With the launch of CBC Radio restaurant critic John Gilchrist’s eighth edition of his book My Favourite Restaurants there is something different on the cover: Canmore.
Prior editions have been subtitled Calgary, Banff and Beyond, but this year, to highlight the exceptional food scene developing in Canmore, it is that community that gets the title spot.
“I have been writing about restaurants now for 33 years,” Gilchrist said this week. “I remember the days when you used to go to the Hilton (Canmore Hotel) and have your pickled eggs with your draft beer and that is where the pavement stopped – I remember when Canmore was a mining town and the quiet years after that.”
Now, in 2013 the restaurant scene in Canmore includes award-winning chefs and their eateries like Crazyweed, Sage Bistro, The Trough, Gaucho, Aroma and Chez Francois – all included in the new book.
For a small town in Alberta, Gilchrist said, the offerings are “exceptional.”
“For that many people it has a better food scene, quite frankly, than Red Deer or Lethbridge and certainly there aren’t that many 28,000 population cities in Alberta, but for a 12,000 population it has a heck of a lot better food going for it than say Wetaskiwin, Camrose or places of that size,” he said. “It is because of the international draw of Canmore and so many people passing through and visiting and owning their lovely condos – everybody wants good food.
“And the chefs themselves see the potential of the area and have opened a lot of interesting restaurants there.”
But Gilchrist recognized he is not disparaging what is on offer with Banff, which still has many excellent restaurants profiled in the book including the Banffshire Club, Barpa Bills, Coyotes, The Eddie, Silver Dragon, Three Ravens and Sleeping Buffalo.
“The restaurants (in Canmore) tend to have a bit more of an edge than Banff, which has good restaurants, but they are a bit more focused on the resort town style,” he said. “Initially, when we started doing these back in the ‘80s Banff was definitely the place to go and I don’t want to cast any negativity on Banff at all, but there is greater potential for growth in Canmore.
“There are not that many more places you can put a restaurant (in Banff), whereas in Canmore you can grow and when people want to be creative and more interesting in the food they do, they have typically opened in Canmore.”
The seventh edition of My Favourite Restaurants came out four years ago and with the new edition 300 places are profiled and 155 are new. Gilchrist said that reflects the constant evolution of the culinary scene in Calgary and the Bow Valley in the past few years. The book also profiles the best of the cheapest to the best of the expensive and a full range of cultural styles.
Gilchrist will be in Canmore on Saturday (Dec. 3) for a book signing and launch at Café Books from 1-4 p.m. The event includes tasty treats from Crazyweed, Aroma, Chez Francois, The Trough and Sage.
