NORTH 53 CREATOR AT IT AGAIN
Kevin Cam to open Chinese eatery
A new eatery called Baijiu is scheduled to open this fall in the Mercer Warehouse. Owned by Kevin Cam (who also owns North 53), Baijiu will be right beside Rostizado in the space previously occupied by a flower business.
It’s a large space at 3,250 square feet, so there will be plenty of room for two different vibes. The bulk of the room will be taken up by a cocktail bar serving Asianin-fluenced plates, all done in a traditional, Chinese family-style shared format. Food will be served late, until 2 a.m. on weekends, and feature a riff on dim sum.
“We want to include lots of authentic details,” says Cam. “We’ll be shopping for lots of our cocktail ingredients and garnishes in Chinatown, and getting groceries for the food there, too.”
The second concept, scheduled to open a few months after Baijiu, is a speakeasy bar. It will be strictly cocktails and will be tiny, just eight or 10 seats, with a different bar program than Baijiu.
The word Baijiu means “white spirit” in Chinese, or liquor. You can check out Baijiu through its website, baijiuyeg.com, or on Instagram baijiu_yeg, or Twitter @baijiu_yeg.
The Upper Crust Café (10909 86 Ave.) has a special menu at 1986 prices to celebrate the restaurant’s 30th birthday. It’s available Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Guests have a choice of three dishes — Tandoori Chicken, Ratatouille or a Mediterranean Vegetable Plate — for $6. For dessert, try Chocolate Pâté, Apple Walnut Bundt Cake or Chocolate Zucchini Cake, for $3. Call 780433-0810 for reservations.
Accent Lounge has teamed up with Blindman Brewing and Old Country Meats for a back-alley beer garden behind the restaurant on Saturday from 1 p.m. until late. There will be lots of staple Blindman brews, but also a special cask for the event.
Advance tickets are $25 and include entry, a meal, a pint of the cask beer and a sampler flight of beer. You save up to $10 by buying tickets in advance through eventbrite.ca. Accent Lounge is at 8223 104 St.
Some 1,000 Fort McMurray fathers will be guests at the 2016 Porkapalooza BBQ Festival Concert of Hope for Fort McMurray, to be held during the festival, which runs Friday to Sunday at Edmonton’s Clarke Stadium.
The first 1,000 fathers from Fort McMurray who sign up at porkapalooza.ca will each receive free entrance to the concert-day of their choice and a ticket to the Edmonton Eskimos’ pre-season football game Saturday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. There are three days of concerts featuring different music genres.
To ensure that Dad doesn’t go it alone, a second pass to the same concert — for partners, family or friends — is half price. The Sheepdogs, Gord Bamford and Loverboy are among the performers.
According to a news release, proceeds from the concert series will be donated to the Fort McMurray Fire Relief Fund to assist in the city’s rebuild following the wildfires.
The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald has created a pure Prairie experience, along with Taste Alberta, in the Harvest Room on Thursday, June 23, from 5:30 to 10 p.m. It costs $69.
The evening starts with an amuse bouche of Arancini with Alberta Grains and Chorizo. Next up is Beef Consomme, served with boar bacon and a white bean ravioli. The third course is Rainbow Trout Tartare, set alongside a lightly boiled quail’s egg. The entree is a Lamb Pairing — a roasted rack of lamb and a sous vide lamb shank, with chickpea and smoked paprika polenta. For dessert? Black Bean Chocolate Cake.
Call the hotel at 780-429-6424 for reservations and request the Taste Alberta menu.
Eat Alberta, the annual conference devoted to local food education, has launched a fresh visual identity and will be back with a new conference in 2017. The group has a new logo inspired by the dinner table in the shape of a sideways province of Alberta.
Eat Alberta began as a one-day conference in 2011, and has grown into an educational organization designed to help the community learn about Alberta’s food through a mix of small events, classes, multimedia content, and its annual, flagship one-day conference. According to a news release, over the next six months, Eat Alberta will release videos on its website, which feature recipes and stories that revolve around ingredients, restaurants, and food producers from across Alberta.