Hicks on Biz: The great challenge confronting Alberta By GRAHAM HICKS, first published EDMONTON SUN, April 26, 2019

Alberta United Conservative leader Jason Kenney on election night at Big Four Roadhouse on the Stampede grounds in Calgary on Tuesday, April 16, 2019.Darren Makowichuk / DARREN MAKOWICHUK/Postmedia By GRAHAM HICKS As the election euphoria fades, here’s what Premier-Elect Jason Kenney is up against. Multi-generational Albertan families, for the first time, are seriously considering their futures in what once was a land of milk and honey. Our province’s great natural resources are under unrelenting attack. Author David Yager fittingly named his recent book on Alberta’s future,  “Miracle to Menace.” The urban latte-drinking crowd are convinced that a climate-change Armageddon is at hand, unless — damn all those who feed their families from oil-patch jobs — fossil fuel-burning is  banned from this Earth. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Being anti-oilsands is so trendy, so stylish. National Geographic Magazine just published ANOTH ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks Weekly Dish: The re-birth of Revel By GRAHAM HICKS, first published EDMONTON SUN, April 23, 2019

Revel's roasted cauliflower arrangement reminded this reviewer of the Game of Thrones' Wall. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN Revel Bistro & Bar 9802 Jasper Ave. 587-524-3333 Reveledmonton.com  (reservations as well) No delivery listed Tues. to Fri. 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. (12 a.m. Friday) Sat. 4:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. Closed Sunday and Monday. Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns Ambience:  4.5 of 5 Suns Service: 2.5 of 5 Suns Dinner for two excluding tip, taxes or beverages: Basic, $40; loaded $80 STORY CONTINUES BELOW By GRAHAM HICKS The Weekly Dish recently commented on very fine chefs working in Edmonton with little, if any, public profile. Here’s another one: Kunal Sawhney, now six months at the Revel Bistro + Bar as executive chef. A dinner at Revel – in the historic Alberta Hotel across from the Edmonton Convention Centre – was worthy of 4.5 out of 5 Suns for the food. Every Sawhney creation was a pleasing, exciting culinary a ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks on Biz: The industrial hinterlands will save Edmonton’s bacon By GRAHAM HICKS, first published EDMONTON SUN, April 18, 2019

United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney addresses supporters in Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, April 16, 2019.Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS Around 9 p.m. on April 16 jubilant cheers emanated from all around Edmonton. But within the city, in the centre of the doughnut, nothing could be heard but the gnashing of teeth and moans of despair. Our good city dwellers — so many on the government payroll one way or another — gave 19 of 20 Edmonton ridings back to the New Democrats. On that same  night,  workers from the Nisku, Fort Saskatchewan and Acheson industrial parks, from the metal fabrication and natural-resource processing  plants, from the refineries, the pulp mills, the grain elevators and the farms gave 15 of 16 ridings in Edmonton’s industrial hinterland to Jason Kenney’s get-the-economy-moving UCP party. Rachel Notley and her progressive troops may have won in Edmonton,  but the Orange were crushed everywhere else. Final tally (save ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks' Weekly Dish: The king of the green onion cake is back By GRAHAM HICKS, first published EDMONTON SUN, April 16, 2019

Siu To has green streaks in his white hair. If youíre making green onion cakes, he reasons, then be the green onion cake. GRAHAM HICKS/EDMONTON SUNEdmonton The Green Onion Cake Man 9312-118 Ave. no website, no phone no delivery service (take-out counter at the restaurant) 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (closed Monday and Tuesday) Green Onion Cakes: 4.5 of 5 Suns Rest of Food: 3.5 of 5 Suns Ambience:  3.5 of 5 Suns Service: 4 of 5 Suns Dinner for two excluding tip, taxes or beverages: Basic, $15; loaded $25 This is not about going to a restaurant. It’s a pilgrimage to a shrine. Not to the Green Onion Cake Man eatery itself. Heck, it’s only four months away from its first anniversary!! STORY CONTINUES BELOW Siu To’s new restaurant capitalizes on his reputation for making the best green onion cakes in Edmonton. No, the bricks and mortar are not the attraction. It’s to see, live, in person, flipping those green onion cakes, a human Edmonton shrin ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks on Biz: The Alberta election campaign that was By GRAHAM HICKS, first published Edmonton Sun April 12, 2019

From left: Alberta UCP Leader Jason Kenney, Alberta Liberal Party Leader David Khan, Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley and Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel are seen Thursday at the leaders debate. Larry Wong / POSTMEDIA NETWORK By GRAHAM HICKS As Alberta finally heads to the polls on Tuesday, April 16, a last loving look backwards at this political campaign. And yes, these observations come from a pro-business point of view — this opinion column isn’t called “Hicks on Biz” for nothing. Like any fan of free enterprise, I believe in capitalism with a human face, in individual initiative over the collective. I believe human beings are generally better off if left alone, rather than subjected to the whims/over-taxation of the nanny state. I believe government’s primary role is to encourage a powerful economic engine, creating meaningful employment and the taxation necessary to support public social services, to help those truly in need. STORY CONTIN ... Read the rest of entry »

Darrin Hagen's best work to date: Review of The Empress & The Prime Minister at Theatre Network by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com

The Empress & The Prime Minister World Premiere – written and starring Darrin Hagen Theatre Network, 8529 103 St. April 16 to May 5, 2019 Tues. to Sat.  8 p.m., Sundays 2 p.m. Dark on Mondays. Tickets online: $15 to $30, theatrenetwork.ca Review by GRAHAM HICKS,  Hicksbiz.com One of the loftier goals of the performing arts,  as in every theatrical mission statement ever issued, is to present the world around us in a new light, to inform meaningful change, to challenge the audience to re-think attitudes, to push that audience off default positions. A fine goal indeed. But one rarely achieved – especially when causes woodenly and nakedly masquerade as characters. So hats off and a deep bow to Darrin Hagen who has written and stars in The Empress & The Prime Minister. I found The Empress & The Prime Minister seismic.  I left the show with a deeper, visceral understanding of what being “different” actually means – when just being yourself ... Read the rest of entry »

These Nuns Can Rock! Review of Sister Act, Mayfield Dinner Theatre by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.ca

Sister Act Mayfield Dinner Theatre (Doubletree by Hilton Hotel West Edmonton) 16615 109 Ave. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca,  or 780.483.4051 April 9 to June 9, 2019 Review by GRAHAM HICKS  Hicksbiz.com How satisfying, and rare, to have a full-on, no-holds-barred musical - a full 10-person choir, seven supporting musical actors, a five-person band, 11 backstage designers/technicians  - on a stage outside of the Jubilee Auditorium. Sister Act has to be one of the most ambitious shows mounted at the mid-sized Mayfield Dinner Theatre in recent years – at least since 2014’s Hairspray. Thanks to Whoopi Goldberg’s runaway hit movie by the same name in 1992, the plot is well known -  a mobster’s nightclub-singer ex-girlfriend is hidden by police in a Catholic church/convent, where she proceeds to turn the God-awful choir of nuns into the hottest gospel singers in the country. The “choir” within the play is the great appeal of ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks' Weekly Dish: The old and new in Vietnamese eateries, Pagolac and XO Bistro By GRAHAM HICKS, first published EDMONTON SUN, April 9, 2019

XO Bistro's pork and shrimp grilled combo was everything you could ask for in a Vietnamese rice bowl. Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN Pagolac (Downtown) 10566 97 St. 780-425-1540 pagolacrestaurant.com Delivery: SkiptheDishes.com 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (9 p.m. Fri. + Sat.) Closed Tuesdays Food: 3 of 5 Suns Ambience:  3 of 5 Suns Service: 4 of 5 Suns XO Bistro + Bar 10236 103 St. 780-761-9696 Delivery: SkiptheDishes.com, doordash.com Tues. to Fri. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (1 a.m. Fri.) Sat. noon to 1:30 a.m. Sun. noon to 11 p.m. Food: 4 of 5 Suns Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns Service: 4 of 5 Suns Both restaurants, dinner for two excluding tip, taxes or beverages: Basic, $30; loaded $45 STORY CONTINUES BELOW By Graham Hicks Is it ‘make new friends, but don’t forget the old?’ Or ‘out with the old and in with the new?’ It’s an interesting choice these days with Vietnamese restaurants. The style is long-established in Canada. Canadi ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks on Biz: Alberta election proof of civility's decline By GRAHAM HICKS, first published EDMONTON SUN, April 5, 2019

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley, Alberta Liberal Party Leader David Khan, Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel and United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney.File / Postmedia Why has the rhetoric of fear and loathing crept deeply into this provincial election? There once was a deep journalism dictum. Criticize the action, not the person. Criticize what a person says or promotes, not the person himself/herself. The two main antagonists in this election, Premier Rachel Notley and opposition leader Jason Kenney, have more-or-less subscribed to this convention. They hammer at each other over policy differences but have not (yet) descended to personal attacks. STORY CONTINUES BELOW But both have allowed their campaigns to indulge in, to actually trumpet, personal attacks. The website thetruthaboutJasonKenney.ca, is a rabid, pit-bull personal attack on Kenney openly sponsored by the Alberta New Democrats. It’s the first highly-publicized “official&rdqu ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks' Weekly Dish: Belgravia Hub a hidden gem By GRAHAM HICKS, first published EDMONTON SUN, April 2, 2019

Belgravia Hub Chef Max Pierce's chicken Dijonnaise. Belgravia Hub 7609 115 St. (close to McKernan-Belgravia LRT station) 780-756-3344  (call for reservations) belhub.com No delivery listed Tues. to Fri. 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (Friday to 11 p.m.) Sat. 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sun. 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Mondays Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns Ambience:  4 of 5 Suns Service: 4 of 5 Suns Dinner for two excluding tip, taxes or beverages: Basic, $40; loaded $60 STORY CONTINUES BELOW By GRAHAM HICKS Don’t get me wrong. I love all the Edmonton chefs who are media darlings, like Daniel Costa (Corso 32), Shane Chartrand (SC Damn Good Food) or Larry Stewart (Hardware Grill). They are practically household names, as they should be. They are all wizards in the kitchen. But in the background are scores of equally talented chefs, as adept in the kitchen, but with much lower profiles. Because they are not good at, or simply don&rsqu ... Read the rest of entry »