Tasty Calgary
This month Calgary’s Avenue Magazine lists their top 25 things to eat in Calgary. (They also offer up their 5th annual food awards, so check it out if you are looking to try out a new restaurant in Calgary – or in the case of every John Gilchrist pick: Canmore.)
Going through the list of the top 25 things to eat in Calgary I was surprised how many of them I actually already consume. And love! Here’s my top list of their top 25:
#6. Spolumbo’s Chicken and Apple Sausage – Sure they are better known for their other sausage’s but this one has been my favourite since I discovered Spolumbo’s for the first time. It is fantastic on the bbq and served with a little Worchester Sauce. It’s so damn good I had it for dinner last night.
#8. Bagels at the Daily Bagel – I eat way too many bagels. You’d think I was Jewish and lived in Montreal if you knew how many bagels I eat. It can’t be good for me. While these aren’t my favourite bagels in town I always make a point, when I’m at the Calgary Farmer’s Market, of stopping and having a ham and swiss on sesame seed bagel at the Daily Bagel. So good.
#14. Callebaut chocolate cherries – I’m a chocolate snob. I love good chocolate and despise the cheap stuff. (Sure I’m eating those Allan chocolate eggs this weekend but it’s Easter and it’s tradition.) You can keep the cherries but give me Bernard Callebaut’s pure chocolate creations any day. Milk or dark, I don’t care. Oh, and caramel is good too. And the odd truffle. Damn, I think I might have an addiction here…
#19. Crave Cupcakes – ‘Nuff said. Who doesn’t well up with tears of joy just thinking about these things. I’ve actually seen complete strangers come together in conversation over how much they love Crave’s cupcakes. Did you know they sell cookies too? That’s what the sign says but the cupcakes are so damn moist that even if you showed up planning only to buy cookies I bet you go home with a half dozen Crave-o-licious instead.
There are some other fantastic things on Avenue’s list too (the full list can be found online here). So I suggest you print off a copy and get out exploring this week. I plan on trying out The Palomino’s smoky ribs and cheese grits, Urban Baker apple flax rosemary bread, and the baguette from Manuel Latruwe Belgian Patisserie & Bread Shop ASAP.
And then maybe the other 18 things…
McNally makes me McAngry. McReally?
I blogged a couple days ago about the demise of McNally Robinson in Calgary. I reminisced a little, but mostly I expressed my concern for what this might mean for downtown Calgary. (Something I might write more about in the future.)
An intro to Lindsay Blackett
For those of you in the arts I have some required reading for you. Fellow blogger, The Enlightened Savage, has done up a wonderful primer to introduce you to Alberta’s new Minister of Culture and Community Spirit.
The Calgary Professional Arts Alliance will be sending Minister Blackett a personal welcome shortly, and hopefully we will be able to have him formally introduce himself to the arts community in the next couple of months. The CPAA is in the midst of planning a couple of events in the near future (including an AGM) so please stay tuned via the CPAA email bulletin – perhaps the best way to stay on top of arts goings on in Calgary.
An open letter to Ed Stelmach, re: please give me a job
Dear Mr. Stelmach:
I wanted to thank you for emulating Premier Lougheed. No, no, not for arguing with “Ottawa” over our energy plans, but for creating a ministry of Culture. It is absolutely great news to see something like this: not only a cultural policy but a department to implement it. Oddly groundbreaking, actually.
If anyone from the Alberta Government is reading this please have them pass my name along to Minister Lindsay Blackett. I’d be happy to help him out in anyway I can. You can see my LinkedIn profile by clicking the link over there on the right (you have to visit http://blog.djkelly.ca first if you’re using a reader). As you can see I have skills such as knowing the arts community. And actually spelling “Blackett” correctly. I also have my own car. So I can make deliveries, I guess. If you have need of a marketing/communications/policy/blogging guy with too much time on his hands anywhere if your ministry please don’t hesitate to email me at blog@djkelly.ca.
Go team! (See how I showed my “Community Spirit” right there? I’m good at that too.) I look forward to hearing from you.
Luv,
-dj
McNally McNo More
This blog entry is cross posted on the Calgary Herald’s Q.
Calgary has officially lost a landmark today. I’m hearing from sources (and now the Herald) that McNally Robinson Booksellers on Stephen Avenue will be closing their doors this summer.
This is a huge strike to the heart of Calgary’s arts and culture scene. McNally was one of the very few downtown retailers that sought out Calgary talent – be it literary, musical or otherwise – and gave them a stage to show their works. It was great working with their staff (I had occasion to do so when I was with Alberta Theatre Projects and again when I was trying to find a new audience for Theatre Junction.) They truly cared about the community and their place in it.
Not to mention it they were simply the best bookstore in town. The best by A LONG SHOT. (Sorry Pages, you know I love you, but it’s tough to compete.) On a personal note often they were the only Calgary retailer that had the book I was looking for. Smaller shops like Pages and Owl’s Nest were just too small to carry some of the more obscure non-fiction I often request. And Chapters/Indigo is usually too unilateral to even order them in the first place let alone a special order.
I can’t say I’m overly surprised they are closing. The location was a shocker for me when I first heard they were moving into Calgary in 2002. (I’d previously enjoyed each square foot of the Saskatoon McNally.) Calgary’s downtown – outside of the lunc hour – certainly was never described as lively. I’d heard more than one person on more than one occasion describe Calgary’s core as “dead”. This was a serious hit to the city’s wishful image as a cosmopolitan centre. There was no way anyone thought a big bookstore could survive downtown. (A&B couldn’t even do it any longer.) But then a Western Canadian born and bred bookseller came to town and took a chance.
I think it is safe to say a lot of Calgary’s evening and weekend resurgence can be attributed to the McNally family’s shop. They started a trend that saw the storefronts of Stephen Avenue open up one by one during times other than just lunch. Soon Encorp followed by taking a huge risk with Art Central. Theatre Junction chose to do the same and bring back the Grand Theatre. New restaurants started popping up throughout downtown. Earl’s expanded into Fuel; and very recently even the Calgary Flames decided it was worth the chance and they chose to refurbish the Palace Theatre into Flames Central. Anyone who visited Calgary’s downtown just five years ago would barely recognize it now. There are actually people on the streets after 5:30pm. And not just the homeless.
McNally Robinson leaving Calgary is a blow in more ways than many of us might think. Hopefully it is not a sign of things to come. This would certainly be a boom going bust. And nobody in either the business or arts community wants that.
McNally will be closing their doors August first and I will be weeping shortly after.
Although I’m glad I didn’t renew my Reader Club card early, like I planned to last week…
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