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| - This is the third restaurant/bar to inhabit this building in the past few years. It seems that the building was born under a black cloud. The building itself is beautiful and large, and this area of the city desperately needs a place with a solid reputation for good food and good service. It would be a shame if yet another establishment bit the dust.
I'm not a fan of eating in bars, but in recent years it seems that Calgary has lost a lot of its casual, inexpensive and just plain 'good eats' restaurants. We've become a city where spending $30 - $50 a plate for dinner is accepted without batting an eye. That's fine on occasion, but sometimes I'd prefer that my entire bill be in the $30 - $50 range so when a coworker tried The Canadian Brewhouse, and raved about it, I thought I'd give it a whirl.
My husband and I went on a Sunday afternoon for lunch. The restaurant is two floors, but the lower floor was closed with a sign directing us upstairs. At the top of the stairs, we were immediately greeted by a cheerful server who told us to sit where we wanted - either inside or outside on the deck. We stayed inside, and looked around to see what had changed. The most noticeable change was that the two floor wine tower that previously graced the middle of the building is now a giant column of TV screens. In fact, there is no shortage of TV screens in this place! Future Shop can't compete.
The menu is a multi-page extravaganza of sports bar fare: poutine, pizza, wings, burgers, soups, salads and sandwiches with some more upscale choices for dinner. It took a bit for us to decide what to have as there was also a mini menu offering breakfast/brunch fare. We decided to share an order of the Golden Garlic Fingers and the Montreal Smoked Meat Poutine (large). When the food came out, our eyes became as big as the plates our food came on! We could not believe the size of the portions, but sometimes big is just...well...big. We tasted, and the Golden Garlic Fingers were pure bliss (what's not to love about crispy golden garlic pizza crust with a light coating of cheese and bacon dipped in donair or meat sauce?). The poutine was also a treat. We ate half of both dishes, and were absolutely stuffed. We asked for the rest to be packaged, our request was promptly tended to, and when the takeout boxes were returned, they were accompanied by a complimentary serving of the Maple Crème Brûlée. Although I am neither a fan of maple nor of crème brûlée, it was very light and tasty.
The serving staff was very friendly and efficient. Since it just opened a few weeks ago, they had some of their Edmonton staff (it started there, and has opened a number of locations throughout Alberta) training the Calgary staff. It was fairly quiet when we were there, and is a large place so it will be interesting to see if the level of service we received will be maintained as it gets busier.
On the whole, we were very pleased with the food and the service. We'll definitely go back as there are a number of things we want to try. Here's hoping that the black cloud finally has a silver lining!
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