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 ...
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McDonald’s, the biggest fast-food chain in the world, is re-inventing itself to stay current.
Chutneys Indian Grill is a kid full of dreams, a new fast-food franchise concept originating in Edmonton, with one prototype outlet in the fast-growing suburbs east of Mill Woods.
Joe Sangha and his partners in Chutneys are betting the world is ready for a healthy version of Indian fast food, delivered in the pick ‘n’ choose style of a Subway or Chipotle.
In a new building in a new shopping common south of Whitemud Drive on 17 Street, the Chutneys’ serving process is familiar, the food less so. As in a Subway, you start at one end and work your way down the serving counter, pointing at that what you want to add to your meal.
First up is the base – a freshly-pressed and cooked “burroti” (see below), or brown rice, or salad greens. Then a protein, a sauce (gently westernized versions of butter sauce, tikka masala, vindaloo or daal), multiple toppings (cucumber, onions, toma ...
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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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The Red King’s Dream
Shadow Theatre production on the Varscona Theatre stage
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Oct. 26 to Nov. 13, 2016
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicks biz.com
Prolific Edmonton playwright David Belke has written plays encompassing modern farce, introspection, historic figures mixed into the contemporary world, humour, confusion and much more.
He, with Shadow Theatre artistic director John Hudson, chose to re-mount one of Belke’s most introspective and serious plays, 1996’s The Red King’s Dream, for the opening play of Shadow Theatre’s 2016/17 season in the new Varscona Theatre.
The Red King’s Dream is a quiet play – a two-hour introspective meditation on the nature of romantic love and infatuation. An awkward, intellectual loner, buried in books, is kindled by passion as he falls in love with a woman with similar tastes who happens to live in the apartment building.
While The Red King’s Dream is an interesting tre ...
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Million Dollar Quartet
Citadel Theatre, Shoctor Stage, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Oct. 22 to Nov. 6, 2016
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, hicksbiz.com
Tickets
Holy moly, Lord have mercy, great balls of fire, it’s a miracle!
Well, not quite. But damn near.
Somehow, the Citadel Theatre found the perfect four actors for its production of Million Dollar Quartet, running through November 13, 2016 on the Shoctor Stage.
Piano virtuoso, singer and madcap actor Christo Graham embodies the spirit, cheekiness and looks of Jerry Lee Lewis.
Guitarist, singer and actor Kale Penny plays every complex Carl Perkins’ guitar lick as if were his own.
Singer/actor Christopher Fordinal’s reincarnation of the young Elvis Presley will be a life-long meal ticket.
Singer/actor Greg Gale impersonates (in the best sense of the word) Johnny Cash’s mannerisms plus possesses a melodious baritone that is uncannily Cash-like.
The context of the ...
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In the Alberta government’s climate change/carbon tax/phase out coal/renewable energy debate, I have never seen an objective analysis of how Alberta could meet its lower greenhouse gas (GHG) goals as cheaply as possible with the least possible damage to the province economy.
We know the New Democrats’ end goal. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed Canada to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by one-third, from 2013’s 726 Mt (million tonnes) to 523 Mt by 2030. So must Premier Rachel Notley do the same, reducing Alberta’s GHG emissions by approximately a third from 2013’s 267 Mt to 193 Mt by 2030.
We know however, that this New Democrat government is in love with renewables, regards coal as the face of evil, dislikes oil, and only grudgingly puts up with natural gas.
But the question to be asked – the logical, rational question – is this: What combination of coal, natural gas, oil, renewables and conservation would reduce provincial GHG ...
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Sloppy Hoggs Roed Hus
9563-118 Ave.
780-477-2408
sloppyhoggsbbq.com
Tuesday to Wednesday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Thursday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Closed Mondays
Dinner for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $24; fully loaded, $50
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 3.5 of 5 Suns
When a top-notch independent restaurant changes ownership, as happened earlier this year with the popular southern barbecue Sloppy Hoggs Roed Hus on 118th Avenue, you worry.
Will quality drop? Will the ribs be as expected?
The good news is the new owners recognized a good thing when they saw it. The sale included everything down to the meat smokers and Sloppy Hoggs’ BBQ recipes. Nothing has changed other than a few more additions to the menu.
Six of us descended on Sloppy Hoggs this past weekend, hungry and ready to chow down. The first impression was promising – the restaurant was bustling on a Sunday evening with several birthday parties in pro ...
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Wednesday evening I am sitting in one of my favourite downtown spots, Bodega Tapas & Wine Bar at Sabor.
It’s an hour before the Oilers’ first game of the season in the spanking-new Rogers Place just up the street.
I have sat in this same chair many an evening, with its fine view of a massive concrete wall that is the west end of the Edmonton City Centre.
Tonight is different.
Instead of a pedestrian passing by every 10 minutes, as often staggering as walking, the sidewalks are alive with people who have packed nearby taverns and eateries and are now walking to Rogers Place.
For once, the down ’n’ outers do not dominate the downtown come nightfall. For once, there are far more “normal people”.
For at least 30 years, the reality of the downtown after dark has been at best uninviting and at worse downright scary.
It’s been a ratio game. Less–fortunate Edmontonians – the panhandlers, the intoxicated and generally tough-looking characte ...
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Clementine
11957 Jasper Ave.
barclementine.ca
5 p.m. to midnight, 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Closed Sundays and Mondays
(No reservations. no phone)
Food: 4.5 of 5 stars
Ambience: 4 of 5 stars
Service: 4 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $40; fully loaded, $70
It’s far too early to tell – like declaring a Stanley Cup winner two weeks into the season - but Chef Roger Letourneau at the newly opened Clementine has the potential to be the next culinary star to come out of Edmonton.
On the storefront street level of the new 35-story Pearl Tower on Jasper Avenue West, Clementine (or Bar Clementine, the name goes back and forth) is a jewel in the pearl.
Through a winter-proof vestibule, one enters a time-warp, magically transported to a classic European bar circa the 1930s – all dark polished woods, sturdy tables and counters, dominated by a massive curved bar behind which stands rows of spirits of every colour and hue.
Co ...
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