Victoria
Okanagan
Road
Trip
into
Calgary

Fri Apr 17

Shortly after leaving Frank we turned north and began the long, boring drive up to Calgary. There was plenty more snow, and a few more deer.

Driving into Calgary was kind of annoying. Lots of bad drivers on the highways. Still ice in the underpasses. Knuckleheads cutting me off and forcing me to miss turns — which, in a city with as many one-way streets as Calgary, is a serious pain. Parking lot full of slush. And then we couldn’t get into our friend’s condo, as someone had…glued her lockbox shut. What the hell is wrong with people? And why did Calgary hate us so much? Anyway, we spent about 15 minutes trying to scrape the glue out of the lockbox before giving up and checking into the Calgary Le Germain.

We didn’t have long to shake that whole encounter off, though, as we were meeting our friends Stevie & Sarah at PARK by Sidewalk Citizen. Sarah had booked it, and what a find she made — food is listed below, but the decor, the vibes, the staff were all terrific.

• Appetizers
  • Labneh
  • Tabbouleh
  • Charred Carrots w/ fermented chili-honey, sesame, ricotta
  • Parisian Gnocchi w/ mushroom, labneh, truffle, 12-month manchego
• Main, shared
  • Three Cuts of Beeswax Dry-Aged Lamb (12-day dry-aged sirloin, 12-day dry-aged ribs, 21-day dry-aged leg) w/ house garlic fries, garlic toum, red pepper jam
• Dessert 
  • Daily Donut (strawberry + almond)
  • “Turtles” Ice Cream
  • Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake
• Drinks
  • Various beer, wine, cocktails…at this point of the trip I wasn’t keeping track

I’ve never heard of dry-aging lamb in beeswax, but my god…it was incredible.

We walked home, chatting, and then Lindsay and I staved off crashing long enough to drink some Burrowing Owl “Athene” (which was tremendous) and change our flight.

Sat Apr 18

After two weeks in the west, in which we’d encountered every type of weather possible, it was time to go home. We showered, packed, and scooted over to Kensington. Our plan had been to leave the wine we’d accumulated along the way at our friend’s condo as a means of payment, but since that plan fell through and we hadn’t the spare kilos in our luggage to bring them home with us, we gifted them to Sarah & Stevie along with some treats from COBS. But really, it was just an excuse to see them again and play with their level-10 adorable dog.

We left them, drove to the airport, dropped the rental car, checked into our flight, and had an easy flight home. There we found one very happy, snuggly cat.

.:.

And so: thank you, BC. Despite nearly killing me in a mountain pass, you remain my second-favourite province.

(Calgary, you on the other hand can suck it.)