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Baskerville – A Sherlock Holmes Mystery
Mayfield Dinner Theatre, Doubletree by Hilton Hotel,
16615-109 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
February 7 to April 2, 2017
Tickets (including buffet dinner), $75 to $100
Mayfieldtheatre.ca
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
There is something enticingly relaxing about an evening out at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre.
You are not supposed to think critically, not supposed to debate the show’s inner meanings, not be upset or outraged.
You are simply to sit back, satiated after a good buffet dinner, sipping on a nice glass of wine, and be entertained.
And the entertainment value doesn’t get much better than the comedic farce/whodunit now playing, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery.
Five actors, 30-plus characters, dozens of scenes introduced by the actors sneaking scenery on stage, a farce with many doors equally carried on stage for actors to jump in and out of.
It truly is a laugh a mi ...
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Heartening news is emerging out of the oil patch.
According to two of the best energy analysts in Alberta, Peter Tertzakian and Jackie Forrest of Calgary’s ARC Energy Research Institute, plus anecdotal evidence from those working in the oil patch, things are picking up.
Not like the halcyon days leading up to the Great Crash of 2014, mind you. But way better than 2015 and 2016, when barely an oil-patch wheel was turning and the Canadian energy industry had losses of $52 billion and $32 billion, respectively.
Right now, 200 drilling rigs are out there in Alberta — up 50 per cent from a year ago. The drilling is for higher-valued natural gas, liquids (ethane, propane, butane) and oil. Oil biz CEOs are banking on $50 US (or more) a barrel for West Texas oil — $70 Canadian — being steady for the next few years.
Improved technology has dramatically lowered drilling costs and increased production per new well. The returns have piqued investor interest. Conventional oil, gas and l ...
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Wheat Garden Noodle & Dumpling Bazaar
10703 103 St.
780-757-8166
Wheatgardenyeg.ca
11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Closed Tuesdays
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 2 of 5 Suns
Service: 2 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two (excluding beverages and tip): basic, $20; loaded, $40
Intrigued by the descriptive name and encouraged by optimistic reviews from well-known food blogs linda-hoang.com and letsomnom.com, off we set Saturday to Chinatown to try the relatively new Wheat Garden Noodle & Dumpling Bazaar.
The food is very good, but for ambience and service, I recommend take-out.
The exterior of Wheat Garden looks fine as you pass by – it’s the familiar bright-red house on the northeast corner of 107 Avenue and 103 Street that formerly housed the Old Szechuan Restaurant.
But as you head up the short flight of outside stairs to the restaurant, you realize this is an old, worn-out building with minimal maintenance and no upgrades.
The dining area – allegedly renovated — is w ...
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There’s something about St. Albert’s Connie Stacey, founder, owner and “mad scientist” at Growing Greener … her buoyancy, enthusiasm and intelligence.
The 42- year-old mother of two young’uns lights up a room with her presence.
Born in Newfoundland, raised in Fort McMurray, Connie has invented, developed and is now selling the Grengine™ 1000 Ultra-Lite, the world’s first battery-powered, light-weight, no-noise, no-fumes portable generator … that will last for days without a recharge.
When re-charging is needed, it can be done back at an electrical outlet or via a solar panel.
Other battery-powered generators are on the market, but most are powered by one big, heavy rechargeable battery with limited hours of operation.
Growing Greener’s secret is a patent-pending battery pack design, a novel method of stacking and interlocking light lithium-ion battery packs under the Grengine™ 1000.
The stacked battery packs work as one, giv ...
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As Farmfair International and the Canadian Finals Rodeo approach, Alberta’s agricultural sector, I am sad to report, is in about as good shape as the province’s oil and gas industry.
The price of Alberta beef on-the-hoof has crashed hard, from a record peak 16 months ago of almost $200 per 100 lbs. to $135 per 100 lbs. today.
Hogs have been much cheaper for a long time. Pork producers have found their profits even further eroded since June. The price per 100 lbs. has dropped from $90 to $75. (The consumer mystery remains: If beef wholesale prices have dropped like a rock, why is premium beef still selling at the grocery stores for $30 a kilogram? Then again, the usual highlow cycles of livestock production appear out of whack.)
By late summer, grain growers were dancing a jig. Despite later-than-usual planting, crops were growing to beat the band, thanks to plentiful rain. But October’s snow in Central and Northern Alberta hit just as the late harvest had begun. Twothirds of the cro ...
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Café Linnea
Holland Plaza, 10934 119 St.
780-758-1160
cafelinnea.ca
Mon. Thurs. Fri. Sat. - 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sun. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., high tea 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Closed Tues. and Wed.
No reservations other than Sunday tea sittings
Lunch for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $25; fully loaded, $45
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 5 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Located in a former autobody shop, gutted and completely reconstructed, the new Café Linnea is presenting the dining experience at its highest possible level.
“Look at the quality of the glassware,” marvelled a friend more adept than I at analyzing beauty, “the quality of the natural light here, its interaction with the interior lighting, the really healthy plants, the air quality, the acoustics … and everything is impeccably clean. I am so impressed with this place … this is my seventh visit!”
No detail has been overlooked at Café Linnea – Its design, a cat ...
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This business story has so many angles, one scarce knows where to begin.
A (potential) $750 million (US) drug development deal; world-leading drug research in Edmonton; a passing-of-the-torch from the now-deceased Edmonton-based drug researcher Dr. Ron Micetich to his drug-business savvy son Chris Micetich; a dizzying series of business manoeuvres involving the promising new drug; disruptive yet promising ways of doing business.
The drug development deal was an under-publicized monster, announced in January of 2015: Swiss drug giant Roche purchased the world-wide (excluding Japan) rights to a promising but unproven antibiotic drug owned by Edmonton’s Fedora Pharmaceuticals, in partnership with Japan’s Meiji Seika Pharma.
If the "beta-lactamase inhibitor" OP0595 passes clinical trials and is approved by regulators, it may be the new super-bacteria bug killer the world is looking for.
If so, Fedora and Meiji Seika will pocket the entire $750 million from Roche, plus sales royalties.
T ...
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Thank God for Alberta Avenue – better known to the non-locals as 118th Avenue.
Alberta Avenue keeps Edmonton’s food scene honest.
You can have your frothy cocktails and fish tacos in Old Strathcona, on 124th Street and now downtown. You can have your craft beers in those fake-rustic gastropubs, served by scruffy hipsters with toques pulled over their eyebrows.
Alberta Avenue harkens back to an earlier, more innocent era. Newly arrived immigrants couldn’t speak English, but mama could cook and papa could figure out how to take orders. The neighbours might be a tad sketchy, but Alberta Avenue offered a rare combo of cheap storefront rents and pedestrian traffic.
To this day, the most interesting, low-cost restaurants in the city are strung along 118th – from NAIT to Northlands, then from 50 Street to 34 Street. It’s a little United Nations, with Asian, European, Central American, South American, African, Filipino and Caribbean food outlets, even a sprinkle of good ol&rs ...
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I am mystified.
The Alberta government’s Economic Dashboard, an up-to-date snapshot of the provincial economy, shows we’re truly in the dumper.
Compared to a year ago, Alberta’s unemployment rate has jumped from 6.1% to 8.4%, the number of jobs has dropped 22.6%, average weekly earnings are down 4.2% and Employment Insurance recipients are up 48%.
The only positive sign is the population has grown 1.8% to 4.2 million.
And yet downtown Edmonton is in the midst of a building boom, the likes of which we haven’t seen in 30 years.
Around the just-opened $480 million Rogers Place downtown arena, zillionaire Oilers owner Darryl Katz and his partners are building four towers – 27, 66, 54 and 50 floors — that will be combinations of residential, office, hotel and retail space.
Outside the arena district, the Provincial Museum, Kelly Ramsey Building, Hyatt Place Hotel plus new MacEwan University and NorQuest College buildings are under construction, as are at least ...
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Have Mercy Southern Table & Bar
8232 Gateway Blvd. (Old Strathcona)
780-760-0203
havemercy.ca
Sunday and Monday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Tuesday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.
Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Food: 4 of 5 stars
Ambience: 4.5 of 5 stars
Service: 4 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $25; fully loaded, $60
Forget the ICE District and all those downtown eateries for half-a-minute. Turn your gaze across the North Saskatchewan, up the south bank to the less-active Old Strathcona.
Two years ago filmmaker Michael Maxiss, through family circumstances, took over a restaurant-in-the-making on Gateway Boulevard just north of Whyte Avenue.
Fortunately Maxiss was a fast learner. He knew how to create atmosphere, he had a few marketing tricks up his sleeve but he was new to the restaurant trade. After a rocky start in the kitchen, Maxiss brought in chef Lindsay Porter. It’s been smooth sailing ever since.
El Cortez Mexican Kitchen + Tequila B ...
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