There's a killer new sandwich join at the corner of 9th Avenue and 1st Street SW (diagonally across the intersection from the Palliser), called
Meat & Bread. I only found out about it after coming back from Ireland, but I think I've been there a half dozen times already. The meatball sandwich is especially outstanding and so is the price! Most sandwiches are filling for under 10 bucks.
On another note, a long topic of discussion between me and a friend of mine has been Calgary's underrated or at under the radar coffee culture. Well, maybe that's about to change. I'm sorry I don't have a link, but according to Monogram's Instagram account (I have seen it with my eyes on his phone, so it's likely real.), 4 of 6 finalists in this years' Canadian Barista Championship are from Calgary. 2 from Phil & Sebastian's, 1 from Rosso and 1 from Monogram. Maybe our thriving scene will get bit of respect after that.
I've long been a devotee of
DeVille (warning, the website is pretty much only mobile friendly), who have now branched out to 6 locations in the city and kept the quality consistently high. With DeVille included Calgary now has almost a half dozen small to medium local chains bringing out good quality brews. There's also
Monogram (another frequent haunt of mine, I went to a coffee tasting there today) with 3 locations,
Analog with 5 locations,
Rosso with 7 locations and
Phil & Sebastian's with 5 locations of their own as well. There's also Calgary based
Good Earth which is a little older and larger than the rest and has now expanded across western Canada. Add to that a bunch of cool stand alone joints like
Philosafy,
Trieste or
Purple Perk, I'm sure among many others and I think you've got yourself a pretty thriving scene. I'm also gonna throw a big shout out to some personal friends of mine at
Big Mountain Coffee Roasters. They had a cafe in the Brewsters building down on 8th Ave and 10th street SW and a kiosk at the Crossroads Farmer's once upon a time, but they've since moved on to full time coffee roasting and they've been doing a hell of a job for nearly 15 years now. Their stuff is the only kind we keep at home. You can find it around town or order online. Take a pass on pipeline hating BC based Kicking Horse in favour strong and free Big Mountain instead!
So next time your right hand goes for the Starbucks card, make sure your left is ready to give it a good smack. You shouldn't need to buy the slop foisted on you by a bunch of lazy out-of-towners when you can get the best that Calgary's passionate entrepreneurs have to offer.
