ICE DINE
Swap candlelight for the northern lights this winter.
First spotted Seven years ago, Winnipeg chef Mandel Hitzer and designer Joe Kalturnyk joined forces to create RAW: almond, a pop-up restaurant set on ice, where the Assiniboine and Red rivers converge. For three weeks (until February 17), Canadian and international chefs – this year’s lineup includes Jeremy Charles and Misti Norris – rotate through the makeshift kitchen, cooking multicourse menus each night. Why “Experiences like these get us out of our routine,” says Hitzer. “In the winter, we’re so used to going from the house to the car. This is an opportunity to celebrate the season, and the fact that we can physically be on a frozen river.” Where else Farther north, eat under the aurora borealis at Dan’s Diner, a pop-up by Churchill-based Frontiers North that you’ll travel to via tundra buggy (March 1–9). In Whistler, splash out on a five-course meal, complete with caviar and oysters, by the Four Seasons’ executive sous-chef David Baarschers in a cathedral-like ice cave dubbed the Blue Room. And for something decidedly more urban, Raised rooftop bar in Chicago has decked out its third-floor patio with firepits and faux-fur blankets, so you can cuddle up with a bourbon toddy and a raise-the-roof-worthy braised short-rib chili poutine.