Mercer Tavern

The return of the prodigal daughter: co-foodie extraordinaire (code named: The Blonde, who apparently isn’t naturally blond) called for a visit to an establishment I’ve driven by numerous times, but never previously patronized: Mercer Tavern. 

Finding a primo parking spot, after 6pm, and now quite warm, spirits were as high as my expectations for this place. Nice open area, wood accents and olive drab, amber lighting in mason jars gave this place a tavern-y feel, with a slight hipster vibe but lacking the attitude, thankfully.

The Blonde states she’s never eaten here, but frequents here to let men buy her drinks. Pure class. Thursdays: $13 Charcuterie plate and half off wine by the glass and by the bottle. Great daily specials, written in chalk above the bar. I dig it. 

 

Opted for a draft of Granville Island Honey ($5.25) to start things off, and somewhere along the night The blonde downed a pair of Caesars… the Canadian equivalent to ‘merca’s Bloody Mary. Menu seemed, pubby, the usual offering of sandwiches, burgers, salads alike. After hearing our waiter rattle off some of her favorites, I settled on a Reuben Sandwich ($13.5) and my compatriot, dual Mahi Fish Tacos ($12.5). 

While our hunger mounted, the Charcuterie plate came, and boy, it did NOT disappoint. Goat cheese, gorgonzola, and some aged grueyere (?) alongside prosciutto, some sort of soppresata or spicy salumi, and some other cured meat that currently escapes my recollection. (I’m not an expect on cured meats, I just play one on TV). Condiments were two types of onion chutney/marmalade, balsamic tossed arugula, and some of the most delicious Guinness Mustard I’ve ever tasted. 

This plate scores an A+, and I’d gladly pay full price for it on non-Thursdays. 

Our entrees finally came, with much anticipation. Unfortunately I didn’t catch a picture before eating it, but our collective response to the first few bites were just, meh. My Ruben was reminiscent of some Hormel canned corned beef iteration that my mother served to us as kids, but perhaps it’s unfair to judge what is supposed to be a mastercraft of the Jewish Deli community, ala 5th St. Deli and/or Katz deli in NYC, but I digress. And the Mahi tacos were quite bland, just passing as tolerable. Again, nothing beats a real fish taco (GO TO SOUTH BEACH BAR AND GRILLE in OB, San Diego). Yes critics, I hear you, we’re in Edmonton, blah blah blah. What salvaged the second course was my beer pairing in Hopworks Organic IPA ($14), sure made me homesick. 

The plusses: Beer, ambiance (although music was just a touch too loud for dinner service), the charcuterie plate was superb, and a smiling dinner date.

The minuses: Entrees were short on flavor, and lacking any panache, too bad. 

Overall: B-/C+ The charcuterie plate saves it.

Check it out for yourself:

10363 104th Street
Edmonton, AB T5J 5G5

http://www.mercertavern.com/

@mercertavern

V

@bigvinnyab

Taste of Edmonton 2012

3 Months is too long without a post. But I do have a back log of reviews with lots of pics to keep you, the reader, interested. Anyways, after the hoo-hah on the blogosphere and twitterverse about the big food festival downtown, I took the LRT down to Churchill station to have a look-see

The Taste of Edmonton is an annual summer event, in downtown Edmonton (Churchill Square) lasting 12 glorious days (this year held July 19-28th) and highlights the cities’ (presumably) finest purveyors of international cuisine. 42 restaurants and about a half-dozen food trucks, composing the “Curb Your Hunger” program of the annual festival.

Live country music for those inclined.

Armed with a sheet of 20-1$ festival tickets, I sought out the longest lines, because naturally, people are lazy. So you should trust the cost-benefit analysis of the general masses, so if it’s worth waiting in line for, then a crowd ensues.  The concept of the festival is fairly straight forward. Snack-sized portions offered up at 4, 5, or 6 ticket prices.

Tied – First place: Grilled Quail with Pomegranate Sauce: Hoang Long Family Restaurant

Starting from the top, and tied for first for my favorite dish on the grounds, from Hoang Long Family restaurant, the Grilled Quail with Pomegranate sauce. I found this quail to be absolutely delicious,  and though I often choose to skip quail because of it’s labor intensive requirements to eat (read: small and plentiful bones), this was a task I happily endured. Although, my chief complaint is the lack of seating outside of the beer/wine gardens, and the mob crowds that quickly occupied curb space, I felt like a caveman, munching on bones, leaning on a tree and groaning in delight. To me, quail seems to taste completely of dark meat, but not lean by any means. Nice sweet-garlic marinade, perfectly charred on the outside and chin-dripping juicy on the inside. Bravo! (5 ticket item)

Tied- First place, Deep Fried Wonton with Crab meat and Cream Cheese – Panda Hut Express

This is home-cooked comfort food for me. My mother used to make these delicious, blood pressure elevating, cardiac disease risk increasing gifts from above. Apparently voted #1 dish by the festival, or so says the sign, it exceeded the high standard of my  maternal benchmark. Crispy throughout, artfully but simply crafted, each bite rewards a gratifying crunch followed by a creamy and slightly chewy texture afforded by what is probably imitation crab. Nonetheless, a nicely executed first course to any meal. Can you tell I liked it? (4 ticket item)

Third place- (and best dessert) – Strawberries in Grand Marnier with Vanilla Whipped Cream and Chocolate Sauce – Bistro Praha

I feel a little guilty praising this because it’s so insanely simple to imitate this and impress folks at home after an excellent home cooked meal.  Easy on the booze, fresh, plump strawberries, hand-whipped cream. Delightful. For home, I might switch out the chocolate sauce with reduced balsamic vinegar, or aged (at least 50yr) balsamic. Not much else to say other than, I wish the portions were larger! (4 ticket item).

Without being long winded, here are some other dishes I tried, or wanted to try. A must-attend annual event!

One last thought. Apparently there is a food-blogger event type cook off, and was judged by a panel of blogger-peers. Where was my invite! Foodmonton will be the newcomer chef to beat in 2013! Look out!

Vince

Lemongrass Beef Skewer from Hoang Long

Bacon-wrapped Scallops from Place Banquets

Green Onion Cakes from Hong Kong Bakery

Spanakopita from It’s All Greek To Me

Butter Chicken and Veg from New Asian Village

Jodie enjoying the Quail and Spinach Pie

Charlie Flint Beer

Art Gallery of Alberta

Smokehousebbq.ca “Truckin’ good BBQ” food truck

Fresh Young Coconut Drink from Coconut Jungle

RATT: A surprisingly apt name for an on-campus bar

RATT: Room At The Top

Not even at the top. Almost at the top. 7th floor of the Student Union Building (SUB) at the University of Alberta offers a breathtaking view of the University area, and the Edmonton Skyline, along with the snaking Saskatchewan river.

That’s about all it’s got to offer, unfortunately. Impromptu lunch with Nina: coin-flip, RATT wins for convenience. A bar with an OK beer selection, RATT offers solace for stressed out UA students at a premium. High bar-style tables adorn the blacked out decor, but no real lounging space in the way of couches or coffee tables.

A never-updated menu, you’d figure, at least they could pull off the basics. I order a turkey sandwich and soup: minestrone. Guess what?

If you couldn’t tell by my foreshadowing text… Poor execution. Lettuce was UNWASHED, turkey was clearly of the Buddig variety, not even peeled apart, tomato ENDS, and stale white bread. Hoped for a redeeming soup, no dice. Minestrone was obviously canned, lukewarm at best, and reminiscent of prison rations (not that I’d know… but given the situation, a preferable alternative). At least the saltine was as expected.

Well… I was hungry. so I tried to eat, at Nina’s “stop bitching” behest.

Well, no surprise, a few hours later I threw it all up. Anyone who works at RATT, tell your managers, STOP SERVING SHITTY, UNSANITARY FOOD.

The worst food experience I’ve had in Edmonton. Bottom line: Come for the beer, and if you want to lose 5-10 pounds, eat the food, but it won’t be a pleasant experience. Neither is the service of waitstaff.

0.5/5 just for the beer and the convenience of being on campus.

Blech. Gargle with bleach.

 

Bigvinnysd

Grade F

EDIT: After what is an obvious troll attempt and bad business practice, I am changing my grade From a D+ to an F. Shame on you, RATT.

Cafe Coral de Cuba

Abso-freaking-loutely the coldest weather I have experienced thus far. -17F, cloudy, windy. There are a few buses that service Whyte Ave all the way up to University: 94, 4, 7, 128, and a few others I’m sure I forgot…. Main story is that I missed all of them and then decided to walk a few blocks to my favorite Cuban place in Edmonton.

Cafe Coral de Cuba is a small, modernized Cuban cafe that serves up some great traditional style sandwiches, red beans and rice, huge empanadas, all for a decent price. Classic hot dishes like Ropas Viejas, Pollo asado, Costillitas de cuba (pork ribs, Cuban style) make this place a nice stop for dinner. And of course you can’t review a Cuban cafe without addressing the Cafe…. Served piping hot espresso, with all the classic characteristics of the old country: dark and syrupy like motor oil, bold, with enough caffeine to put a hop in your step, and your ass in the John, and of course, WAY too much sugar. Hey, it ain’t Cuban espresso if your teeth don’t fall out.

As for the food, I’ve never been disappointed. Today I went with my go-to sandwich, the Sandwich Cubano: Thick slices of pork tenderloin, ham, swiss cheese, an Emril Lagasse_gut busting amount of minced garlic, and mustard on a flaky, buttered and toasted roll. For $8, I can’t find a better sandwich in town… yet.

Bonus: Saturday nights: FiestaCuba: Some serious salsa dancing going on in the Cafe. Check it out!

Grade: A-

Nice place to go on a date, for a strong cup of Joe, or something a little more to ward off the cold!

Bigvinnysd

10816 82 Ave
Edmonton, AB

The Bothy

Inaugural post for Bigvinny’s Foodmonton Blog!

I was invited by some faculty to attend the third annual Edmonton Whisky Festival, which is being held at the Sutton Place Hotel in Downtown Edmonton. Tickets were being sold at a few bars around town, so I decided to go to one of the bars in person to check out the local scene as well as buy my ticket.

Enter: The Bothy. A small bar located in a sort-of strip mall across from the Mazda dealership on Calgary Trail. If you blink, you’ll miss it, as I did, and end up all the way past Whitemud. I didn’t plan on staying for a drink, as it was 2pm in the afternoon, and even though it’s winter in the far north, drinking when it’s light out feels skeezy.

I walk in, and I’m the only one in the bar. I ask the very cute bartendress, Georgia, if there are any tickets left to the event next week. Unfortunately they had sold out. After a quick phone call it turns out the boss was swinging by to drop off some more tickets. She charms me and offers to pour me a drink while I wait. Temptress. Very young, but very knowledgeable about Scotch and Wine, fun conversationalist, and quite cute! The conversation was interrupted by a phone call from my girlfriend, (a welcome interruption, of course).

A very decent selection, including some of the more rare stuff in the scotch world. Of course they offered Black Bowmore 31 at ~$260 a shot. I was in the mood for a Bowmore but not at that price, ended up choosing Bowmore 17, reasonably priced at $11.

As for the Scotch, very nice. She poured me a 1oz shot, (standard in Canada vs 1.5 in the USA), in a very cool Glencairn tulip glass etched with the Glenrothes standard insignia. It nosed with the very classic Bowmore dried fruit, subtle peat, with a tiny bit of sherry. Initial tasting, no burn, a little bit of oak that slowly develops into that great islay smoke into the after taste. Splash of water revealed a tiny hint of orange, and surprisingly brought out the sherry. A real winner.

The tickets were taking longer than usual, so I ordered something off the menu. I wasn’t expecting anything mind blowing, but I was very pleasantly surprised by a very nice Lorne sausage sandwich ($14) with 3 y.o. aged white cheddar, on a crusty French baguette, with house made hot mustard, paired with tomato soup with big chunks of Canadian back bacon and finished with heavy cream ($4).

Tickets finally came, and at $75 bucks a pop, certainly looking forward to the event and tasting all of the local offerings.

Overall, one of my new favorite bars in Edmonton. Very classy place, great ambiance, knowledgeable staff and great service, not to mention a wonderful selection of wine and scotch. Oh, and they have a great wine machine that pumps Argon into open bottles so they last over a month! Very cool.

A 5 star establishment! Check it out!

5482 CALGARY TRAIL – EDMONTON, ALBERTA T6H 4J8 – PH. 780.761.1761

http://thebothy.ca/

Updated: 23 March 2012:

Ok, went again. Confirmed- this place is delicious!

Blondie, and Bowmore Octomore

Italian style sub

French Onion Soup

Grade A+

Welcome!

Yay! Another BigvinnySD/AB blog. Here I will be posting my reviews/comments on various eateries around the Edmonton AB area.

About Foodmonton

Fresh to the world! I’m bigvinnysd, I’m big and from San Diego, so how’s that for a descriptive handle? I’d like to share with you my culinary opinion, about this boy in a new neighborhood. So between blizzards, thesis proposals, experiments, and teaching, watch this space for restaurant reviews from yours truly and co.

Bigvinnysd