Calgary's cuisine can be
heavily meat-oriented;
Alberta claims, with some
justification, to have
some of the best
steaks
in the world. With its
particular immigration
history the city lacks the
Ukrainian influences that
grace cooking to the
north, and often prefers
instead to follow the
fusion and Pacific Rim
trends that have been
adopted by most of western
Canada's more ambitious
restaurants. Most bars and
cafés - even the
live-music venues - double
up as restaurants and
invariably serve perfectly
good food.
The Toronto Dominion
Square and Stephen Avenue
malls, on 8th Avenue SW
between 1st and 3rd, are
riddled with ethnic takeaways
and café-style
restaurants - hugely
popular and perfect for
lunch or snacks on the
hoof. The nicest thing to
do is buy food and eat it
- with half of Calgary -
either in the superb Eau
Claire Market , which
is packed with food stalls
and restaurants, or amid
the greenery of Devonian
Gardens. Elsewhere, the
city has an impressive
range of middle- to
upper-bracket restaurants,
where prices are low by
most standards.
Calgary is rarely a
party town, except during
Stampede and a brief fling
in summer when the weather
allows barbecues and
night-time streetlife.
Nonetheless, its bars,
cafés and clubs are
all you'd expect of a city
of this size, the vast
majority of them found in
five distinct areas: Kensington
, with its varied cafés;
" Electric Avenue
", as 11th Avenue SW
between 5th and 6th
streets is called, which
has lost most of its brash
and mostly trashy bars,
night-time action having
moved more to 17th
Avenue SW , a more
varied collection of pubs,
bars, high-quality
restaurants, speciality
shops and ethnic eating,
and 4th Street SW ,
a similarly more refined
restaurant area. Downtown
cafés and pubs are fine
during the day but fairly
desolate in the evening.
In the specialist clubs
the quality of live music
is good - especially in
jazz, blues and the genre
closest to cowtown
Calgary's heart, country.
The Country Music
Association has details of
local gigs (tel 233-8809).
Major festivals
include an annual Jazz
Festival (third week in
June) and a folk festival
at the end of July on
Prince's Island.
Tickets for virtually
all events are available
on tel 270-6700, and
through several Marlin
Travel offices around the
city. You'll find events
listings in the ffwd
or Calgary Straight
listings tabloids (both
free from stores, hotels,
cafés, bars and so on)
and Calgary's main
dailies, the Herald
and the Sun.
Cafes
Good Earth Cafe.
The original wholefood
store and cafe, known
for great and
inexpensive home-made
food, at 1502-11th St (tel
228-9543) was so
successful it has
spawned five other
outlets: the Eau Claire
Market (tel 237-8684) -
with good outside patio
- the Central Library
and elsewhere.
Nellie's Kitchen
, 17th Ave and 7th St
SW. Laid-back, popular
and informal, and
especially busy at
breakfast - which they
do superbly. Open for
breakfast and lunch
only.
The Roasterie,
314-10th St NW near
Kensington Rd. Nice
hangout and café - no
meals, but newspapers,
notice board and twenty
kinds of coffee and
snacks.
Restaurants
Bistro Jo Jo , 917-17th
Ave SW (tel 245-2382). If
you want to eat good
French food, but balk at
the typically high prices,
try the exceptional
cuisine in this
marble-tiled and
red-banquette-filled
restaurant.
Moderate-expensive.
Caesar's...
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