Feature: Sherwood Park’s TerraFrog Clothing Corp.
Cori & Bobbi Windsor (as kids, d-uh)
As if the story of Sherwood Park’s Terrafrog Clothing Corporation wasn’t already the stuff of screenplays: a pair of scrappy sisters with no fashion experience tire of clothes that don’t fit them properly and launch their own upstart fashion company, producing socially conscious, limited-run workout wear which catches on like wildfire and launches them into a fast-paced career in fashion (this is all mine, by the way – I’m totally optioning it so BACK OFF).
Now, there’s another interesting twist in the story of Bobbi and Cori Windsor, owners of Terrafrog. The company’s environmentally conscious workout wear has just been picked up in the U.S. by Kinespirit Studios, described in a Terrafrog press release as “a chain of upscale New York wellness studios specializing in Gyrotonic exercise and Pilates.”
Starting in September, these Canadian products will be showing up on store shelves in Manhattan.
So I guess you could say, Cori and Bobbi’s fancy-pants pants just got a whole lot fancier.
*Cricket*
Okay, tough crowd. But let me backtrack a bit.
Rope yourself a good burger
Not too long ago, Sally and I had the pleasure of stopping in at Rodeo Burgers. This new burger spot is on the University of Alberta campus, across from the hospital.
It’s also a fantastic place to get a burger.
The patties are a little bit thinner than you might be used to, but you can always load your burger up with toppings, including a homemade relish. I’m kicking myself for not noticing the homemade relish until after I had my food. Next time…
You could also get an extra patty or two, to beef up your meal.
The fries come with a spice or nice and salty. We had the salted version, and you can see in the photo above that they appear to be freshly cut potatoes. They were great. And came in a fun, generic, fry container.
I took a peek inside the bun before eating.
The burgers do take a few minutes to make, again we’re talking about fresher food, but they are well worth it. And if you pile it up with condiments and veggies you are in for one of those parties in your mouth where everyone is invited.
That it can get a little messy only adds to the appeal, in my opinion.
Oh, and before I forget, go for the sauteed onions. You’re welcome.
Sally went for the veggie burger, which she reports is quite good.
The food is more expensive than your average burger or fast food joint, but it’s fresher, tastier, and you can get a beer. I don’t know how that last one means anything to the price of a burger and fries, but it’s somehow worth mentioning.
Ride on down to Rodeo Burgers the next time you’ve got a hankerin’ for a burger. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see another Rodeo or two pop up around Edmonton.
LYVE on Whyte
In case you missed out the first floppity jillion times we brought it up, this weekend is Edmonton’s first ever SOS Fest (we are very excited)!
But! that is not the only exciting news in Old Strathcona. This is also the inaugural weekend for a spanking new music venue on Whyte Avenue. (Did you see what I did there, with the linking and the segues and the seamlessness?)
Yup, LYVE on Whyte is the latest bar to launch in the Whyte Avenue area (8111 105 Street NW). Their grand opening was this past Wednesday, and according to LYVE on Whyte’s Rob Ferguson, the launch event, featuring Jay Sparrow and the Wheat Pool, “was awesome. It couldn’t have been any better.”
He adds that folks were lined up outside for good chunk of the night, which bodes well for business.
You guys may remember some of the former bars that graced this same spot, like the Urban Lounge, or more recently, Dirty Pretty (Let’s just add those to the list of now-defunct bars I can reference to make me sound old. Remember when Lucky 13 was Rebar? Remember when the Starlite Room was the Bronx? ).
I ask Ferguson why the location is being changed from a nightclub to a live music venue.
“The way that nightclubs go, they’re hot when they’re new, and then they cool down,” he says. “We actually wanted to be a venue right from the get-go.”
You might remember the Urban Lounge’s roof collapse back in 2007. After that, the bar moved to its new, but sadly short-lived location down to 105 St and Whyte.
Ferguson explains it seemed like the wrong time to launch another live music venue.
“We didn’t really think it was right,” he says.
But things have changed! LYVE on Whyte is now open for business, and patrons can expect to find live original music on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and cover bands on Fridays and Saturdays. You can also expect to see an original traveling act about once a month.
You can catch popular local cover band Mustard Smile playing this Friday and Saturday as part of SOS Fest.
Kegs, Corks and wine (mostly wine)
As I hinted at in today’s Headlines, I know 2.3 more things about wine after an informative evening. (And thanks to Tanya for inviting us.)
Before last night I had never been to the Keg n Cork, a wine and liquor store on 99 Street, near 39 Avenue. After last night I have a lot of reasons to return.
I would soon win that prize.
The evening began with an excited introduction from the KnC’s Lionel Usunier, a guy who knows his stuff. Aside from the wine tasting, I like that the store is stocked with the good stuff.
Lionel then turned things over to Denise Brisson and Tom Dixon, of Cellar Stock. They help fill Lionel’s shelves at the KnC. (He would step back in between wines to give away prizes from the store. I won some kind of mashing device to be used to make a Brazilian drink, called Kashasa.)
Our wines for the evening, for those of you that know more about this kind of thing than I do, were La Playa’s Block Selection Sauvignon Blanc and Claret, Don Rodolfo’s Torrontes and Tannat, Vino de Eyzaguirre’s Cabernet Sauvignon, and Lujan de Cuyo’s Llama and Swinto. (Forgive me if I got any of that information backwards.)
Because La Playa, a Chilean winery, is all about producing wine through green practices we heard quite a bit about sustainable, organic, ISO and green wines and winery processes.
Denise and Tom were fantastic hosts to walk everyone, including wine-newbies Sally and me through the tasting. Along with information about the wines, they mixed in stories of world travels, of Juan visting Calgary during a snowstorm and attempting to brave it without a stitch of winter clothing (and enduring a harried, snow-filled car ride), of the seemingly-powerful Don Rodolfo meeting them at an Argentinian airport to fly them into his vineyard by helicopter.
They appear to have traveled to most of the places they import wine from. They talked about that a little on the organic side of things.
Because there are so many standard on the green side of wine, and food, there aren’t universal standards. So know who your wine producers are.
Or, it’s probably a little easier to know who you’re buying wine from, and know that they know who they’re importing from, who know the producers. The chain here would be that you buy from Lionel, he knows Tom and Denise, and they meet with the winery owners and operators here and in their home countries.
They also recommended looking for an “EU” on the bottle, citing European standards as probably the best for producing and cleaning up after the wine. That second part is actually key since you could avoid pesticides on the grapes but use bleach or harsh cleaners on the tanks.
Now, here’s what I actually learned about wine from this wine tasting. Torrontes and tannat are types of wine, just like cabernet and sauvignons. There are a lot more names and types of wine (and grapes) than I had thought.
Some wineries, like Don Rodolfo, can put a lot of wine. He produces eight-to-nine million cases each year. Yet, some vines, usually much older, can yield as little as half-a bottle.
The most interesting thing, in my opinion, was about a wine we didn’t even taste. Temple Bruer has a vegan friendly wine. Nobody at the table knew what that meant. Tom told us its vegan wine because they use a type of clay to remove particulate matter from the wine. Normally winemakers use egg whites.
Like my mind wasn’t being blown enough.
I think I’ll keep my eyes peeled for more tastings at the Keg n Cork, but also around town at the finer wine, beer, and liquor stores. There’s plenty to learn about wine, and other alcoholic beverages I’m sure, and I didn’t feel like a total rookie last night.
I also picked up a cheat sheet so I now look like I know what I’m doing.
Have you been to a wine tasting? Another kind of beverage tasting? What’s good, where else is good?
We got taken to Funkytown
I knew I was in good hands.
Warning: I will likely make so many jokes about being funky, or just use the term funky, that it will become annoying.
Picture it…Edmonton, 1982-ish…disco was dead, punk was a thing, and clubs didn’t know which way the wind was blowing just yet.
That was one of my first thoughts upon entering Funky Town, a new bar on Whyte Avenue, in the old “Attic” space above Savoy, at Calgary Trail.
When I first saw the re-branded bar, I didn’t know what to think. I expected it was going to be the same old club music but with this “Funky Town” name. A name that harkens to a different era, and of course that song.
We were going to go there, at first as a joke, since we’re old and look more like chaperones than people who would frequent such a place. But when Sally mentioned that it might actually be a bar that tried to evoke the disco era I was truly excited to go.
They certainly try to catch that vibe.
Self-explanatory.
You know you’re cool when you walk into a place as soon as it opens. The music’s pumping but the place is empty. Perfect for snapping photos of plastic hand chairs, disco balls, and reflective bubbles.
The guys running the place quickly changed over half of the four television sets from the Canucks game to some kind of awesome retro music channel. It was to be on these screens we’d watch videos of the songs we’d hear.
Stuff like “Love Shack,” “Addicted to Love,” “My Sharona,” and “Everybody Dance Now.”
Yes, that mix of music doesn’t quite make sense for a true Funkytown experience, but it was good enough. Plus, the DJ booth had a cover that looked like a giant ghetto blaster and that scores you points, in my books.
The drinks weren’t any cheaper than your average place, a vodka and a beer ran us $12. But sipping our cocktails in what appeared (or was made to appear like) some kind of reptile skin-covered seats made up for that. I think.
We left before the sky was dark, so I don’t know if they keep playing the retro tunes all night. The crowd was mostly under 30, with a few faces that would have been just that in the days of the music we heard.
I’d go back.
Of course we took along our discerning friend Gregg Beever. The guy’s got taste, and we needed someone with that to help get a clear idea of what Funky Town is all about.
I asked him for his thoughts on Edmonton’s hottest new club:
It sure is a bar on Whyte Avenue.
I dunno, I really didn’t get a retro vibe. Did you? A name like Funky Town suggests a sound track of 60′s and 70′s music to me, and most of what I heard was 80′s. Where were the Go-go dancers? The bell bottom jeans? The plush couches and chairs? The closest thing we got was a disco ball! Lame.
I was prepared to have my socks funked off. It didn’t happen.
Won't you take me to Funkytown?
I’ll agree, there wasn’t a huge 70s vibe. You might be able to convince me of really late 70s, but the music takes you into the 80s and 90s and kind of throws it all off.
Sally says:
You guys are way too literal. Do you go to Supercuts expecting a trim from a dude in a cape? I think not! Case rested! Meeting adjourned! You are the weakest link!(?)
The most important thing to remember is that if you like going dancing, or if you’re the type of person whose idea of a good time is an 80s or 90s night, you will flipping LOVE Funky Town. The staff uniform is a tuxedo t-shirt. They have giant plastic hand chairs and faux-snakeskin booths. I heard Young MC, Robert Palmer and Aerosmith all in under an hour.
As for the not “disco enough” complaint, let’s not forget that we are very, very, tragically old. What was “retro” when we were young is now probably considered “oldies.” So our penchant for disco is trumped by the youngsters’ ironic love of music from the 90s (read: my actual CD collection). And it also bears mentioning that we were there at 8:10 p.m., ten minutes after it opened. They weren’t going to blow their real dance gold on the only three douchebags who roll in immediately after opening and run around fondling the plastic hand chairs and taking pictures of everything with their cameraphones (this would be why all the pictures are completely devoid of other people).
I would go back, but probably only between 8 and 10 (because I hate people, loud music and dancing, pretty much making this the worst place for me to be). I guess I ultimately choose to experience Funky Town as a loud, empty, ironically decorated pub.
Perhaps that’s a market they can tap…?
I give Funky Town 3 1/2 Cafe Mosaics of 5.
I'm in a bubble, surrounded by giant hands. And not even tripping on acid.
If it’s good enough for Spock, it’s good enough for Guru Digital Arts College
This weekend, nerds from across Alberta, Canada and the world will be descending on our neighbours to the south for the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. (I know, I know. What is this, the Calgarytonian? But bear with me, there’s a local element to this, I swear.)
One of the nerds making the trek south is Owen Brierley, Executive Director of Edmonton’s Guru Digital Arts College (GDAC).
Owen Brierley
Now, you may be familiar with Guru for a couple of reasons; Owen and many of the instructors are very active on Twitter, Owen and our friend Mack Male teamed up to co-host last month’s Gala Guru/Twestival party, and Guru has recently signed on as a sponsor for both the upcoming MediaCamp, and our buddies (and fellow League of Extraordinary Media members) at the Unknown Studio.
“The thing that we’ve always wanted to see is Guru as a hub for activity of some kind,” Owen explains. “For things that are related to the digital world.”
Anyway, since GDAC is clearly an evil empire looking to further its reach on these here INTERNETS, Owen is taking the Guru show on the road with a booth at this weekend’s Comic Expo in Calgary. It’s a bit of a brassy move, since there aren’t a ton of schools (art or otherwise) on the exhibitor list. This is Guru’s first year at the Expo and Owen says it came about unexpectedly.
“It was through recommendations actually,” he says. “Friends of mine were like ‘You should be here. This is amazing!’”
“Based on that, we looked into it, and we saw that Leonard Nimoy was going to be there and you know… if Spock’s going to be there, then we’ve got to be there.”
Guru Digital Arts College teaches a six month diploma program in Digital Media Production; they’re also about to launch their first ever Interaction Design and Game Level Development Diploma.
“We’ve consciously put effort into making this small-classroom, short, intense program as valuable as we can make it,” says Owen.
“It’s connecting with this alternative audience that isn’t your standard post-secondary learner.”
If you want to follow Owen’s Comic Expo antics this weekend, check out Guru’s twitter feed. And if you’re on foursquare, stop by the school here in Edmonton and check out Owen’s challenge – you might get a free coffee out of the deal.
(Full disclosure alert: Yep, Guru is part sponsor of MediaCamp, an event that Jeff is involved in organizing. Yep, Guru is sponsoring our friends’ podcast. And yep, I am currently a student at Guru Digital Arts College. So I clearly have a pro-Guru bias – but I was not induced to write about the school. Except in the sense that I’m locked in Owen’s basement. And he won’t let me out until this is posted. Send help immediately.)
To Morango’s We Go!
FACT: At all times, Samsonow is on the prowl for Edmonton things that you might be interested in.
FACT: On Saturday, he & I made a field trip to Forest Heights (in honor of tax season).
FACT: We made a terrible miscalculation in transit routes and wound up walking for like 45 minutes to get to our destination.
DOUBLE-FACT: Google Maps transit information and @etsinfo are the greatest team ever. @etsinfo being a Twitter account you simply tweet your bus stop number to for the next 4 buses to pass. For. The. Win.
This is all relevant because it was this random trip to Forest Heights, and our subsequent attempts to find a way home that didn’t require walking as much, that led us to Morango’s tek-Cafes.
Yep, even though there’s only one, the name is plural. This is something I respect, because it says that Morango (whoever that is) thinks BIG. 
Morango’s is in this weird strip mall, next to a dentist and a tanning salon, and my guess is that it may have, at one time, been a Smitty’s or something. The seating is plentiful, the staff is friendly, the place is huge. It’s an Internet cafe, with video gaming, that hosts open mic nights and serves waffles. And I should probably just stop writing now, because my guess is that you aren’t reading this anymore – you’ve immediately leapt to your feet to go get some waffles.
Basically, it’s the best place in the world and you should stop whatever you’re doing right now and go to there. The coffee (which we actually ordered this fine day) was pretty good too.
My pervert cam pictures don’t do Morango’s justice.
If you look behind the plants on the left you can sort of spot an aquarium. Which is totally worth noting.
Buy! Sell! People!
What’s a tweet worth?
Well, sometimes it’s not much. But other times it could involve some valuable information.
Here's a shot of the screen used to demonstrate Empire Avenue.
And sometimes you’ve got a great Facebook profile or page, perhaps a sweet Flickr account, neat podcast, an amazing blog, and so on and so on in the social media world.
Now, Empire Avenue is trying to monetize your online value.
Hey, why not?
If the traditional media is suffering at all due to people turning to bloggers or other online sources of information, especially locally, then there has to be some value in what these online “influencers” are saying.
Certainly there are photographers who’ve landed jobs from Flickr postings, bloggers who have written for newspapers and magazines, as that online presence carries into traditional media realms. And if you notice a cute little dog to the upper right of these very words you can see there’s an advertising value in online media.
Empire Avenue wants to help you, yes you, squeeze some value out of your tweets, your Facebook, Flickr and YouTube accounts, your blog, by having other people investing in you, as if you were a stock on the open market.
Right now the people’s market is in beta, being tested by lucky nerds like me. Soon they’ll open things up to a larger audience. Then, they’ll open things up to the money.
Basically here’s what it could do, using this website as an example. (more…)
There is no Alternative
To anyone over the age of 27 this looks like home.
If you could stop downloading movies for just a few minutes, Edmonton, I’d like to tell you about a change to your video rental options.
A classic.
I’ll wait for those of you who didn’t even know you could still rent movies to settle down.
Ok.
If you’ve ever been on Whyte Avenue’s east side (east of Gateway Boulevard) you’ve probably seen Alternative Video Spot in the strip mall between 100 and 101 Streets. If you’ve been by recently you’ve seen a big, empty store. Yes, this long-time movie icon of Old Strathcona is gone.
You could fit a lot of movies in there. Now you can hold a rave.
But fret not, my arty movie-loving friends, for the team that brought you Alternative Video Spot has packed up their favourite flicks and moved ever-so-slightly southwest. You can call them “The Videodrome” now.
In an e-mail exchange, Alternative/Videodrome’s John Hudson explains the move.
“In short, the strip mall we were in had become a very unpleasant place to do business. First we were beside a rough bar and once the smokers were forced out on the street we had a constant stream of men outside the bar, drunk and smoking,” he writes.
“This, of course, attracted other undesirables such as drug dealers and “working” women. Then, after a couple years of that, a liquor store opened on the other side of us which attracted the street people first thing in the morning. So we were trying to run a business that attracted families who the had to run a gauntlet of un-family like people to get to us. Add to this our landlord was completely unsympathetic to our plight and wanted $7000 a month for the “privilege” of being there. We could not come to reasonable terms so we left.” (more…)
Edmonton loves chicken wings
Bless these boys for showing us what really matters.
It’s free chicken wings.
One year of free wings was just too good to pass up for these guys. (Photo: Adam Rozenhart)
Notice the book in gentleman A’s hand. He’s ready to spend a few hours waiting for tasty, free, wings. One can also appreciate the lawn chairs.
Photographer Adam also informs us that these three guys and three other early birds took to some parking lot Hudsons patio/pad hockey to pass the time.
Here at the edmontonian we salute your efforts to secure one order of free Hudsons wings, each week, for one year. There are worse things to wait in line all day for.
Hudsons is winging it
That headline will shine like gold in just a moment.
Hey, Edmonton, have you heard of this place called Hudsons?
Of course you have. You’ve probably watched an Oilers game at one of the local chain’s four restaurant/bars.
Well, on their way to Calgary*, Hudsons is stopping at South Common and opening up a fifth Edmonton spot.
That in itself would be enough to get me to write something. But there’s more.
Hudsons Canadian Tap House is officially opening their South Edmonton Common location tomorrow night, 9pm, but next Wednesday will be their first Wing Wednesday.
For that, they’ve got something that really caught my eye. (I’m a sucker for chicken wings, previously having a standing Wednesday date with the poultry part.) Next Wednesday, the new Hudsons location will offer free wings for one year to the first 100 customers after 7pm. That will mean one order of wings for 52 weeks.
If South Edmonton Common wasn’t so far from my place of work I’d sit outside their door next Wednesday. Heck, I still have time to find a way to get out of work early for sweet, delicious wings.
Oh, Hudsons is also offering a $20 gift card to the first 100 people to print and present the invite you see in this story (find the actual invite here) both tomorrow and Saturday night. You could use that money to buy wings.
* Hudsons opens its first Calgary location in the spring of 2010.
Awesome bosses
Really. I’m not kidding around with that headline.
Image: Profit
Not only are the following ladies seen as some of Profit Magazine’s top entrepreneurs and enterprising women in the country, I was tipped off to the story by an employee of one boss. It’s nice to know that, sometimes, the company’s bottom line isn’t the only thing that lands someone on a “top” list. Sometimes people are super-awesome and inspiring.
Profit itself is trying to look a little outside the money as well, now taking into account a company’s growth rate and profitability along with revenue.
From Profit’s W100 we had 3 women in Edmonton make the list. They include:
Teresa Spinelli snagged spot 13. She owns the Italian Centre Shop. I know you have eaten copious goodies from said shops.
Eveline Charles, of the beauty salons of her name, took position 24 on the list.
Ranking 94th, Alexis MacMillan of Christie Communications makes the list. They’re a company focused on e-learning, with interactive media production and design.
She’s the boss I was telling you about. (more…)
“They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said…
“..really? Really?!”
Look, who am I to judge anyone’s dreams? I haven’t read your business plan, Rehab Dance Club. Maybe it’s 28 pages of sheer bar-owning, business-planning poetry. Besides, if I told you what I really wanted to do with my life (improvisational french mimery), you probably wouldn’t understand where I was coming from either. And ultimately, you put your money where your mouth is and you have your name up in lights. “REHAB DANCE BAR,” your awning says.
I have done no such thing. There’s no awning over my door that says “SALLY: IMPROVISATIONAL FRENCH MIME.” So I can only offer you a sincere kudos and wish you the best of luck.
However, it bears mentioning that 5 seconds ago, when I turned my head to pretend I didn’t see a panhandler, this was the reincarnation of Club Malibu. And before that it was called like 4Play or something. And the Dirty Martini before that. If I might be so bold, could there be a chance…just a chance…that in this particular instance, the name of the bar isn’t the thing that’s holding you back? Maybe it’s more the weird location, across the street from Shoppers’ Drug Mart and right alongside one of Whyte Avenue’s rapiest alleys?
Mayhaps?
But good luck and god speed, Rehab Dance Club. I sincerely hope you make a fool of me and have a long, profitable run at this location. In the meantime, I will be waiting for the day this spot becomes “Puzzles,” the pub that never has a last call.
*I refrained from making a “I’m guessing we’ll get 90 days of rehab” joke. Self control!
The Fashion Event
Gee, you’d think with all the fashion stories we do around here we’d be called the fashiontonian.
These clothes will be for sale. (Photo: The Fashion Event)
(cue chirping crickets)
Anyway…I know that you like to look your best, Edmonton. That’s why I thought of you when I peeped a handbill for The Fashion Event at a local coffee shop.
The Fashion Event is an indie company that holds big clothing sales, or events, throughout the year. One is happening right now.
It’s not one brand, it’s lots of brands. It’s not one or two sizes, it’s (as they put it) sizes delicate to delicious.
It runs this weekend at the Mayfield Inn & Suites (until 7pm today, 10am-5pm Saturday) and they’ve got another big sale planned for December.
Now that I’m in the fashion loop I’ll try to keep you updated.
Ponytails + Horseshoes + Grand Opening
I only get my hair cut once or twice annually. I know that’s sad for a full grown adult, but it always seems like I have something else that demands my money/attention on a more immediate timeline.
This means a few things; first, that most of the time my hair looks like it did for my grade 3 school picture, and second, that I am every hairdresser’s nightmare. I’m the moron who walks in with crooked, half-orange hair in hysterics, desperate for someone to fix whatever I’ve done to myself with a combination of kitchen scissors and drugstore dye.
This is how I met Amy Laing a few years ago. She gave me one of the first haircuts I’d received in years, after a particularly nightmarish salon episode that I survived in Winnipeg years earlier, which left me looking like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber. When I rolled in, my hair had like three kinds of home color and years worth of crooked kitchen scissor cuts. Amy didn’t judge or lecture me at all; AND she fixed my hair.
I tell you guys this because this is, in my opinion, the greatest testament to Amy’s awesomeness. Or it was, until I visited her new salon a few days ago.
Ponytails & Horseshoes owners Cristina Shiferaw and Amy Laing
Amy and her equally awesome partner, Cristina Shiferaw, opened Ponytails + Horseshoes just a few months ago, and it’s been a busy place ever since. It’s a beautiful, welcoming salon that offers not only hair design, esthetics and a selection of hair products – but also bags, shoes, and works by Edmonton artists.
They describe Ponytails + Horseshoes as “a European Boutique salon with a minor shoe fetish.” (more…)
I need mitts
The headline does need a little more explanation.
Oh, this is totally going to be a self-serving post, I just need to clarify my mitts-position.
I don’t need lots of mitts, or super-warm mitts, I need a good pair of intermediary mitts.
I’ve got a decent pair of gloves for days like today, where it’s around zero degrees. Then, there’s super heavy-duty mitts that go halfway up my arm for the depths of Edmonton winter, when I just want to stay inside and drink hot cocoa all day.
But I need a decent pair for days (and they’re coming) that are -5 to -20.
Thankfully, it’s Handmade Mafia weekend in Old Strathcona. Those people know how to make stuff. I hope at least one of them has planned for the season and loaded up their table with mitts and toques.
With two locations I surely double my odds of securing a pair of mitts.
Greenwoods’ is 30
Looks like a new chapter is beginning for Greenwoods’ Bookshoppe.
(Yes, that was the best I could come up with for a lead line. Please, try and best me in the comments.)
The venerable bookseller is celebrating 30 years in Old Strathcona. Aside from what will surely involve cake and balloons, Greenwoods’ is bringing in the authors over the next month or so.
Check out all the wonderful writers that will be gracing the store with words, glorious words, beginning tomorrow (October 1).
Looks like signing up for their e-newsletter also gives you a chance at a $300 gift certificate. That’s easier than what we made you do for a measly $25.
Happy Anniversary, Greenwoods’! May you provide me with giant stacks of books, I’ll eventually get to reading, for 30 more years.
Breakfast with Friends and Neighbours
Continuing our long and storied tradition of eating breakfast at places around Edmonton and writing about it, I present to you our take on Whyte Avenue stalwart “Friends and Neighbours Cafe.” (10834 82 Avenue)
This is the kind of place where you can get yourself some decent eggs and bacon, and coffee. Plus, the place is kind of small and jammed with tables so it’s totally good for eavesdropping.
Not that I encourage that kind of thing.
What a nice, cozy little place.
The decor is all over the map, with green vinyl booths, tables in the middle of the place, some east-Asian panache here and there. (A note to bathroom people, they are tiny bathrooms.)
That far east influence finds its way onto the menu too. There are some fish-egg combos which I have managed to stay away from as well.
But breakfast regulars like bacon and eggs, omelets, eggs benny and french toast are all here.
Sally is the French Toast Queen, and I usually go for eggs and bacon (or some kind of breakfast burrito), but this time around I ordered first and astounded all when I ordered french toast.
The tension was palpable as everyone waited to see if Sally would stick with her usual order.
She did.
Man cannot live on french toast alone, he needs bacon. And coffee. And orange juice.
The french toast was good times. There were no leftover egg-bits hanging on, the portions were a good size and everything went down well, when covered in maple syrup.
If you find yourself driving by Route 99 thinking “It looks pretty busy, I don’t know if I’ll get in,” why not zip around the corner and head down to 108-109 Street for a nice meal with your Friends and Neighbours?
3.8 Power Rangers out of 5
p.s. Friends and Neighbours appears to either be expanding into the old Nokomis location, or adding some kind of pastry/dessert shop. Stay tuned on that one!
Back to School Shopping at Carbon Environmental Boutique
via Carbon's facebook fan page
Do you guys know about Carbon Environmental Boutique? You probably do, you savvy consumers, you. But just in case you don’t, it’s located downtown, at 10184 104 St., and is one of my very favorite places to shop. Which I know means a lot to you guys: the Sally stamp of approval: 60% of the time, it’s irrelevant all the time.
ANYWAY, as we all head back to school, I thought it might be helpful for everyone to know that most of the stuff you’re going to need is available in eco-friendly format from Carbon – at prices that are pretty much on par with what you’re getting at chain stores. Plus, you get to go to Carbon where they sell amazing things like solar powered backpacks and staple-less staplers.
Store owner Allison MacLean was gracious enough to show me a few of the back to school stationary products they have on hand. And seriously, if you haven’t been to Carbon, it’s worth the trip – even if it’s only to meet Allison, who is a walking encyclopedia of product knowledge.
Audreys Books has an Online Shopping Option!
So I’m a bit of book addict. I’m the chump who continually buys books, even though I have like 30 more at home, sitting on my shelf, collecting dust and going unread. Sorry, books. :(
I’m a particular sucker for the Chapters/Indigo website that allows me to reference exactly what is available at any location at a moments notice; but I often suffer residual guilt from that, because in a perfect world I’d prefer to be supporting local stores.
So how psyched was I to learn that Audreys Books (10702 Jasper Avenue) now has a new website that lets us see if they have our book of choice on the shelf. And if they don’t have what you’re looking for, you can also use the site to order your title, either directly to the store, or to your home.
I emailed with Audreys Steve Budnarchuk (he co-owns the bookstore with his wife Sharon) to find out more about the service.
Image via Audreys Books
SALLY: What prompted Audreys to set up the online inventory?
STEVE: Our customers have been asking for a way to check to see if we have stock of certain titles, especially after our regular hours, so we looked for a cost-effective way to be able to offer this service. In addition, some customers prefer to search for other titles we don’t stock but can supply fairly quickly.
SALLY: When did you launch the online system?
STEVE: We first made our database available shortly after we implemented a new inventory and special order management system in November of last year.
SALLY: How have people been reacting to it? Have you had lots of users?
STEVE: We have had many positive comments from customers about being able to order books whenever they choose. Initial adoption of this service has been light, but building steadily. We’re now receiving orders on a regular basis, and institutional customers such as schools and libraries are starting to realize the benefit.
SALLY: Can you give me a quick run down of everything the website allows users to do (such as, check whether you have a title in store, order titles to the store for pickup, order titles for home delivery)?
Steve Budnarchuk of Audreys Books
STEVE: Our customers can check to see if a book is in stock and reserve it for pickup or delivery. The same is true of millions of titles we don’t stock.
Our customers can [also] request a title for future pickup or delivery. No financial commitment is made during this step. We contact each customer to complete the transaction, and to provide more detailed information about certain special orders as necessary. Because this database contains approximately five million entries, including out of print books, there are of course some difficult to obtain titles shown. These will often require much more involvement on the part of our research staff to track down and report to customers about the books.
ProCura builds for the future. And steals my post office.
That's a nice looking Rexall you've got there...
Do you know what opens today?
A big and shiny Rexall Drugs, in a new office building on Jasper Avenue, at 108 Street.
Formerly known as the Professional Building this is a re-design under ProCura, an Alberta property company. It’s going to be called the Intact Building, named for its main tenant, Intact Insurance (also a formerly known as), formerly known as ING.
A couple of things to note about this; the building looks pretty sweet, it’s been built and designed with LEED Gold Standards in mind (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which should make it an example of environmental design in Edmonton, it’s stealing my post office.
The new Rexall going in at the corner of Jasper and 108 is an expanded version of the drug store that was at Jasper and 112 Street. That housed the post office I used for work because it was super-convenient. I like your style, ProCura, but I also like not having to walk very far for a post office. Let’s call it even.
This means there is a nice new Canada Post bureau in the building for those of you lucky enough to work near 108 Street. (The building itself is still under renovation, and it doesn’t look like office tenants are moving in quite yet.)
ProCura may also sound familar because they were in the news when Journal columnist Scott McKeen was talking about their ownership of land near Jasper and 109 Street (including this building and the old Mayfair Hotel) and how bullish the company appeared to be on downtown Edmonton’s future.
This all, also, means that if you’re looking for some storefront retail space on Jasper, I know a spot over in the 112 Street block that’s available…
Earth’s General Store heads east
This is where Edmonton environmentalism lives.
It’s only moving like 12 blocks. But I got your attention. Hippy.
Yes, the venerable green store is movin’ on up to the east side of Whyte Avenue.
The current store is a tucked-away standard of 82 Avenue, nestled upstairs in the 108-109 Street block. It’s been there forever. (Or like 18 years.)
I have it on first-hand knowledge that their removable-head toothbrushes are great.
Owner Michael Kalmanovitch announced earlier this year that he’d like to expand the business. And to keep his bank loans down, he asked customers (and all Edmontonians) to lend him a few bucks.
They lent him way more.
New menu at the Sugarbowl, everybody!
Review of the Sugarbowl‘s new menu item: Seafood Coconut – Green Curry Laksa
It was the kind of day where the sky outside looked like Mary Poppins was preparing her carpet bag, a kind of day where a hearty meal was needed to stoke the fires of thoughtful creativity. The kind of day that made a new Sugarbowl menu seem like just the right thing.
Bubble Juice, now open for Bubble Bidness
Remember like eight years ago when bubble tea became the big thing? I missed that boat entirely. It wasn’t deliberate; I didn’t adopt an anti-bubble tea stance the way people do when it comes to stuff like getting on twitter or paying their taxes. It was kind of like a romcom, with Julia Roberts in the role of me and John Cusack in the role of bubble tea. The stars just never aligned, and we kept missing each other.
So, I know nothing about the whole bubble beverage trend. But a new shop called Bubble Juice has opened in my neighbourhood (10154 82 Ave.), next door to my favorite cupcake joint, Flirt. OMG, SO MUCH CUTE FOOD. This meant I had to stop in.
The drink I got was more of a smoothie than anything else, so I don’t think this was quite what you hipster kids would call “bubble tea” (but feel free to enlighten me on what constitutes a “bubble tea” in the comments). Whatever you want to call it, it was awesome. I also got a stamp card (buy nine drinks, get the tenth free), which is great because as we established here, I am a cheap, cheap person. And with all the money I’m going to be spending between Flirt Cupcakes, Urban Knitters and Refresh Cafe over at Organic Roots, I’m gonna need a bigger bank account.
