The Cellar at Sofra
10345 106 St
780-423-3044
Facebook: Sofra Authentic Turkish Cuisine
Tues. to Sun. 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Closed Mon
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two excluding drinks and tip: Basic, $40; loaded, $60
Graham Hicks
780 707 6379
graham.hicks@hicksbiz.com
www.hicksbiz.com
@hicksonsix
Sofra is the downtown’s go-to Turkish restaurant, located on the ground floor of a walk-up condominium building on 106 Street just south of MacEwan University.
It’s been around for some time, and has a tumultuous relationship with its customers.
Many discerning diners love the place, go back often, and swear by its Mediterranean/Middle East mix of yogurt, cooking cheeses and fruits, meatballs (kofte) and lamb.
Others, like myself in a Weekly Dish review from three years ago, have been disappointed with a sloppy kitchen and indifferent service. “There was no presentation, no garnishes, just meat on a pl ...
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This is extraordinary.
A year ago, the global price of oil plummeted – from $100 (US) a barrel to $50 to $60, where it seems to have come to rest.
Ours is an energy-based economy. Every other time oil and/or natural gas prices fell, in 1983, 1998 and 2009, Metropolitan Edmonton suffered. Unemployment rates jumped, jobs dried up, housing prices fell, folks left town.
But it’s been a year now, and we’ve scarce felt this oil price meltdown!
Unemployment is up a bit, but just as many folks – 745,000 of us – are working as was the case during the last boom. New houses are being built and purchased at a near record clip.
Companies may not be hiring in droves, there’s not much in the way of lay-offs.
We’ve dodged some serious bullets. But how much longer?
Don’t kid yourselves. Edmonton remains a government and public sector town. Combined, education (42,000 jobs), health care/social services (82,500 jobs) and public administration (39,000 jobs) mak ...
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Padmanadi Vegetarian Restaurant
10740 101 St.
780-428-8899
padmanadi.com
Tues to Fri, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Sat. and Sun. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (brunch), 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Closed Mon
Food: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two excluding drinks and tip: Basic, $30; loaded, $60
Graham Hicks
780 707 6379
graham.hicks@hicksbiz.com
www.hicksbiz.com
@hicksonsix
It’s inappropriate, I apologize in advance.
But Padmanadi Vegetarian Restaurant makes me laugh and laugh.
The second page of its menu is 100% dedicated to “vegetarian meat dishes.”
Somewhere out there, some supplier makes a fake meat “base” out of grain and tofu and Lord knows what. It must be mixed like a dough, cut into meaty shapes and flavoured with non-meat, meaty flavours like lemon “chicken”, teriyaki “chicken’, spicy “shrimp”, Tom Yum “mutton” and even lemon “ribs ...
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Just last week, Edmonton discovered a knowledge-based mega-industry in its own backyard, totally unrelated to the oil patch.
Gilead Sciences came out of hiding to stage a grand opening of a new free-standing laboratory beside its original quarters east of the Beverly Bridge and north of the Yellowhead.
Who knew that 300 highly-trained, well-paid scientists were out there, creating hundreds of millions of dollars of new wealth flowing back into Metro Edmonton's economy?
Gilead is a global pharmaceutical (drug) company based in California. Its HIV, Hepatitis C and some cancer treatment drugs have been “first to market” in the global drug market – so much so that its stock has jumped from $17.35 per share five years ago to $113.98 today. Gilead’s market cap value (share price times the number of shares) is a staggering $167.45 billion dollars.
Edmonton is riding Gilead’s success. The division here houses much of Gilead’s scientific expertise, not in dru ...
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Healthy is the new norm
Ninja Club
10324 82 Ave.
780-705-8008
Food: 3 Suns of five
10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. closed Sundays
Dinner for two: $30
Freshii
10322 Jasper Ave
Food: 4 Suns of five
freshii.com
780-757-4744
10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Dinner for two: $25
MyEmpanadas (take-out)
10631 51 Ave.
780-756-1345
Food: 3.5 Suns
11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. 7 days a week
Two empanadas: $8
Graham Hicks
780-707-6379
graham.hicks@hicksbiz.com
www.hicksbiz.com
@hicksonsix
Graham Hicks/Edmonton Sun
My doctor called with the results of my annual check-up.
Lower the bad cholesterol, exercise, lose a few pounds.
It’s been the same basic message for the past 20 years, the good news being nothing’s terribly wrong.
What is truly good news for all of us is the increasing numbers of healthy, casual eating spots at near hamburger/French fries prices. No excuses left!
Freshii — fast, casual, fresh
The Freshi ...
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Should Alberta business be terrified of this new all-orange New Democrat government?
Or thrilled?
Probably half and half.
One thing is for sure. The day after the New Democrats pulled off Canada’s biggest political upset in the last decade – taking 54 of Alberta’s 87 provincial ridings - the business community was absolutely and utterly stunned.
At every corporate executive and board meeting, at every Chamber of Commerce get-together, the same question was asked.
“Does anybody know any of these people?”
And the answer was 100% “nope, no idea who they are.”
It’s terrifying that the reins of power and control of a $42 billion budget is being passed over to a bunch of school teachers and social workers who have never run anything besides community leagues, a few school boards and ND constituency organizations.
It’s exhilarating that a huge breath of fresh air – a hurricane of fresh air – has blown out the accumulated cobweb ...
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After 10 days hiking in England, 10 to 15 miles (16 to 24 kilometres for Canadians and Europeans) a day, I was back home.
Hoping for even minimal weight loss, I sidled sideways up to She Who Always Disappoints, the bathroom scale.
Nothing. Nada.
Exactly the same poundage at which I’d left Canada, a slightly heavy 165 pounds.
Blame it on three factors: The famous English breakfast, “authentic” English ale, and English pub food which, unfortunately, is much improved over the years but has never lost its love affair with the deep fryer.
The walk itself followed the ancient Pilgrim’s Way/North Downs Way, winding its way from south of London due east to Canterbury and its towering cathedral via the white cliffs of Dover. This is Downton Abbey country — even if the famous TV show pretends that Lord Grantham and his family live up north in Yorkshire. The countryside is soft, lush and gently rolling.
We took the easy way, shelling out multiple English pounds to a tour c ...
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Sorry Mr. Morton, but your story is full of holes.
Weeks before the May 5 provincial election, former minister of finance (under Ed Stelmach) and energy (under Alison Redford) Ted Morton released a report under the guise of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, where Morton works as an executive-in-residence.
In “The North West Sturgeon: Good Money After Bad?” the conservative academic contends that the $8 billion North West Sturgeon Upgrader now under construction north of Fort Saskatchewan could – “could” – become a white elephant, that future governments could end up losing “up to” $26 billion over the upgrader’s life.
The huge problem with Morton’s analysis is the other half of the “could”.
Because the upgrader, despite a run-up in its costs, could just as well end up making a $26 billion profit for the province depending on North American oil prices over the next 30 years.
Originally the government ...
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