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| - Last night my boyfriend and I decided to have dinner after being at Theatre Calgary. Stephen Ave on a Sunday night is a bit of a ghost town, so the usual haunts (ha ha) weren't open.
We decided on Bank and Baron which looks super cool, being an old bank and all. However upon arrival my ears were greeted by the familiar din of sportscasters from the outside speakers. The following is a transcript of the conversation we had outside:
"Carly: oh god, it's a TV having sports bar!
BF: ugh, let's not go in then.
Carly: I mean, it IS a pub...
BF: it looks cool..,
Carly: is it gonna be loud?
BF: it doesn't look busy.
Carly: Let's try to find somewhere else and if we can't find anything we can come back
BF: Ok. Wait it looks dead. And, we should try it. And...it's cold.
Carly: Yeah it's effing cold"
So we went in. Because it was cold. And it's an OLD BANK??!! So cool!
As soon as we walk in, we are greeted by TVs upon TVs all way too loud for the less than 15 people (staff included) that were in the place.
Let me just say that I KNOW this is a pub, but I couldn't help but dream of the amazing things the place could be.
The food was decent, I had a veggie pizza and kale salad, he had chilli chicken. Prices were a bit high but the selection is great and they have GF options!
The deals are great, that night it was $4 drinks (not wine) all day. And apparently they have brunch, and cheap wine, and crazy gourmet desserts, and a great wine list and a bunch of other moderately fancy things which totally give with the big retro bank, soft lighting and luxurious leather booths. All of which is ruined by the Shanks-esque TV saturation.
I get that it likely caters to a certain clientele and again, is a "pub" but there were so many loud, blinding TVs the beauty of the building itself was totally lost. I think that if there was a way to quarantine the sports, or section it off, it would have the ability to be a really nice place to have a meal.
Anyway, all in all, food was fine, service was OK but the TVs totally killed the atmosphere.
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