enjoying the fine subsidized fares. Its so-called matinee happy hour starts at 2 pm and offers generous deals of half off on all beverages and excellent pizzas, including wild mushroom ($13) and fennel salami ($12).

Fabulous chicken pizza at Bridgette’s happy hour

The nearby Mineshaft Tavern is a unique setup, sharing a kitchen with an attached seniors’ living facility in the newish, rundle-rock community of Spring Creek. When I saw residents, in comfy chairs, sipping happy hour glasses of red wine, I wondered where do I sign up for my own sunset years?

Mineshaft Tavern offers good pub fare, including a diversity of happy hour deals: $6 drinks 2-6 pm and daily specials such as $3 tacos Monday and $13 burger and fries Thursday. Plus there’s a daily $10 soup and sandwich deal.

An immense, delicious happy-hour burger and fries at Mineshaft Tavern

Elsewhere Crazy Weed and its sophisticated, casual menu offers 50% off “doughs” daily from 2-5 pm. Tavern 1883 boasts Canmore’s biggest “mountain” hour, with 40% off all food and drink from 2-5 pm every day. Finally, The Georgetown Inn has weekly pub specials, highlighted by fish and chips deals ($15 for one piece of cod) every Tuesday.

Mineshaft Tavern
808 Spring Creek Drive
Daily 11:30 am-9 pm
403-678-2288

Bridgette Bar Canmore
1030 Spring Creek Drive
Happy Hour 2-5 pm
Text 403-493-5643 “We don’t have a telephone”