NEW VENUE, MORE SCOPE
After five years, it’s bigger, better and brighter for the Whimsical Cake Studio
With five years under her belt in Garneau, Whimsical Cake Studio owner Darcy Scott has made a move to a bigger and better shop.
Now located just north of Whyte Avenue at 102 Street, Whimsical Cake Studio is roughly double the size of the old Garneau location, and at least twice the fun. Modelled after the eclectic and ebullient style of its owner, Whimsical offers a host of cupcake and cake options to customers, and a plethora of handmade candy and chocolates, too.
The 1,637-square-foot store located at 8211 102 St. is painted in bright purple and green with some of Scott’s favourite items as decor, including a whole wall of vintage egg beaters. On the day I visited, Scott was outfitted in polka dots and extravagant eyeglasses, with her bright turquoise hair arranged in stylish dollops of curls.
“I had some good advice from Kevin Kent (owner of Knifewear and Kent of Inglewood on Whyte Avenue),” said Scott. “He said, ‘Don’t be like everyone else because you think that’s what people want. Be yourself.’ ”
Cinnaholic, the specialty cinnamon roll bakery popular for its vegan offerings, has announced that its second Edmonton location will open late this month at 10345 Whyte Ave. The new Edmonton bakery is the sixth Cinnaholic location in Canada and is owned by Melody Ramos and her husband, Joe Ramos.
The plant-based bakery franchise uses animal-free ingredients. That means no dairy, lactose, eggs or cholesterol. In a special grand opening deal, the bakery will offer cinnamon rolls for $1 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on opening day, which is Feb. 22.
Aga Wajda Plytta knows taste is just one component of food. As a chartered herbalist, she pays close attention to the healthful properties of spices, spreading their goodness through food and drink on a daily basis.
For the last two years, Wajda Plytta has been building a business based on her passion for health and flavour. It’s called Herbologie, and was inspired both by her parents and her travels. Now, the entrepreneur hopes to expand her business through a $5,000 infusion of cash via ATB BoostR, a crowdfunding platform sponsored by ATB Financial that ends Feb. 28.
“I have a background in herbalism, and the business marries culinary with wellness in this synergistic way by introducing flavour and other functions into our food,” says Wajda Plytta, who is a wildlife biologist in her day job.
Her parents are from Poland, where there is a strong belief in the value of herbs and spices to improve health. Indeed, the thrust can also be seen in Canada, and there are studies that assert the link between some spices and good health.
Waida Plytta works directly with spice farms, and also has a U.S. supplier who imports from places like Tanzania and Spain. She also carries products by Alberta’s Chickadee Farms in Flatbush, which makes an edible flower blend. Herbologie carries 10 single origin spices, and six botanical blends made from plant material, such as roots, flowers, and leaves in a powder form.
Arthur Chen has been appointed as the new executive pastry chef at the Edmonton Expo Centre. Former executive pastry chef at both the Edmonton Convention Centre and the Delta Grand Okanagan in Kelowna, B.C., Chen is an award-winning pastry chef and a participant and coach of Culinary Team Canada over the last decade.
The ChefGail Fund, created to promote the late Edmonton chef Gail Hall’s legacy and to support young chefs, hosts a fundraiser and potluck dinner on Wednesday, March 13 (her birthday). Friends and supporters are invited to purchase a $20 ticket, bring a dish and celebrate both Gail’s life and the fund that bears her name.
The event is at the historic McKay Avenue School (10425 99 Ave.) and will feature a brief program to update the Change Adventure Camp, sales of her biography (Maps, Markets and Matzo Ball Soup by Twyla Campbell), and the growth of the fund (run through the Edmonton Community Foundation). For details and to buy a ticket, go to eventbrite.com.
There is sad news on the food front. Popular Bistro Praha co-owner Sharka Svajgr has died of cancer. She was 53. The storied European and Czech restaurant, for more than 40 years a fixture downtown, will be a little less bright without her.
Stunning and stylish, with an enormous smile, Svajgr first started working at the restaurant as a teenager when it was in the Kelly Ramsay building on Rice Howard Way and owned by its founder, Frantisek Cikanek. There, she made cherished friends, eventually marrying a restaurant patron, Daniel Schultz.
Svajgr often described herself as “just an ordinary girl with an extraordinary life,” and patrons at the restaurant could feel that spirit.
Over the years, Svajgr came to embody the restaurant, along with her brother, Milan Svajgr, also a server. After the bistro burned down in 2009, Milan Svajgr, Sharka Svajgr, and Daniel Schultz joined with Milan’s partner, Alena Bacovsky, to buy the restaurant. It reopened in the Empire building (10117 101 St.) in 2011, an event marked with champagne and toasts to the Bistro Praha’s cherished spot within Edmonton’s culinary scene.
Sharka Svajgr, who died Feb. 4, documented the stages of her illness on Facebook, and received love and support from a wide variety of friends, relatives and restaurant guests. Many of those people were at her funeral Tuesday at McDougall United, including musicians from the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra known to frequent the bistro. It was once one of the very few restaurants which stayed open late in Edmonton, making it the goto for folks in the arts and entertainment community.