Days 80-81 (July 21-22): Edmonton, Alta

I was surprisingly pleasantly surprised at my 48-hour stay in Edmonton. Within five blocks or so of my hotel (Château Lacombe, a block or so from Jasper and 101st Street), I managed to attend a food festival, find a great bar, a great restaurant and a funky small live venue and get thoroughly pissed off.

- Taste of Edmonton is a ten-day festival timed, I am guessing, to correspond with Klondyke Days, held across from City Hall. Over 40 local restaurants operated stands, offering samples of their wares for $2-$6. There was a large cooking demonstration/community participation area featuring a different daily theme, a wine and beer garden (a few local brewers, notably Alley Kat Breweries, were selling their products, none of the ones I tasted were noteworthy) and a live entertainment stage. I was surprised at the wide breadth of ethnic foods available at the stands.

- There is an awfully good Mexican counter/restaurant on 100A Street. Taqueria Tres Carnales was recommended to me by a buddy and evidently was featured in MacLean's farcical Top Restaurant issue from last year. Patrons have a choice of a few meals and how they want it served (tacos, enchiladas [I think but may be wrong] and torta). I ordered the carne con chili torta, finding out that a torta was actually a sandwich on crusty bread. And a great sandwich it was, teeming with spicy beef.

- I went to a club gig, at the ARTery on Jasper at 97th. The club, which specialises in folk music and art by local artists is located in an older, semi-run down building in a semi-run down area of town; I could not quite figure out for what the building was used prior to becoming a club. I suspect there was an apartment in the back (where the bar is) and some sort of small light industrial or commercial operation un the front, now the stage area. The ARtery clearly has a low-key, DIY feel to it, making it a fun, intimate venue to see a gig. The night I went (a Sunday night), Petunia and the Vipers, a Vancouver-based rockabilly/classic country combo, gave an enthusiastic two-set performance; you just gotta love a band that includes a steel guitar (along with a stand-up double-bass, a cornet and an accordion!).

- I found a second downtown bar (other than Sherlock Holmes, where all visitors seem to end up) and it's a keeper! The Underground Tap and Grill, on Jasper at 100th, beside one of the many entrances to the Central LRT station, features 72 taps, with no particular theme (locals, Vancouver Island, US and imports).

- I had the worst dining experience on the trip at Hardware Grill On Jasper at 97th. The food and the wine selection were decent (the menu includes steak, some game and fish), but I have never been so rushed to begin and end a meal. I was even discouraged from ordering an appetiser by my waiter who, along with the rest of the staff (including one who was rushing to re-set tables around me), just wanted to end their shift and get their asses out of there, diners who were dropping $80-$100 each (or who were ready to) for their meals be damned. Now granted I showed up at 8:45 PM and closing time was 9:30 PM (when it is still light outside!), but for those types of restaurants, that usually means when the kitchen stops serving, not when clients are expected to leave. I left with the impression that Hardware Grill was nothing but an arrogant, 'small-town' establishment that considers itself at the top of the local 'food chain' with little fear of competition thus trying to get away with what it wants.

Random observations:

- The 6-hour train ride from Jasper to Edmonton was remarkably boring. Roughly 45 minutes after departing Jasper, the train leaves the mountains and enters a long stretch of forest punctuated by small, resource economy dependent towns. To be fair, given the train arrived in Edmonton around 11:30 PM, the last few hours were spent under the cover of night; I may have thus missed some great scenery...

- Wildlife update: from the train, we spotted some elk in a river about 30 minutes east of Jasper.

- Edmonton has several large public advertising boards peppered throughout downtown where people can post waybills and posters advertising club gigs, concerts, plays, festivals and the like. Consulting one of these is a great way to rapidly get the cultural pulse of the city. Kudos to the city for those.

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.