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CALGARY: The Brangelina treatment at Bonterra

The affable manager of Bonterra Trattoria, John, delights in telling the story of how Brad Pitt dined at his Italian restaurant, then returned a few days later with Angelina Jolie — “Ang” as she introduced herself — and their entourage in the summer of 2005.

(Pitt was in the area filming the Assassination of [...]

CALGARY: Milk Tiger Lounge

I began taking photos of Milk Tiger Lounge as the sun was setting outside, but then the dapper bartender/owners started serving me their delicious cocktails and the rest is history.

The lounge is as polar opposite as you can get from the space formerly occupied by A Bar Named Sue, as well as from the [...]

Foodosphere round-up

CBC-TV explores the Great Food Revolution this month. The four-part series is shot in HD and looks at our evolving food preferences in the last 30 years, how food manufacturers try to win us over, the food chain in New York City in 24 hours (that one sounds super cool), and future food trends.

It airs [...]

HONG KONG: Pop bites and Post-it notes

There are lots of notable things about pop bites, a combination wine bar, bakery, deli and dessert cafe. (It’s owned by the same company that runs Shui Hu Ju, several blocks away.)

I felt my cool quotient rise just by stepping inside. A DJ was spinning tunes (isn’t that what the kids call it?) in [...]

MACAU: The madhouse at Fernando’s

Fernando’s is an institution in Macau, a former Portuguese colony and now special administrative region of China. Online searches reveal excellent Portuguese food, and sometimes arrogant and inattentive staff proportionate to increasing clientele.

Our visit certainly confirmed the former. And as for the latter, I’d say we got overly attentive service especially from the restaurant’s namesake [...]

CALGARY: winebar, a sweet underground spot

Before I could get to the little crepe place on my mental list of places to try in Kensington, the basement space had closed and was papered up for months.

I didn’t think anything of it until some tidy lettering went up late this summer. “winebar,” it read in a nice sans-serif font. A good [...]

CALGARY: Vero, the truth of the matter

There’s a reason respected, professional critics are paid to visit restaurants anonymously three, four or five times before they form and publish a critique.

Restaurants live or die by reviews and to be judged on one visit, where the kitchen or servers may be having an off day, could be fatal. However, most of us are [...]

CALGARY: Lounging with the frolicking horses

The first thing you notice about JAROblue is how small it is. The second thing is the ginormous photographs of horses humping. No wait, they’re playing.

Despite the name (taken from the first two letters of co-owners’ names Jared and Robin), there’s nothing blue in here. The soft silver seating and dark brown wood give [...]