On a recent evening at the Calgary Petroleum Club, 75 guests—top chefs and avid culinary aficionados among them—indulged in an unforgettable feast, inspired by foods born of forests and water. 
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Soccer fans are known to be fairly ardent in their support of the Beautiful Game, so it’s no surprise that there’s a touch of controversy at Calgary’s go-to soccer bar, the Ship & Anchor, when it comes to the pub’s wall of team scarves hailing from around the world. Fans feel slighted when their team’s scarf is not in a prominent position. “If it’s in an area that doesn’t get much viewing, or doesn’t have great sight lines, there’s always grumbling,” says the Ship’s marketing manager, Nicola Trolez. more
At Dairy Lane Cafe, as in life, it’s all about timing. Go on a weekend morning and you’ll likely have to wait for a table. But arrive on a Monday morning and, like Phil Gosselin (pictured above), you can enjoy a bottomless cup of coffee in the bountiful sunshine. more
An East Coaster docking in Calgary will likely get asked two questions: “So, you came out here for work?” and “Have you been to the Trap?”
The Atlantic Trap & Gill has been a lighthouse beacon for East Coasters ever since Tracy Johnson and her sister, Jill, founded it in 1999. The Calgary establishment followed on the heels of Vancouver’s Newfie Tap and Grill, the Johnson sisters’ first foray into the hospitality business. They shifted the ‘r’ to change the bar’s name to “Trap & Gill” after the B.C. liquor board expressed its displeasure about the word “tap” in the name. more
Unless yours is the winning name on April 23rd’s provincial ballot, you may never feel quite as popular and powerful as you do the moment you drop a handful of micro-food into a trout-stuffed tank at the Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery. They will teem, they will splash, they will love you in all your benevolent pellet-doling glory. more
Who would have guessed that Russell Crowe held the secret to longevity in the challenging business of video rentals? “A Beautiful Mind is about a man who won a Nobel Prize for mathematics by creating a formula around why you don’t chase after the prettiest girl in the room,” explains Jon Lord, the owner of Casablanca Video. more
A pair of simples, three pongs of wind, 13 orphans and a China jade. Whether or not this combination of tiles wins you the game, it beats rummy (the Western equivalent of mah-jong) hands down in the poetry department.
While Confucius himself sometimes gets kudos for inventing the game in 500 B.C., it seems more than a little unlikely that the Chinese philosopher had a lot of time for game development (it could be true, however, that it was named for his favourite bird, the sparrow). More likely, mah-jong—played with 136 chunky plastic tiles once made from ivory, bone, bamboo and jade—is a spinoff of a card game from the Ming dynasty. In any case, it has endured as the most popular table game in much of Asia for centuries. more
In the beginning there was a sign and it did what all signs do: attract attention, drum up business—basically scream silently at motorists heading for Banff.
But in the very beginning, there was much more than a mere sign. Eamon’s Bungalow Camp opened its 12 doors (the six bungalows each had two motel rooms) in 1955. That’s when the aerodynamic sign went up, but while it brought a futuristic tone to the operation, it was actually something of a latecomer. more
It’s not every week that you get to spoil a 100th birthday party and, unfortunately, we might have done so for the Shamrock Hotel.
This weekend the Shamrock plays host to what was originally billed as the hotel’s 100th St. Patrick’s Day. But after double-checking his historical facts at our request, the Shamrock’s entertainment booker Darcy Clendenning determined that the infamous hotel was actually built in early 1914—making this the 99th St. Patrick’s Day. more
First, let’s get a few things clear. As always, when you step on the ice—be it thick or thin—this is an “at your own risk” proposition. Also, no hockey sticks, no hockey pucks, no strollers, no toboggans and no sleds. Helmets are recommended.
And one more thing: remember that although, in a sense, ice exists outside of time, this particular patch of the stuff is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Oh, and one more thing: do not skate outside the area defined by the barricades. more
Since he retired six years ago, Mike Shonfield has made a few discoveries. These run from the routine—it’s good to keep busy—to those that have weightier implications. Among the latter would be this nugget: hobbies breed hobbies.
It was four years ago, on his annual fishing trip to Campbell River, that he was struck (metaphorically) by a cast-iron pan. “I stay in a spot that has a little kitchenette, and they had one of these frying pans, and, man, I cooked everything in it,” he says. more
It’s an indignity no urban primate should have to endure. And yet, 11 years into a thankless sinecure, this 800-pound beast—clinging uncomplainingly to the side of a building, the recipient, no doubt, of constant gawks and, worse, indifference, from Calgarians for whom he has simply become part of the landscape—remains nameless. more
Ah, if only buildings could speak! What inspiring bons mots would this storied old barn utter? Would it quote Raymond Chandler: “When the evening sun is slanting/When the crickets raise their chanting/And the dewdrops lie a-twinkling on the grass”? Would it weep with joy to have been spared the terrible fate of its fellow outmoded outbuildings? Enlighten us with sage wisdom from a simpler time? Thrill us with dramatic historical secrets from this city’s maverick days? more
Someone once said that any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one. In 21st-century Inglewood—where beguiling anachronisms live large—it takes a sentimental businessman to leave a barn alone. more
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