Downtown Food is an unassuming place smack in the middle of 8th Ave between 5th and 6th street.
You'll have to look hard for the little place with the high white chairs and the home-cured 777 bacon; but it will be worth the work because Downtown Food delivers on it's promise to provide local, fresh, organic dishes lovingly well.
The lunch crowd is steady here, so if you want beer and vodka battered fish with sparkling wine in the mid-afternoon, go early or late because Downtown Food is packed with architects and businesswomen - making it harder to get a table.
What you should do is go for dinner - or even better - go for the relatively unknown tapas hour from 3 to 6 pm and experience little Asian-meets-French food wonders like crispy pork wontons washed down with a warm, creamy beer.
Should you get caught up in the wine and the conversation and stay past 6, you'll get to try chicken liver mousse off the dinner menu, which is a fluffy slash creamy delight that you'll have to be careful not to horde.
In a nice departure from Calgary's recent, and sometimes annoying, "we don't take reservations" trend; Downtown Food lets you reserve your table, either online or by phone. A nice touch if you were wondering in a pinch where to take your date to eat before the show.
Downtown Food is simple and straightforward; the service attentive; the space comfortable and intimate; and its food fresh and bright with just the right hint of love; making this modern bistro a pretty little jewel for the food lover in all of us.
T.