The foie gras triangles from Brasserie Bardot, a second restaurant by Violino.
By GRAHAM HICKS
It’s a head-scratcher.
The best of restaurateurs are crying the blues — fewer customers spending less, higher taxes, higher wages.
But as they cry, they open more restaurants!
Dozens of secondary locations are opening, using the same name or variations.
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Padmanadi, Vivo, Pizzeria Rosso (Pizzeria Bianco), Splash Poke, Bodega Tapas, Farrow Sandwiches, Workshop Eatery (Woodshed Burgers), Café Amore (Amore Pasta), Dorinku Tokyo (Dorinku Osaka), Duchess Bakery, Green Onion Cake Man, Violino (Brasserie Bardot) and Local Omnivore (Pink Gorilla) have all opened second outlets. And this list barely scratches the surface.
Partake was one of 2019’s most successful new restaurants. Pictured here, its charcuterie board. PHOTOS BY GRAHAM HICKS – EDMONTON SUN
Nate Box – who opens, closes and converts eateries in the blink ...
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The Trans Mountain Expansion Project pipe is on the ground near Highway 60 and 628, and will be in the ground before Christmas as an event was held to mark the start of right-of-way pipeline construction just west of Edmonton Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. Ed Kaiser / Postmedia
The great oil crash of 2014/15 sent Alberta’s economy reeling into the ropes.
Ever since, as our champ staggered back to its feet, pow! Along would come another blow.
Climate change – stop the pipelines! Bash!
A provincial NDP government – blame the rich! Spend, spend, spend! Pfffttt!
The federal government’s ecological love song – death to the carbon-based economy! Bam!
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Heading into the 2020s, the kid is pretty bloodied up and still on its knees.
But it’s about to stand up. Its energy is returning. It’s gaining ground, a counter punch here, a jab there, gaining some momentum.
The debate over climate change is slowly moving from ...
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Braven's prime rib will make meat-lovers think they have died and gone to heaven. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS/EDMONTON SUN
The best of meals, you remember for a long, long time.
The very thought arouses the memory’s tastebuds, accompanied by a sweet sigh of taste recollections.
The longer the memory lasts, the better the original must have been. Here are my Weekly Dish highlights from 2019.
From Cyrille Koppert’s new Partake, for example, way back last January, I have total recall of the ever-changing complimentary snack given to all guests before dinners are ordered. Not silly old popcorn or peanuts, but, that night, mushroom and melted brie combo on toast. How to start right!
Imaginative and complimentary starters set the tone at Partake restaurant.
At the Gui Lin Noodle House on 97 Street was the lightest, most fragrant beef noodle soup I can remember, thanks to orange zest and the addition of an exceptional fruit never before tasted, especially in a soup.
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University of Alberta experimental oncologist Dr. John Lewis may revolutionize the targeted delivery of medicines /therapies to the human body at a nano-level. GRAHAM HICKS/EDMONTON SUNEdmonton
By GRAHAM HICKS
This is a dumb analogy, but it’s as good a way as any to envision might be the biggest scientific breakthrough coming out of the University of Alberta since Dr. Lorne Tyrell’s vaccine for hepatitis C, or the medical team that developed the Edmonton Protocol for reversing severe diabetes.
University of Alberta experimental oncologist Dr. John Lewis has worked on “delivery platforms” at the nano scale — i.e. incredibly tiny — to carry drugs or gene therapies to exactly where they are supposed to go in the body in a safe and timely manner.
The dumb analogy? Consider the delivery platform to be Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker and his X-wing fighter, attacking the mighty but diseased Death Star molecule: Finding, attacking, gaining entry, and deeply penetrating ...
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Dorinku Osaka's pork katsu, from the restaurant's noon menu, is presented with a variety of smaller dishes. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
Dorinku Osaka
10328 Jasper Avenue
780-761-9990
Osaka.dorinku.ca
No listed delivery or reservation service
Hours: 11 a.m. to late, six days a week, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sun.
Dinner for two, excluding beverages, tip and taxes: Basic, $30; loaded, $70
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
By GRAHAM HICKS
Restaurateur Isaac Choi has a magic wand.
This past decade, Choi has opened Japonais Bistro, Dorinku Tokyo and DOSC (Drunken Ox Sober Cat). All have been unique and popular. All have boasted consistently excellent food quality.
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Dorinku Osaka on Jasper Avenue is no exception.
If anything, the latest offering from Isaac Choi is even more interesting food-wise than its predecessors, offering separate lunch and dinner menus, a fresh fish bar and, at the back of the stylish yet casu ...
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About 40 volunteers packed 1,300 hampers, on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, for the Christmas Bureau in the gym of St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School for delivery to families in need.Shaughn Butts / Postmedia
By GRAHAM HICKS
Ever since Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was published in Great Britain in 1843, the story of cold-hearted businessman Ebenezer Scrooge’s Christmas Eve conversion from miser to philanthropist (with the help of a few ghosts) has served as a model for Christmas conscience and charity.
So here we are, Christmas season 2019.
The problem, truly a First World problem, is the sheer volume of the “asks.”
Any charity of any size has a “development” department, that, as often as not, contracts with marketing firms to bombard donors and would-be donors with e-mails, snail mail, telemarketing and social media inserts.
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Many of us have become literally afraid to give. If a charity snares your emai ...
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Braven's prime rib will make meat-lovers think they have died and gone to heaven. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS/EDMONTON SUN
Braven
JW Marriott Hotel, Edmonton ICE District
10344-102 St.
780-784-8580
bravenrestaurant.com
Reservations: opentable.ca
No listed delivery
Hours: Mon. to Fri. 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 pm., 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Sat. and Sun. 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Dinner for two, excluding beverages, tip and taxes: Basic, $60; loaded, $150
Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
By GRAHAM HICKS
Braven, to our great relief, is all it’s cracked up to be.
The more formal of the lobby-level restaurants in the new, exciting JW Marriott Hotel, Braven is doing an extraordinarily good job of having something for everybody, of offering top-notch quality and dining satisfaction within the “something”.
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Its traditional steakhouse selections – the five-to-14-ounce steaks, roast beef, lamb, 14 oz. pork chop, salmon a ...
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The Edmonton skyline is visible through the falling snow as a lone pedestrian walks through McKinnon Ravine Park, in Edmonton Friday Nov. 29, 2019.David Bloom / Postmedia
By GRAHAM HICKS
We live in disturbing times.
Deep sociological rifts and fractures head out every which way in our city – differences over climate change, educational philosophy, equality, progressive versus pragmatic opinions, debt management.
At the same time, there’s growing intolerance of dissenting opinion, no matter how well-informed.
Forgiveness and redemption, fundamental moral principles of all the great world religions, have been forgotten.
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Ten years ago, Don Cherry would have been reprimanded for his stupid remarks about immigrants not wearing poppies. But given the man’s life-long support of good causes and his reputation as a proud, well-meaning Canadian, he might have been conditionally forgiven, “go forth and sin no more”.
B ...
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The Brasserie Bardot calls this combination of poutine with fondue cheeses a "fontine." PHOTOS BY GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
Brasserie Bardot
10109-125 St.
780-757-8702
Reservations: brasseriebardot.com
Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
Dinner for two, excluding beverages, tip and taxes: Basic, $40; loaded, $80
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
By GRAHAM HICKS
Breathe easy.
The new Brasserie Bardot, taking over the lovely old Edmonton mansion vacated by The Manor Bistro, is NOT a high-falutin’, snotty, pretending-to-be-a-five-star French restaurant.
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Quite the opposite: it’s a comfortable, casual bistro with a menu that, like so many good restaurants of late, offers twists on the familiar.
I would describe Brasserie Bardot as “French-inspired” or “In the French style.”
It has poutine, burgers, steaks and wings.
But over the poutine’s French fries, cl ...
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Second Specs' founders and partners Quy An, left, and Dr. Aaron Patel. Graham Hicks / Edmonton Sun
In the business world, they’re called “disrupters,” companies that enter a business sector with a new technology or business model, making their products some combination of cleaner, greener, safer, faster and cheaper than those of the established companies.
The established companies — especially in retail — are not happy campers. Before the disrupter came along, they were usually making a tidy profit with little risk.
About six years ago, a kiosk opened in West Edmonton Mall close to the waterpark. It was called Second Specs.
Second Specs has disrupted the Edmonton retail eye-glasses market. It offers new glasses at a price competitive with online companies, way cheaper than most walk-in Edmonton optical companies, provides personalized service … and can make and fit prescription lenses to a new frame within a half-hour.
Second Specs is 100 pe ...
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