Innovative Edmonton developer John Day, on the eve of his latest and biggest re-development ever, sat down with me last Tuesday (June 18), to talk about his development projects, development philosophy and sense of community..
The new project is the 23-story officer tower, only the second to be built in the city since 1990, in the heart of the downtown on the site of the burned-down Kelly Ramsey Building (actually two separate buildings stuck together, with adjoining hallways) in Rice-Howard Way. The details of that project, a unique combination of historic and ultra-modern architecture, were recorded in my Hicks on Biz column for the Edmonton Sun of June 22, 2013 and the Sun online.
As a law school undergraduate during the time when historic Edmonton was being razed to make way for the downtown building boom of the late '70s through early '80s, John admits he didn't really notice the disappearance of the city's ornate past.
"It was more the demolition I was seeing as a young lawyer during th ...
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Ratings from a Dishcrawl-organized restaurant tour on June 12.
One overall rating per establishment, based on sample dishes, service and ambience.
Fionn MacCool’s Irish Pub: 3.5 Suns
Koutouki Taverna South-Side: 3 Suns
Creations Restaurant at the Sawridge Hotel: 4 Suns
Century Grill (Hawaii 5-0 dessert): 4 Suns
Dishcrawl is an intriguing, for-profit company that organizes what’s best described as restaurant crawls.
You register online, pay $50, meet your 40 new best friends at a pre-assigned restaurant on a pre-assigned date, go on to visit three more restaurants and are home by 10:30 or 11 p.m.
The other three restaurants are not revealed until the gang gathers.
Last Wednesday’s theme was location-centric, four restaurants bordering the Whitemud/Gateway Boulevard interchange, all within walking distance of one another. Which was ironic, given it’s the least pedestrian-friendly part of all Edmonton.
How would it work? Might Dishc ...
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This plot line involves four Edmonton characters – Mike Mrdjenovich, Richard Wong and the Chateau Lacombe.
As for the last, I can barely bring myself to type his name – or his variety of fake names – because he has caused so much misfortune to so many people. But Kevyn Frederick is pivotal to this story.
There’s no need to add “hotel” to the Chateau Lacombe.
It’s an Edmonton landmark, the iconic, 24-floor circular – some would say tin can – building overlooking the river valley from the downtown, with its signature La Ronde revolving restaurant at the top.
Richard Wong needs no introduction. He’s the last of the “old-school” hoteliers in Edmonton, deeply entrenched in the community, a leader, unable to say no to any cause. Richard is a hospitality guy to his core with the best network in town.
Other than as the dad of boxing champ Jelena Mrdjenovich, Mike Mrdjenovich is not so visible. A classic entrepreneur, Mrdjenovich boot-strap ...
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Saccomanno’s
10208-127 Avenue
780-478-2381
(Dinner Friday and Saturday only, reservations only)
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Weekend dinner: Fixed price, $35 per person.
Lunches: Slice of pizza and pop, $5
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I was at Saccomanno’s Pizza Pasta Deli a year ago, and it was not a pretty sight.
Grandpa Frank Saccomanno was getting tired. Son Joe helped out, but Joe is a teacher, not a grocer or restaurateur.
The big space on 127 Avenue near 97 Street, across from CN Rail’s regional headquarters, had long been a gathering point as a grocery store and trattoria for the north-end Italian community.
But Frank and his wife were tired. The store didn’t look so good any more. The trattoria was still good but lacked variety and was losing its sparkle.
Today …. Rebirth!
Having grown up in the store, grandson Francesco, in his mid-20s, has decided the life of a restaurateur, deli-and-grocery owner is fine by him.
Frances ...
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You see them in every restaurant kitchen.
Recent immigrants, or temporary foreign workers, mostly from South Asia or the Philippines.
Chances are they were well-educated in cooking schools in their home countries, worked in five-star restaurants abroad, or on cruise ships.
But they didn't belong to the lucky gene club, weren't born in an affluent country like Canada, had to start from scratch in a very foreign, cold country ... with opportunity.
We are so lucky.
The cream of that crop, once Canadianized, are spreading their entrepreneurial wings, creating new business, employment and wealth creation in Edmonton.
Fourteen years ago, chef Ramesh Devangodi arrived in Canada from South India, penniless but ambitious.
This past week, Devangodi, with partner Parmeet Narula, completed the purchase of the Cheesecake Cafe franchise at 100 Avenue east of 170 Street. It will be added to the four restaurants Ramesh and his wife Sonia already own under the New Asian Village and Haweli brands. The Cheesecake Caf&e ...
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Red Ox Inn
9420 91 St.
780 465 5727
theredoxinn.com
Food: 4 of 5 suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 suns
Service: 3.5 of 5 suns
Dinner for two excluding beverages: Basic, $85; Loaded, $120.
There’s no secret to restaurant longevity.
Consistently excellent food with consistently excellent service is 90% of the game.
The Red Ox Inn has been open for 15 years, follows no trends, is a simple unpretentious dining room with just 36 seats.
On weekends, it’s usually full. We booked for four a month ahead. Only the 6 p.m. seating was left.
Why? Because the food is consistently excellent in this out-of-the-way spot at the top of Connors Hill (close to the folk festival hill), the service impeccable.
The Red Ox Inn is all the more remarkable in that owners Frank and Andrea Olson, after 15 years as chef and maître d’ respectively, promoted sous-chef Sean O’Connor to chef in order to focus on the recent opening of the Red Ox’s baby sister establishment, Canteen, on 124 Street.
The ...
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I promise, this time round, I will not ask “why’d you let yourself get so fat?”
When I wrote that blog column in 2008 for the Edmonton Sun, it drew over 1,000 comments. And I won’t comment on obesity expert Dr. David Macklin’s theory that some individuals are genetically programmed to be more addicted to sweet, salty or fatty foods.
This column, being business oriented, will simply look at the actual costs, money and otherwise, of the fat epidemic in our society – that one in four Canadians/Albertans are now officially obese, defined by being extremely overweight in relation to their height. And that one in every 11 kids, according to the Canadian Institute for Health’s “Obesity in Canada” report from 2011, is overweight.
The simplest definition of adult obesity that I’ve come across: If you’re 5 ft. 3 in. and weigh over 170 lbs.; 5 ft. 7 in. and over 185 lbs.; 5 ft. 11 in. and over 200 lbs.; 6 ft. 3 in. and over 230 lbs … unless ...
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Are Albertans becoming choosier in what they eat and what they drink? Are significant numbers of us shopping at farmers’ markets as well as Superstore or Costco? At the big supermarkets, are organic and deli sections thriving?
Are independent butcher shops like Acme or specialty cheese shops like the new Cavern on 104th Street becoming more popular?
When you go to the shiny new huge-choice liquor stores and confront literally 1,000 brands of red wine, are you adventurous, learning about different grapes … or do you grab the usual Apothic Red?
To be blunt, are you willing to pay more, significantly more, for quality?
The subject arose at a multi-course dinner presented at Joseph Rustom’s Parkallen Restaurant by Big Rock Brewery last week, celebrating the launch of Big Rock’s Rosmarinus Aromatic Ale.
“Craft” beers, loosely defined as beers made by small, independent and traditional breweries, are a classic test of this quality versus quantity idea.
...
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Nothing is more irksome than the Keystone XL pipeline protesters calling our oil sands oil the “dirtiest oil on the planet” or Al Gore claiming there’s no such thing as ethical oil, only “dirty and dirtier oil.”
For two years, I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about the oil sands, pollution and technology.
I have reached quite the opposite conclusion of Mr. Gore.
If the technological advances in the oil sands continue at the current pace, if energy producers continue to invest in oil sands’ research at current levels, if provincial and federal regulators continue to raise the bar to ensure world-leading environmental standards, oil-sands oil will be one of the world’s cleanest energy sources.
If a proposed new factory or electricity plant put out a call for the best environmentally friendly fuel source – be it wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, natural gas or oil - our oil-sands oil will soon be competitive at a fraction of the c ...
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Von's Steakhouse and Oyster Bar
Food: 3.5 suns of 5
Ambience: 3.5 of 5
Service: 4 of 5
Dinner for two excluding drinks: Basic, $60. Multi-course, $120.
Steakhouses — especially the high-priced ones — tread a fine line.
On the one hand, they must stick with the tried and true, the rib eyes and tenderloins covered in molten butter that an older, monied crowd expects.
On the other, the next generation(s) has less appetite for acres of red meat, expects dishes with more zest, expects casual elegance and has higher standards. If it’s a $28 chicken plate, it’d better be really good chicken in a really good recipe.
The steakhouse chains, hard-wired to convention, only change their menus with the greatest of reluctance.
Independents have more room to find that ever-evolving balance.
Von’s Steakhouse and Oyster Bar is as independent a restaurant as you’ll find in Edmonton, at its Gateway and 81 Avenue location for some 30 years. Kudo ...
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