Hicks Weekly Dish: Hankering for great steak? Try Von’s BY GRAHAM HICKS FIRST POSTED EDMONTON SUN: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 06, 2016

Von’s Steak House + Oyster Bar 10309 81 Ave. (Old Strathcona) 780-439-0041 www.vonssteakhouse.com Food: 4.5 of 5 stars Ambience: 4 of 5 stars Service: 4 of 5 stars 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. (midnight on Friday and Saturday) Dinner for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $70; fully loaded, $120 The last few years have seen a revival of the venerable steak house. Chop, Ruth’s Chris, Bistecca and the Blue Rare (Sherwood Park and St. Albert) have joined the standing ranks of Lux, Coliseum, Moose Factory, Sawmill and the multiple Kegs. One steak house has stood eternal, above the fray, seemingly unchanging and as popular as ever after some 35 years in the same South Side location that looks over Gateway Boulevard at 81 Avenue. Von’s Steak House + Oyster Bar, built and opened by Barry Sparrow and family around the same time Sparrow opened Cook County Saloon next door, has never changed hands. Operating partner Ron Kauffman continues to run a first-class show. Evolution, ... Read the rest of entry »

HICKS WEEKLY DISH: Restaurant craziness in downtown Edmonton BY GRAHAM HICKS FIRST POSTED EDMONTON SUN: TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2016

Holy atomic pile, Batman! The new JOEY Bell Tower restaurant opened this week, 278 seats with an investment of at least $5 to $6 million in an extension off the downtown Bell Tower, just a 30-second stroll to Rogers Place. JOEY is the latest hospitality business to make such a bold move. At least 50 existing downtown restaurants/bars are pinning their hopes and improvements on the disposable dollars of the 5,000 to 20,000 people that will flow in and out of Rogers Place some 150 nights a year. Another 50 – at least – new downtown bars and eateries will open in the near future. Outside the immediate Ice District (the four office/residential/hotel towers and plazas around Rogers Place) the following restaurants have been announced: Buco Pizzeria and Vino (Sorrentinos Group) opens in the EPCOR Building. Baiju (sister to North 53) in the Mercer Building. Bundok (brand-new, chef Ryan Hotchkiss) in the Fox Tower. Bottega 104 by the Crudo brothers (Café Amore, Black Pearl Seafood ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks Weekly Dish: Sage Restaurant, River Cree Resort and Casino BY GRAHAM HICKS FIRST POSTED EDMONTON SUN: TUESDAY, AUGUST 09, 2016

Sage Restaurant, River Cree Resort and Casino 300 East Lapotac Blvd, Enoch, AB 780-930-2636 http://rivercreeresort.com/dining.php 9:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week Food: 4 of 5 Suns Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns Service: 4 of 5 Suns Dinner for two, just food – basic $60, loaded $100 Alas, we picked the wrong day to visit Sage, the excellent dining room in the River Cree Resort and Casino out where Whitemud Drive turns from a freeway to a country lane. There’s no “wrong” day per say. Sage maintains its consistently high quality seven days a week, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. (Casinos rarely sleep.) It’s just that executive chef Shane Chartrand’s alternative menu, reflecting his indigenous culinary fusion cooking, wasn’t available this particular evening. Some country band known as the Mavericks was performing that evening in the River Cree concert hall. A concert means Sage fills with diners checking their watches. To meet time demands, the Sage kit ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks weekly dish: Swiss 2 GO BY GRAHAM HICKS FIRST POSTED EDMONTON SUN: TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2016

Swiss 2 GO 4306 118 Ave. 587-520-9400 www.swiss2go.ca Food: 5 of 5 Suns Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns Service: 4 of 5 Suns Tues. to Sat. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed Mondays Dinner for two (without tip or beverages): Basic, $20; fully loaded, $35   I’m all for the Denny’s, Joey or McDonald’s of this world – may a thousand flowers flourish – but what a joy to find another small, independent restaurant off the beaten track, offering home-cooking excellence that the chains simply can’t touch. You have to drive down 118th Avenue almost to the Beverly Bridge to find Drita Keller’s Swiss 2 GO sandwich shop at the corner of 42nd Street. You’d never know from the outside that Swiss 2 GO makes the city’s best sandwiches, even better than the hipster sandwich boutiques of Farrow, Sandwich & Sons, the Nate Box group and Local Omnivore. You’d never know, except there’s one big clue: The exterior of Swis ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks weekly dish: First-rate food at The Juniper Cafe BY GRAHAM HICKS FIRST POSTED EDMONTON SUN: TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2016

Juniper Café & Bistro 9514 87 St. 780-490-6799 Juniperbistro.com Tues. + Wed. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fri. + Sat. 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed Mondays Food: 4 of 5 Suns Ambience: 3 of 5 Suns Service: 3 of 5 Suns Dinner for two:  Excluding drinks and tip, basic $25; loaded, $50. I love independent cafes full of personality, where the owner genuinely cares about the neighbourhood he or she serves, who makes the dining area his/her living room, who serves as the barista, cook and bottle-washer. Think of the Woodrack Café on 109 Street and 76 Avenue, McKernan-Belgravia’s Gracious Goods Café, or the Blues Java Bar tucked away in Gold Bar, where Leah from Ghana is mother to all. Add another to this limited list of community builders. Strathearn’s Juniper Café & Bistro — turn left at the crest of Connors Road, angle down 95 Avenue about seven blocks — is a neighbourhood gathering spot complete with a children&rsqu ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks Weekly Dish: Local Omnivore doing it right BY GRAHAM HICKS, POSTMEDIA NETWORK FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2016

The Local Omnivore 10933 120 St. 780-660-1051 www.thelocalomnivore.com Tues. to Thurs. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sat. and Sun. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed Mondays Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns Service: 4 of 5 Suns Lunch for two: Excluding drinks and tip, loaded, $35, basic, $20 Doing it right has never been more pronounced. Mark Bellows and Ryan Brodziak started The Local Omnivore as a relatively low-cost food truck specializing in meat sandwiches and hamburgers. Having built an excellent reputation as a mobile operation, they moved that reputation into one of the city’s best sandwich shops, custom-built to their specifications. The Local Omnivore restaurant opened before Christmas and hasn’t looked back. What do they do right? Mostly, they do it all themselves. They source their meat from a network of organic farms around Edmonton that specialize in range-free, hormone-free, grass-fed etc. etc. One of the Omnivore staffers actually butchers much of their mea ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks Weekly Dish: Two approaches to this business of hospitality Two approaches to this business of hospitality BY GRAHAM HICKS, POSTMEDIA NETWORK FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

This is a tale of how two different businesses, The Parkallen Restaurant group and the Burger Baron chain, react – or don’t react — to business conditions or unexpected circumstances. On 109 Street, 10 blocks south of Old Strathcona, two generations of the Rustom family have spent decades building the original Parkallen into an excellent eatery with two parallel menus – one featuring up-scale, excellent Mediterranean cuisine, the other offering a wide range of pizzas. Through circumstance rather than design, Joseph Rustom became the owner/operator of the recently opened West Parkallen Kitchen + Bar – a larger, less intimate space than the on-going South Side restaurant in a very different location – on 170th Street just north of 108 Ave. A different location means different clientele, tastes and preferences. Rustom quickly realized the 170th Street location attracted customers seeking value and familiarity. The original Parkallen menu was simplified. A deli counter ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks Weekly Dish: Downtown Dining Week BY GRAHAM HICKS, POSTMEDIA NETWORK FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

Everybody loves a deal. That’s why Groupon exists. That’s why restaurants have Two-For-One Mondays, Pasta Tuesdays, Half-Price Wine Wednesdays. Until Sunday, March 20, thanks to Downtown Dining Week, almost every downtown restaurant of any repute is offering giant discounts — $15 per person for a two-course lunch, $28 for a three-course dinner, $48 for an “executive” (i.e. fancier) three-course dinner. Of course the restaurant would be delighted to also serve you a cocktail ($13), a bottle of wine ($40), dessert ($8), a café latte ($4) and an after-dinner brandy ($15), which would certainly increase their meagre profit margin, slashed to the bone for Downtown Dining Week. But if your goal is to get a fine meal at a deeply discounted price, to visit restaurants you otherwise couldn’t afford, move quickly. This window of opportunity closes down at closing time Sunday. I’m delighted that so many top-quality restaurants have agreed to be a part of Downt ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks' Weekly Dish: There’s charcuterie, then there’s Cured charcuterie BY GRAHAM HICKS, POSTMEDIA NETWORK FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Cured Wine Bar 2307 Ellwood Dr. SW  (off 91 Street, south of Henday Drive) 780-756-3722 www.curedwinebar.com Food - 4 of 5 Suns Ambience - 4 of 5 Suns Service - 4 of 5 Suns Mon. to Thurs. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Fri. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.   Dinner for two excluding drinks and tip: Basic, $32; loaded, $50 What’s the point, I’ve always wondered, of ordering charcuterie - cold-cuts and cheese served on a wooden cutting board – at a restaurant? Go to the Italian Centre, buy deli meats and cheeses and make a charcuterie at home for a third of the price! Then I heard about Cured Wine Bar on the South Side, so far south as to be closer to the International Airport than to downtown. Charcuterie is the entire focus of the restaurant, along with small plates, deserts, and mostly Okanagan wines by the bottle and glass. On Cured’s Enomatic wine prese ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks' Weekly Dish: Workshop Eatery a fulfillment of a dream BY GRAHAM HICKS, POSTMEDIA NETWORK FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 09, 2016

Workshop Eatery Mosaic Centre, 2003 91 St. SW (corner 91 Street SW and Savaryn Drive SW) 780-705-2205 theworkshopeatery.com Mon. to Wed. 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thurs. to Fri. 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns Ambience: 4.5 of 5 Suns Service: 4 of 5 Suns     Dinner for two excluding drinks and tip: Basic, $50; loaded, $90 This is not your normal Weekly Dish restaurant review. Knowing I am a hobby cook, Sun editor Phil Rivers had suggested Chef Paul (Sun food writer Paul Shufelt) and I should review each other’s food in side-by-side columns. The idea evolved into a fund-raiser, a two-part package presented in the 2015 annual ATCO Edmonton Sun Christmas Charity Auction. A few weeks ago, highest bidder Jody Fraser and his family, Chef Paul and his wife Kristine arrived at my home for dinner. Paul didn’t step foot in the kitchen. He served as table host, and, with input from Jody, Janice, Jo ... Read the rest of entry »