River City Writer

I’ve long wondered why restaurants and bars insist upon placing TVs in their establishments. Unless the place is a sports bar, it makes very little sense.

TVs naturally draw the eye. It is very hard to resist watching a bright LCD screen in the background. When I’m out with Sara, I want to look at her. I want to talk to her. When I’m out with friends, I want to talk to them.

In neither of these situations do I want to be distracted by a television screen just behind the person I’ve out with.

It was great interest, then, that I read Todd Babiak’s recent column on the subject.

He quotes the assistant general manager of the Hat on Jasper Avenue, a restro-pub that is beautifully designed—except for the damn TVs—as saying, “No politics in a bar.”

That strikes me as absurd. Where else but a bar are people able to meet and discuss politics, or art, or anything that matters in the world?

Unless we are to isolate ourselves to our homes or our Facebook profiles, we must have public spaces like the bar where we can congregate and discuss things both important and trivial, without the distraction of a television screen. (I would argue that, in many places, WiFi access is also a distraction that prevents patrons from actually interacting with one another.)

Such places are rapidly disappearing, especially in North American cities like Edmonton. As Babiak sees it:

The problem is, there are scant public places in the city where we can think. Once, long ago it seems, restaurants and cafes weren’t only for dates and to share the pain of another Oilers game gone terribly wrong. They operated as active meeting places. We argued over coffee, beer and wine. There was plenty of politics in the bar. Revolutions were planned, great poems recited, business schemes hatched.

Here, I agree 100%. Public spaces—third places, that are neither work nor home—are rapidly disappearing. With TVs and WiFi access becoming so popular, public spaces are becoming places where we can remain as isolated from the world as we can in our own living rooms.

That is not the kind of world I want to live in.

While I certainly appreciate that WiFi is becoming more ubiquitous, it strikes me as odd that I can enter an upscale restaurant and see someone surfing the Internet while eating their foie gras. I would much rather focus on enjoying my meal and perhaps chatting with the server if I were eating alone, than on trying to finish this month’s sales report. But, that’s just me.

When I’m out for dinner or drinks, I’m interested in my relationship with the people around me, not in a relationship with the TV screen. What about you?

I’ve long heard amazing things about Sunday brunch at the High Level Diner. Perhaps even more often, I’ve heard wonderful things about their homemade ketchup.

I don’t understand any of these comments.

While I don’t have anything against High Level Diner and, in fact, I enjoy their lunch and dinner menus, I don’t see what all the fuss is about brunch. Nor do I understand all the fuss about the homemade ketchup.

Let’s deal with the ketchup first. It doesn’t taste good. While I’m sure it’s healthier than sugar-laden ketchup like Heinz, it just doesn’t taste good. Honestly, it doesn’t even really taste like tomatoes. It kind of tastes like dirt.

What’s the appeal, people?

As for brunch, well, that doesn’t inspire such strong feelings in me. I do occasionally eat brunch at High Level Diner, usually at the suggestion of someone else.

It’s not that I dislike brunch of the Diner, it’s just that I don’t understand why people rave about it. It’s no different than brunch at any other run-of-the-mill diner. In fact, the last time I was there my hash-browns and those of my date were burnt.

I can burn my own hashbrowns for free, thanks very much.

So, why the long lineups every weekend? Why do people rave about the High Level Diner’s brunches?

Because I don’t understand, I took the question to Twitter and got a few responses. Unfortunately, most of them were from people who agree with me, so I still don’t have the answers I’m looking for.

If you are one of the people who loves brunch at the High Level Diner, please leave me a comment explaining what it is that you enjoy about it.

But, first, the Twitter responses:

apotheos @ink_slinger the homemade ketchup does suck although its good if your into that sorta thing, the food is great though, but the menu is small

mark_wells @ink_slinger I’m a big fan of Fiore across the street. Prices are good, food is really tasty, and brunch is served until 3pm.

britl @ink_slinger I’m with you. I’m no fan of the High Level diner.

Quite a few days ago, I mentioned on my other blog that I would be writing a review of Pub 1905. I’ve put it off for quite a while now because I wasn’t sure what to write about that I haven’t already covered in my review on Yelp.

Here are the main points from that review:

• Pub 1905 is my new favourite Edmonton pub.
• The drink prices are good; where else can you get a pint of Guinness for less than $7?
• The servers are among the friendliest bar staff I’ve ever had the pleasure of being served by.
• The menu is incredibly diverse; do you know of another pub that serves escargot or warmed goat cheese?
• They have some of the greatest hot dogs in the city, perhaps even better than Fat Franks.

The only thing I can think to add is the reason why Pub 1905 is now my favourite pub in the city. Obviously, the points listed above are major factors, but there’s a bit more to it than that.

For quite a long time, I’ve wanted a place I could go that felt like “my place;” a place where I might be on a first name basis with the staff; and a place that felt, in some ways, like home, despite being a public space.

I had this to a certain extent when I used to frequent Halo, but I’m not really clubber anymore, and I lost that intimacy when I stopped being a regular customer.

In addition to wanting a place that like feels “my place,” I wanted a place that isn’t a part of a chain or a franchise. As much as I love, for example, The Sherlock Holmes, it doesn’t meet this criteria. Plus, there are just too many faces coming and going on both the customer and server side to ever really get that feeling of home.

Pub 1905 is different. It’s not a chain. It’s an independant pub. Even on a night when there is a hockey game, it’s not particularly busy, and the music is kept low enough that you can actually hold a conversation without having to yell across the table. (Speaking of the music: it’s eclectic as hell, Johnny Cash followed by Green Day followed by ’80s electro-pop followed by…)

There’s also an odd, undefineable quality about the place that just makes me feel happy. It feels welcoming and personable. Even though I’ve only been once, it feels like my place.

Plus, there are those hot dogs. Those wonderful, wonderful hot dogs.

There has been a sign on the sidewalk near my apartment for at least a couple of months that reads, simply, “Best Pizza 100% Halal.” While it’s true that nearly every business claims it’s the best at what it does, it’s rare that a company actually has the word “best” in the name.

I was intrigued. Did this tiny, hole-in-the-wall pizza and donair joint really make the best pizza? Today, I put them to the test.

While I wouldn’t say that Best Pizza honestly makes Edmonton’s best pizza, they do make a tasty pie.

While Best Pizza offers a dozen different toppings, I was in the mood for something simple, and opted for a 12″ pepperoni and mushroom pizza, which cost $15 plus GST. Because I had simply walked over and ordered, I sat around and waited in the small dine-in part of the restaurant.

Consisting of a pair of tables, and a couple of benches for those eating at the window ledge, the haphazardly constructed sit-down area isn’t exactly what you’d call “fine dining.” But, to be fair, it’s no worse than other dive pizza joints like Chicago Deep Dish, and a decent paint job could probably make it look about the same as the Whyte Avenue Funky Pickle location.

The kitchen is a closed kitchen, so I was unable to see the friendly cook at work, but I could hear him working through the thin walls. I heard a knife chopping something on a cutting block. This turned out to be the mushrooms, which were freshly chopped, not the canned mushroom bits that many corner pizzeria’s use.

While I waited for my pizza, I perused the menu. In addition to pizza, Best Pizza also offers burgers and fries, donairs, chicken shawarma, chicken wings and, oddly, coconut-coated fried shrimp.

Pizza and donairs seem to go together well, as do chicken wings. Burgers at a place that focuses on pizza are probably not going to be the best burgers, but I’ll reserve judgment until I try them. Shawarma is pretty similar to a donair, and this is a Muslim-run establishment, so I’m pretty sure that they know what they’re doing as far as shawarma is concerned.

The coconut shrimp, though, I didn’t notice that menu item until after I’d arrived at home, as it’s inexplicably tucked under the “Burgers” section of the menu. It seems like an odd choice for a pizza and donair shop, but I’m just curious enough to consider ordering some the next time I visit Best Pizza.

At $15 for 25 pieces, it’s not cheap. But, that’s not a bad price for shrimp, and I’m curious enough that I’m willing to pay it.

After about 20 minutes, the pizza was ready. It was brought out with a smile, and the box was almost hot to the touch. This was pizza at it’s freshest.

I made the short walk home, lifted the lid, and smiled when I saw the freshly chopped mushrooms. I poured myself some juice, grabbed a napkin, and tucked in. I knew from the first bite that I’d be back to Best Pizza.

There was plenty of cheese, but not so much that the pepperoni and mushroom flavours were overwhelmed, and the meat and mushrooms were both full of flavour. I suspect that the meat was probably quite fresh too, though I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it had never been frozen.

While it’s a bit more expensive than established players like Pizza 73, I do recommend Best Pizza, especially if you live in the area (they deliver, for those who aren’t in the area). The food is good, the staff is friendly, and everything is 100% halal, which is beneficial to the large Muslim population in the area surrounding Best Pizza (and Edmonton at large).

While Best Pizza doesn’t quite live up to it’s name, it’s still damn good pizza, and I’ll be back again soon.

Edmonton is not a very walkable city. One of the negative things about this city, especially in this age of buck and a quarter gasoline, is that driving is more or less inevitable.

While the Edmonton Transit System (ETS) does a pretty good job of servicing the city, they have had trouble keeping pace with the growth of the city, so there are some parts of town where taking the bus is, at best, incredibly inconvenient.

Essentially, even if you’re taking ETS, it is relatively difficult to get around Edmonton without using some form of automobile.

However, it is still possible to explore some parts of the city on foot. Perhaps predictably, the most walkable parts of the city are generally the most historic. The most walkable parts of the city are, generally, the parts most worth wandering around and exploring.

While I like to take walks in and around downtown, most of them are relatively boring jaunts around the inner core. A few of them take in the view from the top of the river valley, but even these pale in comparison to the walking tours that Sharon over at Optimistically Cautious has put together.

I’m planning on taking in all 3 of her tours—or some variation of each—as soon as possible, and I highly recommend that each of you do the same. Better still, use Sharon’s tours as inspiration to explore your own little corner of Edmonton. Put together a walking tour of some part of the city, and then share it on your blog, or in the comments section of this post.

I’ve got a couple of little mini-walks (though, nothing close to the half-day tours Sharon has put together) that I’ll share in a future blog post. But, for now, I leave you to explore Sharon’s Edmonton Rediscovered tours.

Thanks to Mack for pointing me toward Sharon’s post.

Edmonton, like all cosmopolitan cities, has cigar shops. While there are a number of shops that sell cigars in River City—ranging from newsstands to convenience stores to hotel gift shops—there are only a few that can truly be called cigar shops. There are only a few stores that are operated by true tobacconists.

To my knowledge, there are only 3 such shops in Edmonton There are at least 5 such shops in Edmonton (thanks to Greg for reminding me about a few of them): La Tienda, Humo, Burlington, River City Cigar, and Hav-a-Cigar.

I am most familiar with Burlington. Burlington is my favourite cigar shop in the city. I go there often and always get good advice from Chris and Aaron (or is it Eric? I can never seem to get his name right). Whether you’re looking for cigars, cigarillos, pipes or pipe tobacco, or even “all natural” cigarettes, Burlington can provide.

They’re also stocked with all of the accessories you’ll ever need—cutters, humidors, ashtrays, and more. Though, to be honest, I find that I can get most accessories a lot cheaper online, and so I tend to buy these things through eBay or other sources.

La Tienda is a nice little shop, but I can’t really comment much on it. I’ve only been inside once or twice, and that was back before I really got into cigars. I went in not really knowing anything, but Curtis managed to help my friend K and I pick out a few decent cigars to celebrate becoming university graduates.

While I can’t say much about La Tienda, I can definitely say that Curtis is a helpful guy who knows his shit.

Humo is a place I’ve been hearing more and more about lately. It’s the one place I’ve never been inside. Ironically, it’s also the closest place to my apartment. I’ll definitely have to go in and check it out one day soon. Until then, I can’t really comment on the place.

But, I know that at least one of my readers is a cigar enthusiast. I’m sure there are others out there who might be reading this blog. So, tell me which of Edmonton’s cigar shops is your favourite, and why. And, if it’s La Tienda or Humo, please feel free to go into great detail, since I’m not familiar enough with either of these establishments to fairly recommend (or not recommend) them to my readers.

The Roost Nightclub is no more. This past weekend was the last for the city’s most iconic queer club (it would be easy to argue that Flashback was more iconic, but it closed down years ago, so it doesn’t really count right now).

It’s a sad day for both the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gendered) community, and for open-minded club kids in general.

I have some pretty good memories of the Roost, myself, and I wish that I would have been able to get into the club on Saturday like I had planned.

Alas, I fell asleep on the couch like an old man, and didn’t wake up until it was too late. But, even if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to get in. The friends I was to go with waited in line for an hour and a half before the security guard told them to go home, because they wouldn’t be getting in before closing (the place was, understandably, filled to capacity).

The Roost wasn’t just a nightclub. It was also a cultural centre. There were a number of theatre productions—some good, some not-so-good—put on at the Roost, often starring members of the staff. There were plays, stand-up comedy nights, and even the occasional concert.

As sad as it is too lose such an important part of Edmonton’s nightlife and cultural scene, it was bound to happen. Being located in the increasingly trendy warehouse district, it was only a matter of time before the Roost’s owners got an offer that was too good to refuse.

Such an offer was accepted, and the Roost will be turned into a law office very soon.

There are indications that the Roost plans to reopen at another location, but as far as I can tell, that’s very up in the air right now. Hopefully, the Roost will reopen in the future, or another bar will open to fill the void that’s been created by it’s closure.

In the meantime…a law office? Seriously? Prime real estate in the warehouse district and, instead of building lofts, they’re opening a law office? That seems like a poor use of the space to me.

To honour the closing of an Edmonton landmark, I suggest that people use the comments section to relate some of their favourite memories about the Roost.

Ah, the Highlevel Diner (10912 88 Avenue).  There is a reason it’s one of the most popular restaurants in Garneau, if not the entire city.

The atmosphere is cozy and comfortable. It feels like home, when you’re at the Highlevel Diner. The serving staff are always friendly, and seem to instinctively know when you need a coffee refill, and when you need to be left alone to chat with the people you’re dining with.

The last time I was at the Highlevel Diner, I was on a date and, like always, our server knew exactly when to offer refills on our coffee and tea, and when to stay back and let us get to know one another.

But, enough about the service. As important as it is, if the food is no good, quality of service becomes irrelevant.

I admit that I’ve only eaten at the Highlevel Diner a handful of times. But, I’ve had something different to eat each of those times.

The first thing I ever ate at the Highlevel was the veggie burger. Though I’m not a vegetarian, I enjoy a lot of vegetarian food, and I’ve found that veggie burgers are sometimes tastier than their fleshy equivalents.

Unfortunately, the above statement cannot be made of the veggie burgers at the Highlevel Diner.

The burger was dry, falling apart, and the texture was not even close to the texture of a real meat patty.

The patty is full of oatmeal and alfalfa sprouts. This, in itself is not a bad thing. However, they aren’t ground up and formed into a patty as much as they’re just thrown together losely, without much of a binding agent. This, in my opinion, is not a good burger.

Now, despite the disappointing texture, the Highlevel Diner veggie burger is actually doesn’t taste too bad. However, even when I go for vegetarian food, I’m something of a crypto-carnivore, and I want most of my meat replacements to have the same (or at least similar) taste and texture as the meat that they’re imitating.

Other items that I’ve eaten at the Highlevel Diner include the chili (which, I think, is available as a vegetarian dish), the Mediterranean appetizer plate, and the nachoes. All of these dishes were excellent.

I’ve also eaten a couple of desserts at the Highlevel Diner: brownies and cinnamon buns. Again, these were excellent.

Specific pricing information, unfortunately, has escaped from my brain the time of writing this article, but I can say that the prices at the Highlevel Diner are very reasonable. Most of the items on the menu are $15 or less, which is becoming harder and harder to find in Alberta’s booming economy.

So, if you’re looking for a laidback, home-style diner, check out the Highlevel Diner. It certainly fits the bill.

For more restaurant reviews and information, check out my Edmonton Restaurant Guide.

I have a question for all of my Edmonton-based readers today: Where are all the pubs with dartboards in Edmonton?

I’m looking for a place that I go with some friends, toss a few darts, and drink a few pints. I have not been able to find such a place.

Fear of injuries and litigation are probably responsible for the demise of the beer parlour dartboard. But, surely, there are still drinking establishments where one can throw sharp objects while intoxicated.

I asked this question on the River City Writers Facebook group, but so far, no one has responded, so I thought I’d ask my blog readers.

So, once again, what are some Edmonton pubs that have dartboards?

Update #1: I put this question out to my contacts on Twitter, and received a couple of answers from Thuraya:

@ink_slinger also there is Avenue Pizza by the U that has 3 or four but the place itself is kinda scuzzy about 1 hour ago from web in reply to ink_slinger

@ink_slinger there is the Black Dog on Whyte, they have two in the back. the Elephant and Castle in Edmonton Center (by the theater) has 2 about 1 hour ago from web in reply to ink_slinger

Update #2: Another response from someone on Twitter. This time, it comes from bruceclarke:

@ink_slinger At one time I thought the Billiard Club had some but it has been some time since I’ve been there. The place downstairs did too. about 16 hours ago from web in reply to ink_slinger

In an effort to provide more value to the readers of River City Writer, I have decided to create an Edmonton Nightlife Guide, similar to the Edmonton Restaurant Guide.

As with that guide, I am asking for reader submissions. Tell me about your favourite clubs, bars, and pubs. If you’re feeling especially motivated, you could even write a full review (you will, of course, be credited for your work).

Bars/Pubs/Lounges

Black Dog Freehouse (10425 Whyte Avenue) – Canadian-style pub, with an unpretentious atmosphere. Everyone is welcome at the Black Dog. Dartboards in the back.

Sherlock Holmes (Downtown – Rice Howard Way; West Edmonton Mall – Bourbon Street; Capilano Mall – North Entrance) – English-style pub. Capilano Mall location has dartboards.

Elephant & Castle (Downtown – City Centre Mall; Southside – 10314 Whyte Avenue) – English-style pub. Downtown location has dartboards.

Kasbar Lounge (10444 Whyte Avenue, downstairs) – Mediterranean-themed cocktail lounge.

Nightclubs

Halo (10538 Jasper Avenue) – House music dance lounge; Mod Club on Friday nights. Read a full review of Halo.

New City Compound (10081 Jasper Avenue) – Liwkid Lounge upstairs, Suburbs downstairs; punk/goth/alternative lifestyle club. Read a full review of the New City Compound.