Saturday
We flew Porter out of Pearson for first time, on one of their jets they use to fly to western North America. We found a Vino Volo near what we thought was our gate, but didn’t have time for more than a quick glass of wine. We began walking to our gate, realized it was very far away, and hustled a bit. We got to our gate just in time to find out our flight was delayed, so we walked back to the Vino Volo so we could eat. A flatbread later, we were ready for our flight.
The flight itself was pretty good: economy, but roomy and no middle seats, and free wi-fi. We landed in Calgary and picked up our car — upgrade to a VW Tiguan! — and drove to the Kensington neighbourhood, where our friend Kirsten had kindly let us use her condo. We got in, relaxed a bit, and enjoyed a view of the sunset over the hills west of the city.
We walked to Niko’s Bistro for dinner, had a surprise run-in with our recently-transplanted-to-Calgary Stevie & Sarah, and sat down at our table. We had:
- Starters
- Caprese salad w/ organic spring mix, bocconcini cheese, tomatoes, XV olive oil, balsamic reduction
- Calamari all’inferno: squid, spicy tomato sauce, lemon
- Mains
- Risotto con fungi w/ mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, truffle oil
- Agnello Brasato w/ lamb shank, braised vegetables, XV olive oil, tomatoes, served with parmesan risotto
- bottle of Collazzi Liberta Toscana IGT
Shortly after our apps, Lindsay started feeling gross, so the staff very kindly offered to pack our mains to go, and corked our remaining wine. I ate my lamb at home (the risotto was excellent) while Lindsay slept it off.
Sunday
We obviously rested as much as possible the next morning; I went to COBS for breakfast and The Roasterie for coffee. We were packing to leave for the mountains shortly, so with that done Lindsay reheated her risotto while I grabbed a (MUCH too large) burger from Flipp’n Burgers.
After a quick stop to see Stevie & Sarah’s new place (and give some love to Ivy and Pluto) we drove west to Banff. I always love driving into the mountains; Lindsay was a little underwhelmed given all the hyping I/we’d done.
We checked in at the Rimrock resort hotel, threw our stuff in our room, and I registered for my two-day conference. We turned right back around the drove down the hill to the town of Banff, where we met up with Stevie & Sarah again. They were psyched about fondue at The Grizzly House, which was quite an adventure. Vegetables boiled in buttery broth, a bunch of meat, and chocolate fondue for dinner. We left full, but also smelling vaguely of smoke, and drove back up the hill to the hotel.
Monday
Not much to report: a full day of conference-going for me, a day of work for Lindsay. But when the conference is in a locale like this, it’s pretty easy to take:
I skipped the conference dinner, and had a drink at the bar with Lindsay instead.
We had dinner at Primrose; I’d wanted to try Eden because of their wine list, but it was closed. Lindsay still wasn’t feeling great, so we kept the order tight:
- Warm Focaccia w/ Arbequina Olive Oil, Aged Balsamic
- Salt Baked Beets w/ Whipped Ricotta, Salted Pistachio, Focaccia, Mint
- Chocolate Cremeux of Dark Chocolate, Malt Ganache, Almond Crunch
Tuesday
Day two of the conference, so once again not much to report. We did drive down into the town centre for lunch. On a recommendation we tried Block, but it was full and had a long wait list. We instead went to PARK distillery. Our server was nice; the table next to us featured a kid absolutely blasting French cartoons on a parent’s phone. Food was pretty good too:
- corn bread w/ maple whisky butter
- drunken shrimp w/ park alpine dry gin, tomato, herbs, spices
- rotisserie chicken caesar salad w/ wood-fired pulled chicken, grana padano, bacon, focaccia croutons
- rotisserie chicken s’wich w/ pulled rotisserie chicken, park maple rye bbq sauce, cheddar, slaw, bacon, ranch, brioche bun, hickory fries + smoked tomato chili vodka soup
It was time to check in at our second Banff hotel: the Fairmont Banff Springs. We got another upgrade — a suite in the Gatehouse — but our room wasn’t quite ready, so we had excellent cocktails in the famous Rundle Bar.
Mid-cocktail we got a text that our room was ready, so we walked over, dumped our bags, chilled for a while, and admired yet another classic view.
Our dinner that night was a big one: 1888 Chop House, the hotel’s steakhouse. Our host was from New Brunswick, which was a nice surprise, and also a deviation from what we’d observed so far in Banff — that every service person there was from Australia or New Zealand (or possibly the UK). Our server’s Aussie accent quickly corrected the deviation.
It was an epic meal for sure:
- Cocktails
- glasses of Piper Heidsieck NV Champagne
- Appetizers
- 1888 House Bread w/ everything seasoning, nasturtium butter
- Local Gems w/marcona almonds, toasted grains, radicchio, citrus
- Hokkaido Scallop Crudo w/ herb paste, daikon, grapefruit, cucumber, rice milk
- glasses of Cedarcreek 2022 Pinot Gris from the Okanagan and 2021 Chablis 1er Cru Domaine Laroche “Les Vaudevey” from Burgundy
- Mains
- 12oz Brant Lake Wagyu Beef New York Striploin
- 6 oz A5 Gunma Joshu Japanese Wagyu Striploin + onion soubise, caramelized onion, fingerling potatoes, and Périgord sauce
- heirloom carrots w/ carrot top kimchi, vadouvan, dukkah, labneh
- a bottle of Andrew Will, “Sorella” 2007, Walla Walla Valley
- Dessert
- textures of chocolate w/ coffee ganache, caramel, buckwheat, black sesame
Luckily the walk home was a short one, ’cause we conked right out.
Wednesday
Unfortunately it was hard to stay conked — the room mechanicals made weird noises all night, and at 7am the pipes/ducts/whatever starting rattling and whining like a jet engine was starting in the room. Not good since we were trying to rest up for a day of hiking. We got up, and noticed that the overnight rain for us had been snow higher up, so the highest mountain peaks were covered in snow. You can see it on the mountains in the distance below.
Lindsay had booked us on a bus that would us to both Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. I was very excited — I hadn’t seen either lake since 2006, and had spent only minutes at Lake Louise. We had breakfast in Vermillion Room, got ready, and drove up the highway. Now Lindsay was impressed — bigger mountains, amazing views, and snowcaps just make mountains look more mountain-like. We parked at the foot of Lake Louise ski resort, got on our bus, and headed over to Lake Louise first. We spent an hour there, avoiding tourists, but enjoying the views as we walked around the lake shore.
Pretty quickly we were back on the bus and off to Moraine Lake. It really blew Lindsay away, and really took me back. 18 years later it was just as breathtaking.
Because we only had a couple hours we only did the lakeshore trail. It was slushy, but manageable, even though we didn’t have proper gear. We could walk it all the way to to the end where we didn’t see another hiker for a good 20 minutes.
Back at the lodge, we did the Rockpile hike just before the bus came back, for the “$20 view”, so named because it used to be the vista pictured on the old Canadian $20 bill. It was getting quite cold now, but it was so worth it. On our way down a tourist couple asked if it was safe to hike to the top without bear spray; I assured them the only wildlife they’d encounter would be hungry hikers.
A little pooped, we were bussed back across the valley, and then drove home along the Bow Valley Parkway. Our only wildlife sighting was a small herd of deer, but the drive was so gorgeous we didn’t care. We arrived back at the hotel, dropped the car, turned on our heels, and went right to dinner at The Waldhaus pub down the hill from the hotel. It was exactly what we needed: a quiet, relaxed environment. Had it been lighter out, it would have been a gorgeous view of the Bow River. We treated our bellies instead of our eyes:
- little gems w/ basil cashew dressing, cherry tomato, cucumber, whipped ricotta, crispy grains
- soft pretzel w/ Bavarian mustard, beer cheese dip, whipped butter
- pork schnitzel w/ potato salad, sauerkraut, red currant, fresh lemon
- alpine cheese fondue: Gruyère, Emmenthal, appenzeller, white wine, confit garlic, kirsch, nutmeg, apple, gherkins, baguette
- beers, primarily Hacker-Pschorr Dunkelweizen
After all that, we somehow pushed our tired legs back up the 93 stairs to the hotel, and collapsed in our bed.
Thursday
It was time to leave Banff, so we ordered room service, packed, drove to the town centre, parked, and went for a walk along the Bow River. Not all the way to the falls, just to a bench with a great view.
After a few panicked moments when Lindsay realized she’d forgotten her phone on the bench (we ran back; it was still there) we were back in town and decided to re-try our luck with Block. Luckily, we got right in. Nice vibe in there.
- Food:
- duck drumettes w/ salt & pepper
- chopping block salad: mixed greens, tomato, avocado, daikon radish, chorizo salami, asiago cheese, currants, candied pecans, orange balsamic dressing
- steamed bao char siu bbq pork belly buns w/ house kimchi, Japanese mayo, scallions
- Drinks
- Le Paradou Viognier
- Unbeetable cocktail: Wildlife Gin, Fresh Beet Juice, Lemon, Egg White, Simple Syrup (so good, Lindsay got it twice)
- Zero-proof balsamic gin & tonic: Seedlip Garden 108, Spiced Orange & Balsamic NA Gin, Wildlife Tonic Syrup, Soda (somebody had to drive)
- Dessert
- matcha cheese cake w/ ginger chocolate sauce
We stopped for cappuccinos at Mountain Folk Coffee Co, which were pretty meh despite being $8 a pop. Grumble. We drove off toward Calgary, and saw a high speed chase (!) on the highway on an otherwise uneventful drive back to Kirsten’s condo. We ordered some pizzas from Pulcinella and drank a bottle of her wine.
Friday
A delicious, lazy morning that didn’t get off to much of a start until I went to COBS for breakfast and Aggudo for coffee. We made a lunch plan and later walked, crossing the Bow once more, to lunch at Bridgette Bar. It was largely positive: I really liked the vibe and decor, the wine list was excellent with lots of obscure stuff, and the food was extremely tasty. My only complaint was that our server promised to “course out” our five snacks/starters, but instead it all showed up at once, swamping the table and overwhelming us.
- Food:
- garlic bread w/ cheese curd
- eggplant fries w/ green harissa yogurt
- lamb sausage w/ cilantro vinaigrette, labneh, fried egg
- burrata cheese w/ vincotto, pistachio, pickled grape, basil oil
- spiced beet salad w/ whipped feta, pickled shallots, herbs, pistachio
- Drinks by the glass:
- André & Michel Quenard Abymes Mineral 1248 Jacquère 2023
- Ameztoi Stimatum Hondarrabi Beltza Getariako 2022
- Château Tours des Genets Camelia Grenache & Syrah 2021
- Vini Be Good Hip Hop Chenin Blanc 2023
- Weninger Ròzsa Petsovits Pinot Noir/Syrah/Zweigelt 2022
- white peach Negroni (gin, peach liqueur, blanc aperitif, Campari)
We walked back and met Stevie & Sarah & Ivy for a park hang before walking down to Pages Books. There we spent some time (and money) and petted the resident cat, Kilgore Trout.
While Lindsay finished up there I shopped down the street at Vine Styles, a truly excellent wine shop. I bought bottles to replenish Kirsten’s supply, and to go with the fancy-ass peanut butter sandwiches we got from PB and J YYC. I grabbed an exceptional bottle of Cru Beaujolais too.
Saturday
A purely mechanical morning: we woke up, showered, packed, cleaned up, and drove to the airport. Thanks Alberta; you served up a great first experience for Lindsay and a wonderful return visit for me, especially in the Rockies. I forgot how much I missed them; luckily Lindsay was asking to go back before we’d even left Banff. Until next time!
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 