Category: Around town
Around town
Grandin Fish ‘N’ Chips
9902 109 St.
780-250-3474
Grandinfish.ca
11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Saturday
No reservations
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 3.5 of 5 stars
Plenty of fast food outlets offer fish ’n’ chips, but the batter usually drips oil like a rusting car, the fish is mushy, the French fries from a bag and the ambience as charming as an aging fastfood court.
In the years I’ve called Edmonton home, only once have I experienced the very best of fish ’n’ chips, being a special-of-the-day at Beaumont’s charming Franco-Albertan Chartier restaurant.
Until now: With the opening of the Grandin Fish ’n’ Chips shop on 109 Street just north of the High Level Bridge, a glorious new era of fish ’n’ chips has dawned.
The new shop is clean, sunny and well-ventilated, with some 40 seats. The decoration and décor is whimsical and appropriately Maritime themed. The open kitchen is superb.
It&rs ...
Read the rest of entry »
Vivo Ristorante Downtown
10505-106 St.
587-525-7500
vivoristorante.ca
4 p.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week
(Pizzeria and Taverna sections, 11 a.m. to late)
Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4.5 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (excluding beverages and tip): basic, $45; loaded, $120
The start was rough, but the evening proved enchanting.
An unsmiling, unwelcoming host, as charming as a James Bond villain, led us into the new Vivo Ristorante Downtown, pointed at the table we were to occupy, turned heel and left!
Having settled in, I opened the menu, and just about fell off my chair.
Antipastos were priced at $17 to $54, pastas at $20 to $43, entrees at $54 to $92, and veggie side dishes at $14 to $19! For a moment, we considered moving downstairs to Vivo’s Pizzeria, where a beer and a personal pizza can be had for $12.
The initial “oh dear” moment didn’t last. All was made well by delightful Michelle, who, as our server, ...
Read the rest of entry »
Baijiu
Mercer Building, 10359-104 St.
780-421-7060
Baijiuyeg.com
Tuesday to Thursday, 5 p.m. to midnight
Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Closed Sunday and Monday
Reservations for large groups only
Food: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 3 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (excluding beverages and tip): basic, $40; loaded, $60
Baijiu is not all it’s cracked up to be.
The new, ultra-trendy restaurant-bar in the trendy Mercer Warehouse building in its ultra-trendy location (right across from Rogers Place) is definitely ultra-trendy.
The ambiance is clever, and a ton of fun. I’ve heard of this narrow but spacious space described as a 1930’s style Shanghai speakeasy mixed with Southern California pastels and neon.
Tables are squeezed down one side with cheek-by-jowl seating. Across the aisle is one of the longest sit-down bar counters in the city.
Like Michael Maxxis’s Old Strathcona Have Mercy and El Cortez restaurant bars, Baijiu’ ...
Read the rest of entry »
My wife and I are off to Winnipeg for a few days this summer. We’ll visit relatives and see the city. But our primary motivation will be visiting the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Opened in 2014, the museum cost $350 million. It is already a civic icon. Think of Winnipeg and you think of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Blue Bombers, the Jets and now the human rights museum.
Maria and I will spend about $1,000 on airfare, accommodations, meals, getting around and admissions. Winnipeg Tourism will love us – proof tourist dollars are flowing into Winnipeg thanks to the museum.
That’s why I am so excited, in so many ways, about the now fully-funded $42 million Indigenous People’s Experience exhibit to be built at Fort Edmonton Park.
The exhibit will be the crown jewel of a $150-million upgrade (a three-way split between the Edmonton, Alberta and federal governments) to our top historical attraction. Fort Edmonton’s aging utilities will be overhauled and other inter ...
Read the rest of entry »
Crazy For You
Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
March 4-26, 2017
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
It was an audacious daring experiment, even as Momma Mia was being awkwardly built around a framework of ABBA songs.
In 1992, playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me A Tenor) took the classic hits of George and Ira Gershwin from the 1920s and 1930s, stitching them into a successful new Broadway “jukebox” comedy musical that utterly captured the spirit and humour of the songs and their era, and, at the same time, had a strong story line – not just a series of sketches hung between songs.
The Citadel’s version of Crazy For You, in partnership with Theatre Calgary, works like a damn.
It’s big, boisterous, full of fun, silliness, and word-play groaners. The plot is pure fluff, but it’s fun fluff – show girls, dreams, cow pokes, crazy impresarios, veering in locale from New York City to Deadrock, Nevada.
The dancing is vaudeville tap-dancing ...
Read the rest of entry »
Commentary on the Citadel Theatre's unveiling of its 2017/18 season
by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
February 13, 2017
The sigh of relief was audible last week among seasoned Citadel Theatre fans in Edmonton, as, play by play, new artistic director Daryl Cloran unveiled the 2017/18 season.
This kid, the grizzled veterans of Edmonton theatre thought to themselves, is for real.
Until the 2017/18 season announcement, we didn’t know quite what to think of Cloran.
The Citadel board search committee had plenty of time, almost a full year, to find a replacement for past artistic director Bob Baker. Baker had announced his retirement after 17 excellent years at the helm of the theatre. He continues an association with The Citadel as artistic director emeritus.
The board was excited about Cloran, who during six seasons as director of Kamloops’ innovative Western Canada Theatre had built a national reputation for both innovation and aud ...
Read the rest of entry »
Jan. 17, 2017
Baby, it’s cold outside!
When it’s winter, inertia can rule. What’s the point of heading outside? Mitts, toques and scarves must be put on and taken off, over and over. Exposed skin is always mildly shocked by the dramatic change in temperature – fingers and toes and cheeks take forever to warm up.
But as Canadians, we know the up-side.
As long as there’s little or no wind, being outside on a sun-lit Alberta day in January is gorgeous.
The cold, crisp air is a tonic. Mental cobwebs are swept away. Headaches caused by the stuffy indoors magically disappear.
But where to go once you are dressed for the elements? Especially when you lack athletic skills such as skating, playing hockey or skiing, when you’re too old and brittle for toboganning?
To Hawrelak Park!
Edmonton’s most popular park in the summer (Heritage Days etc.) is also a haven for outdoor winter activities.
For the second year in a row ...
Read the rest of entry »
For years and years, snotty socialites would complain about the Edmonton dining and cultural scene.
It was soooo backward here, dahling, compared to that wonderful Toronto or fabulous New York City. Even Calgary was better than plain ol’Edmonton.
It drove me nuts – you’d reel off 10 excellent restaurants, they’d not been to one. You’d name 10 recent theatrical productions in this theatre-rich town, and they’d not seen one. They’d not bothered with the symphony or to visit the art gallery. No matter. We were just … backward.
The best news of the past year: That complaint is gone! The opposite has happened. Fancy national magazines now send out writers from Toronto to chronicle Edmonton’s leading-edge dining scene.
I don’t care if Edmonton is ahead or behind the times. I just live here and thoroughly enjoy what my city has to offer in a staggering array of dining-out options.
The number of new, informal, high-quality bistros continues t ...
Read the rest of entry »
Wine-tasting: Wines from Brazil's Vinicola Salton winery
By Graham Hicks
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
First posted Nov. 7, 2016
hicksbiz.com
graham.hicks@hicksbiz.com
@hicksbiz
Edmonton wine stores have shelves upon shelves of Canadian, American, Italian, New Zealand, Australian and French wines. There’s fewer Chilean, South African, German and Spanish wines, but still some choice.
But when it comes to Brazilian wines, you’ll be lucky to find a few brands on a back shelf.
Which is why Mauricio Salton and Cesar Baldasso, of Brazil’s Vinicola Salton winery, found themselves 11,000 kilometres away from home, tucking into tapas at the Bodega Highlands tapas bar and kitchen on a cool November evening.
Producing 1.25 million cases of wine annually, Salton is one of the biggest wineries in Brazil and definitely the oldest, started by Mauricio’s great grandfather and his great grandfather’s brothers in 1910.
Brazil likes its home-grown wines, especially sparkl ...
Read the rest of entry »
How interesting that it took a 69-year-old independent businessman to build the first new major hotel in downtown Edmonton in 25 years, the 255-room (including 32 suites), 12-storey Hyatt Place at 9576 Jasper Avenue.
How interesting that Prem Singhmar was willing to break new ground, to be the first developer to make a major ($55 million) investment in The Quarters, the City of Edmonton’s vision for the Downtown East. Hyatt Place is one block east of the Shaw Conference Centre. And the new hotel has opened in the middle of a province-wide severe economic downturn.
Prem professes to no particular financial acumen, but his track record is one of successful real estate and land development, one project after another.
Starting with a chicken farm near Redwater on his arrival from India, via Libya, in 1985, Prem’s UAM Enterprises now consists of hotels, commercial and residential buildings and construction throughout Metropolitan Edmonton, plus agricultural holdings.
“I am n ...
Read the rest of entry »