[Gronk!]

Food Notes for December 2, 2024

Trio aims to be a ‘catalyst’ in Chinatown with Boa and HareWinnie Chen’s next restaurant foray brings her even closer to her roots, and she hopes it can add to the positive momentum of change…

onlyhereforthefood.ca

Openings

• The family behind Nara Chicken and Tonkatsu has opened Nara Katsu, its second location in the former NongBu space in Old Strathcona at 8115 104 Street. NongBu owner John Ahn had teased that a Korean family would take over the space, but didn’t reveal the name at the time.
• Fox Burger opened its newest location in Westmount last week at 11003 124 Street. It is the third restaurant in the Edmonton area, joining locations in Highlands and Leduc.
• Three Amigos has opened a sister restaurant, Taqueria El Chingon in the former Waffle Bird space in Old Strathcona, at 8116 101 Street.
• New Korean restaurant Chacha’s Rabokki is now open at 10117 100A Street.
• Southbound Brewing opened up in the fall at 9943 69 Avenue, by Sue Kiernan, the proprietor of Empress Ale House which closed back in 2020. It was featured in Jason’s Foster’s latest segment on CBC Radioactive.
• A new cocktail bar called Golden Sparrow is coming soon to 10704 124 Street, the former Northern Chicken space.
• A century-old store just north of Edmonton, Johnny’s Namao, re-opened on November 28 after closing its doors back in 2018. It has been refreshed by the fourth generation members of the family and now stocked with items from local vendors and house-brewed beer.
• I missed the opening of rolled ice cream shop Rock N Roll Ice Cream back in September on the edge of Chinatown, at 10109 108 Avenue.
• Edmonton’s first Krispy Kreme opens on December 10, to be located at 4614 Gateway Blvd.

 

[Kosy123]

Nara Chicken and Tonkatsu is beyond excellent, highly recommend them and am happy to see them expanding!

 

[Gus Haynes]

Goodbye Filistix. They will be closing their downtown restaurant on December 31st. (But will maintain their university campus locations.)

 

[IanO]

Another one bits the WFH dust.

clap clap clap

 

[Gus Haynes]

^I'm quite sure it's a bit more multifaceted than that. Inflation and slower consumer spending have killed, and are killing, plenty of restaurants.

 

[bodsbods9090]

^I'm quite sure it's a bit more multifaceted than that. Inflation and slower consumer spending have killed, and are killing, plenty of restaurants.

Yup.

In my small sample size of people I work with and friends (30 people), lots of people are choosing NOT to dine out anymore due to prices.

 

[IanO]

Sure, but reducing your daily potential customer base by 20-30-50% is a very real impact and it's not just them.

 

[Gronk!]

 

[IanO]

Hit up https://okinawaonigiri.ca/ yesterday for lunch. Spam forward menu and absolutely delicious. Be sure to get the takoyaki.

 

[kylep84]

I live upstairs and go there way to much haha.

 

[IanO]

The staff there are honestly amazing folks and the food fantastic, so I can see why. I'd love to see 2-3 more options though... and given their egg skills, perhaps okonomoyaki or katsudon.

 

[kylep84]

They do have specials quite often, from the top of my head they had duck one time and pretty recently they had bulgogi. I have heard that more options will be in the works too so that's cool.

 

[bodsbods9090]

Sure, but reducing your daily potential customer base by 20-30-50% is a very real impact and it's not just them.

Of course but how many of those people would go out for lunch every day? Not as many as used I'd have to imagine.

No proof, just me speculating, again, due to rising food prices.

 

[IanO]

Honestly, if anything, I eat out more and buy less groceries given their prices. I recognize that I am not feeding a family of 4, but many places have far more value conscious options to try and bring people back.

 

[Munanyo]

How have I never heard of Okinawa Onigiri until now? The food looks delicious and the prices are super reasonable.

I will be checking this place out for lunch soon!