CALGARY: Opening and closing

Giveaway

• In a random decision (“Jason, pick a number between one and eight”), supersu is getting two coupons for Arthur’s smoothies and juices. Happy fruits!

Opening

(Courtesy West)

• I went to the opening of West Restaurant & Bar last week, a huge, gorgeous *three-floor* space in Scotia Centre downtown. It’s from Concorde Group Entertainment, which also runs Flames Central, The Whiskey and Sky360 in the Calgary Tower.

Did I mention it’s huge? The first floor is a restaurant that will appeal to people who work downtown for sure. The menu is a bit all over the place from pad thai to gazpacho to tandoori chicken linguine to burgers and steak. But West (no relation to the Vancouver restaurant) is confident enough in its three kitchens to point cameras on their chefs to livestream what they’re doing to flat-screens in the dining room.

Up a glass-enclosed staircase, the second floor is a “social lounge” and dance floor, while the third is a rooftop patio. I have no doubt the patio is going to popular but I’m not sure how packed this dance floor concept will be. It will be interesting for sure to see how they can sustain such a large venue.

• Capo chef/owner Giuseppe Di Gennero is teaming up with the Sorrentino’s chain to relaunch its Calgary location. There will be a revamped menu as well as family-style, sharing platters. (Wonder if it will be like this?) Sorrentino’s by Di Gennaro is slated to have a grand opening in early May.

Opening & Closing

• The owner of El Mariachi in the Heritage Flea Market, left a comment about the Mexican taqueria’s future plans. It will not be staying once the Calgary Farmers’ Market takes over the building July 31. Instead, the plan is to move to 7-135 Whitefield Dr. NE (403-606-0644). In the meantime, he says you can also try their other venture, Paloma Mexican Restaurant (formerly Paloma Steak House).

Closing

• Kate emailed me to ask what was up with Pegasus, the longtime Greek restaurant with the mural and winged horse statue on the corner of 14th Street and 11th Avenue SW. After 27 years, the building was sold so the restaurant closed earlier this month. No word on if owner Takis Papparis will open another restaurant somewhere else.

I recommend Calypso’s Taverna — which I think is better than Pegasus — if you’re looking for a Greek fix.

Accolades

• Calgary’s Rouge restaurant is only one of two Canadian eateries to crack the prestigious S. Pellegrino World’s Best 100 Restaurants, announced this week. Pretty cool for that little heritage house in Inglewood. The CBC story is here, and then I got to interview chef Michael Dekker here. Rouge placed 60th, while Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ont. came in 77th.