New walking tour takes food lovers to downtown restaurants
As regular readers may know, I am a guide with Edmonton Food Tours, which leads culinary walking tours of the City Market and the Old Strathcona Farmers Market.
Now, the company (part of Alberta Food Tours) has expanded to offer a walking historical tour among five of Edmonton’s best downtown restaurants — The Marc, Bar Bricco, Alta, Woodwork and the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald.
The tour, called Downtown Delights, runs every Friday from 3:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Each restaurant serves up a sweet or savoury option with a paired beverage, like an Alberta craft beer or an inspired cocktail shaken and stirred by some of the city’s best bartenders.
Guests learn insider tips, meet award-winning chefs and spend time in the company of other adventurous, food-loving folk. The tour is $115. edmontonfoodtours.com.
Buoyed with oodles of positive feedback, local one-handed cook Alexis Hillyard is launching a fundraising campaign.
Hillyard, who has a YouTube series called Stump Kitchen, first came to my attention in the summer of 2016 when I saw her video for gluten-free waffles. Now, Hillyard (who was born with only one hand) has produced some 60 episodes and hopes to support a modest lifestyle creating more stump-focused cooking videos. She’s signed up with Patreon, an American crowdfunding organization that links artists to patrons who support their work. For details, visit patreon.com.
Chef Ryan Hotchkiss of Bündok hosts Taste Alberta’s next Prairie on the Plate dinner on Wednesday, June 28 at 7 p.m. The cost is $60 per person. Call 780-420-0192 or email info@bundokyeg.com to reserve your space. 10228 104 St.
Fans of the local cookie maker, Confetti Sweets, will be sad to see the Terwillegar location (14253 23 Ave.) close on June 29. A planned expansion to a new space in Windermere (attached to the back of the movie theatre) has been delayed. You can still get your fix at two bakery locations — one in the west end (6861 170 St.) and another one in Sherwood Park (41 Broadway Blvd.) Owner Kathy Leskow notes Confetti Sweets has a booth at 14 farmers markets, and the cookies can also be found in most Edmonton area Save-On-Foods locations.
Cally’s Teas is throwing a Canada Tea Festival over three days — June 28 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., June 29 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and July 1 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. All celebrations feature a full-on afternoon tea, with Canadian teas, plus Nanaimo bars, butter tarts, flapper pie and, yes, poutine. Call 780-757-8944. 10151 82 Ave. facebook.com/callysteas
The Next Act’s Saylish Haas and her partners have a lot on their proverbial plates. In addition to building a new restaurant, they are planning a party to mark 25 years of good times at the Old Strathcona eatery that started it all.
Haas, along with partners Michael Rebalkin, chef Nathan McLaughlin and Next Act general manager Mike Angus, have taken over the space just north of The Next Act and are opening a tiny boite of a spot.
Though Haas and company have only owned The Next Act for seven years, the restaurant has been a big part of the south side since 1992. To mark that fact, there will be 1992 prices on the menu on Sunday, July 2. Cash only.
Tickets are now on sale for REDx Talks, an indigenous speaker series coming July 6. Timed to coincide with the World Indigenous Games, it will focus on indigenous foods from around the globe.
Award-winning chef Shane Chartrand of Sage restaurant in the Marriott River Cree is the guest curator of REDx Talks. REDx Talks: Eagle and Condor takes place at Enoch Cree Nation starting at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 to $100 and available online at redxtalks.org, or at Sage.
The perceived romance of farming continues to draw city folk to clamber aboard buses and head out for a day in the country. In response to this demand, Taste Alberta and the 124 Grand Market have organized two rural excursions on July 23 and Aug. 19. The outings include partners such as Doef ’s Greenhouses and the Ukrainian Heritage Cultural Village.
Tickets are $115 and include transportation, tour guides, a snack, entertainment and a locally-sourced dinner. For tickets, visit wearewildheart.com/tickets or 124grandmarket.com.