The Citadel Theatre's Kite Runner an epic drama on all fronts: Review by Graham Hicks, March 15, 2013

Theatre review by Graham Hicks The Kite Runner, adapted by Matthew Spangler, based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini At the Citadel Theatre (Shoctor Stage) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada March 9 to 31, 2013 Ensemble cast Tickets and information: Thank you Citadel Theatre, for once again presenting a theatrical masterpiece, a contemporary masterpiece in a least expected setting. The Kite Runner is epic, spanning an emotional/ethical arc of friendship, betrayal, weakness, saintliness, rigidity, hypocrisy, lost innocence,  twisted brutality. These qualities of the soul are fit within a panoramic psycho-geographic landscape that echoes the interior conflicts and passions - an idyllic Afghanistan, tumultuous Afghanistan, wretched Afghanistan and San Francisco, USA, through the eyes of a refugee Afghan community. There is the masterpiece of the writing, shared between the author of the original novel, Khaled Hosseini, and the craftsmanship of stage-adapter Matthew Spangler. That so ma ... Read the rest of entry »

Cafe Crepe Symphony shouldn't be so secret: Weekly Dish originally published in the Edmonton Sun March 13, 2012

Café Crepe Symphony 10115 100A Ave. (Rice-Howard Way) 587-520-7111 Call for reservations Food: 4 of 5 stars Ambience: 3 of 5 stars Service: 4 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $20; Multi-course, $40 (Gluten-free available) ——— It’s tucked away in a Rice-Howard Way nook, beside the popular Tres Carnales, with a construction depot for the LRT Jasper Avenue overhaul right outside its doors. But the Café Crepe Symphony should not be such a secret. It ought to be as busy as Tres Carnales next door, Sugarbowl in the Bridge District or DaDeO in Old Strathcona. Its crepes – for that is what the Crepe Symphony does – are that good. So often, all one wants from a restaurant is something grease-free, light, refreshing and inexpensive. Yet the options are so limited. Enter, at least for those close to downtown, the Crepe Symphony. The menu is straightforward. Savoury c ... Read the rest of entry »

Profit in a not-for-profit world, the business of curling's Brier: Hicks on Biz originally published in Edmonton Sun March 9, 2013

Curling is Canada's most peculiar sport.The Tim Hortons Brier, entering into its final playoffs and championship games Saturday and Sunday at Rexall Place, is expected to sell at least 200,000 tickets.It will have been televised its entire eight-day run, on Canada's most watched sports network, TSN.The Brier, says Canadian Curling Association events director Warren Hansen, will cost $3 million to $4 million to produce.It will earn, from ticket sales and sponsorship/TV revenue (including government incentives) $4 million to $5 million.Most sports with such a big audience, as a rule of thumb, split net revenues on a 50-50 basis with its performers, i.e. the athletes.But the Brier will spend just $500,000 on the 12 teams. It will cover all their expenses, and provide prize money for the winning teams.That's 10% of net revenues in this case, not 50% as in other major professional sports.Curlers, even at the Brier level, are not fully professional. The sport is an income-producing hobby. "In a good year," says for ... Read the rest of entry »

Original Joe's a quiet winner: Weekly Dish review originally published Feb. 27, 2013

Original Joe’s 8404 109 St. (Six other locations in Edmonton) 780 988 5600 www.originaljoes.ca Food: 4 of 5 stars Ambience: 3 of 5 stars Service: 3.5 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $25; Multi-course, $50 —— Way to go, Original Joe’s. These guys like to lurk under the radar, with minimal advertising. Original Joe’s started in Calgary in 1997, shortly thereafter snuck into Edmonton and has since quietly expanded to seven Original Joe’s in Edmonton, 55 across Western Canada. The original city outlet is still on 102 Avenue west of 124 Street. My memory of Original Joe’s from years ago was of a not-bad burger bar with good beers. But I’d been hearing good things. Going back to an Original Joe’s – on 109 Street in the Bridge District north of Whyte Avenue – was truly positive. Today, Original Joe’s is like Toyota – offering excellent value for you ... Read the rest of entry »

Century Grill Comes Up Roses: Weekly Dish originally published in Edmonton Sun February 13, 2013

Century Grill3975 Calgary Trail 780-431-0303 www.centuryhospitality.comFood: 4 of 5 starsAmbience: 3.5 of 5 starsService: 4 of 5 starsDinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $50; Multi-course, $120——Chef Paul Shufelt, who writes in the Edmonton Sun about food creation while I talk about eating it, has reason to be proud.The Century Grill, the flagship of the Century Hospitality restaurant group over which Paul presides, will be 13 years old come April.I have dined at the Century Grill dozens of times, in formal occasions, business luncheons, even grabbing a burger with a beer in the adjoining bar.But this is the first time I have approached the Century Grill with a critical eye.It came up roses, as it has so often in the past.One has to establish context.The Century Grill is not in competition with the top-end Hardware Grill or the Harvest Room, nor with chef-centred bistros.Its target customer would be at home in an Earl’s or Cactus Club – upscale, but not too upscale, something different ... Read the rest of entry »

Mack Male and Graham Hicks team up on a new weekly podcast "Mack & Cheese"

This is quite exciting, as in teaching this old dog new tricks. Mack Male and I have kicked off a weekly podcast, "Mack & Cheese." You can listen to the introductory episode at http://www.mackandcheese.ca/2013/02/02/episode-1-introduction/ (For you even older dogs, a "podcast" is like a discussion/interview/conversation on talk radio, except you can listen to it at any time, from any computer. Just go to the website and click on the appropriate button.) I'm intrigued by where Mack & Cheese is going to go. I've always said that Mack's Mastermaq blog is today's "Hicks on Six", that Mack is equally intrigued, enthusiastic and concerned about all things Edmontonian as I was over the 20 years I wrote the five-times-a-week column for The Edmonton Sun. In fact, I pitched Sun Publisher John Caputo on the idea of Mack replacing me at The Sun when I retired as a full-time columnist at the end of 2010, three weeks after my 60th birthday. (I still think Mack should be writing in "my" newsp ... Read the rest of entry »

Private Lives at the Citadel Theatre, love in the moment: Review by Graham Hicks Feb. 8, 2013

Theatre review by Graham Hicks Private Lives, by Noel Coward At the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Canada until Feb. 24, 2013 Directed by Bob Baker Starring John Ullyatt and Diana Donnelly There’s a reason Noel Coward’s Private Lives is alive and kicking and powerfully relevant, 82 years after the drama premiered with Coward in the lead role. It’s more than the marvelous English wit and command of the language, the dancing in the dragon’s jaws, the suspension of normalcy, the physical hilarity and the superb construction of the famous British socialite/playwright’s plays. It’s about his surgical dissection, in Private Lives, of the paradox of human love: Of societal norms suggesting a man and a woman (or combinations thereof) ought to meet, fall in love, marry, answer all of each other’s emotional, spiritual and physical needs, raise a family in harmony and wisdom, grow old together, and never fight. Nothing should ever go wrong. Neither husband nor wife will ... Read the rest of entry »

Rice Paper Vietnamese Fine Cuisine really is fine: Weekly Dish column, originally published in Edmonton Sun, Jan. 9, 2013

Rice Paper Vietnamese Fine Cuisine10080 178 St. (780) 483 8198 ——Food: 4 of 5 starsAmbience: 3.5 of 5 starsService: 3.5 of 5 stars——The first impression is how clean the restaurant is.Rice Paper, out in the west end among the cluster of hotels supplying West Edmonton Mall with tourists, is spotless.It helps that Van Phan’s eatery is in a stand-alone building that’s only a few years old. Still, somebody is shining the door knobs every day.If Van Phan’s name looks familiar, it is. With his sister’s family, he opened and ran the city’s best known Vietnamese restaurant, Thanh Thanh on 101 Street, for some 16 years. Tiring of the trade, he sold his share to his sister, and took a well-earned sabbatical.But when son Christopher’s interest in the restaurant business wouldn’t go away, Van plunged back in.Already it’s been two years since Van, Christopher and the rest of the immediate family opened Rice Bowl.I’m not going to say it’s better than Thanh Thanh — I have no interest in provoking family disp ... Read the rest of entry »

New steakhouse shows off its chops: Weekly Dish review originally published in Edmonton Sun Jan. 2, 2013

Chop Steakhouse (Downtown)10235 101 St. (780) 441-3075 www.chop.ca Food: 3.5 of 5 starsAmbience: 4 of 5 starsService: 3.5 of 5 starsDinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $70; fully loaded, $140 It’s long been a mystery why, in the heart of cattle country, there have been just two steakhouses in downtown Edmonton since Hy’s closed … and one of them specializes in American corn-fed beef!Steaks are popular – there’s always going to be a steady steak ‘n’ potato crowd, and just about everybody gets a hankering at one time or another for a juicy T-bone that can be cut with a fork.Steak is easy enough to cook, it’s the cut and the aging that matters. There ought to be good money in a well-managed steakhouse, given steak entrees run from $25 to $60. And you don’t need an artist in the kitchen to prepare your basic steak, baked potato and tomato gratin.So it wasn’t surprising when the new owner of the Sutton Place Hotel announced the hotel restaurant would become a Chop Steakhouse. Northlands ... Read the rest of entry »

Check out our top-rated eateries in Edmonton - Weekly Dish column, originally published in Edmonton Sun, Dec. 26, 2012

Do you think the nay-sayers will finally back off, in light of the overwhelming evidence of Edmonton’s culinary coming of age?I cannot remember a year of so much choice and quality in Edmonton restaurants, from the cilantro, cold-cuts and slivered carrots in a $3.50 Van Loc Vietnamese sub to the best the Hardware Grill has to offer.After two years of reviewing, The Weekly Dish still has a list of some 40 must-get-to restaurants … and at least four more top-quality eateries are opening up.My standard response to anybody dissing Edmonton’s food selection is to rhyme off 20 excellent restaurants — ethnic, gourmet, vegetarian, classic, fusion, Italian and so on — and ask just how many have these pretentious types been to? Usually the response is a blank stare. They know not what is before their noses.Trends: Food trucks are coming into their own, and by this summer, every prime food truck spot will be taken. Thanks to Drift, Nomad and Little Village for setting the standard.Critical mass is happening in the heart ... Read the rest of entry »