Thursday, May 23, 2013

Boogie's Burgers

I visited Boogie's Burgers (a local burger joint that has been in operations since 1969) last night for the first time around 8pm thinking that I would've arrived past their dinner rush, but I was wrong. When we ordered, the girl who worked there informed us that the wait time would be roughly half an hour and asked if we were okay with that. We said yes since we weren't in a hurry. It was a Monday night, but it was also the Victoria Day long weekend Monday, so I'm unsure if that was a influencing factor in the long wait.

I must admit that Boogie's Burger looks somewhat sketchy, though I am not sure if that is just a play into their retro/old school image. Inside, there are round bar stools at the front, a number of diner-like tables that can probably sit up to ~20 people or so. In the already cramped up restaurant, there was a old school arcade machine that could be found. We decided to take a seat up in the front, on the bar stools, and one thing I noticed right away was that there was a hung string, with many tiny report clips, above the cash register that ran to the back of the kitchen by the grill. All orders printed were then clipped onto the report clips and flung back by the employee so that the orders would reach the grill where the cook was making the burgers. I thought this design was so cool - simple, old fashioned, but works as it's supposed to.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Village Ice Cream


I've been dying to go to Village Ice Cream for a try ever since I've first heard of their salted caramel flavour, but the weather was not cooperating and as a result people were seldom in the mood for a cold treat. Luckily a few weeks ago, the weather improved and over a debate that I won, I found myself at Village Ice Cream for the first time. 

Monday, May 20, 2013

AÑEJO Restaurant


I have heard of AÑEJO for some time now but was wary on trying out this place as there seemed to have been mixed reviews. I got a "taste test" from AÑEJO when I paid my first visit during the 2013 Poutine Crawl. I loved how the restaurant was designed, with its high windowed ceiling and how open the restaurant looked. I decided to go with a girlfriend of mine to catch up a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night. My friend had arrived early and was put on a wait list that would require a wait of approximately ~45 minutes. I was rushing to meet up with my friend ASAP when she told me she was early, but the wait ended up being shorter than what she was told and she had gotten a table before I had arrived. When I got there, the entire restaurant was bustling and busy. All the tables were filled up and people were everywhere. It was hard to believe that such a tiny restaurant could be so filled up. We quickly got down to business and scanned the menu together, discussing what dishes caught our attention. There were so many items on the menu that we wanted to try, but we were both not feeling all too hungry together, so we knew we had a limit on the number of dishes that we could order.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Calgary Poutine Crawl 2013

It was my first time to learn such an event existed from a friend (who had heard from her hairdresser), and without any questions in mind, I knew I would have to go. This was Calgary's third annual poutine crawl, an initiative started from scratch by Karen Richards, a word of mouth marketer and instructor from MRU. Through talking to Karen, I was impressed and fascinated by her story behind the crawl and the complications faced at start up. From having to “beg” restaurants to participate in 2011 to having all 65 tickets sold out in 3 minutes this year, Karen’s poutine crawl has grown into a very successful and popular local event. (Not going to lie, I was a bit stressed out from having to constantly refresh the page in hopes for new tickets to pop up.)

The concept of this year's poutine crawl involved two party machine buses, 6 restaurants and one afternoon, all for the price of $48. The restaurant participants included Brava Bistro, Teatro, downtownfood, Brasserie Kensington, AÑEJO Restaurant, and National Beer Hall on 17th.