Purple Perk

I walk by this place everyday on the way to work, so on Friday I thought I'd stop in. I had thought it was a coffee shop, but not really

The Purple Perk is a sort of sandwich cafe & coffee house. It's pretty difficult to pin down exactly what it is, but it is good. They sell a variety of hand made panini's, sandwiches and salads. I had an artichoke & tuna panini & a roasted veggie & cheese panini. They're excellent & I went back on Saturday for more. They do sell coffee & their own version of a frappichino, but it's only so so, and I never thought it was worth the 4 bucks.

Inside there are about 30 seats, but the majority of people s eem to want to sit outside on the street & watch the world walk by. The staff is pretty cool & laid back, so you don't get that ooey formal feeling when you go in there. All in all, it's a good sandwich shop and 20 bucks feeds 2 people (with drinks)

Tip. Go early, or you'll find they have no food left.

The bathroom doors are kinda wierd too. They remind me of a entrance to a private investigatiors office in the movies.

New direction

Well, seeing I can't write much more about moving here, I've decided I'll make this blog into a sort of arts, entertainment & music blog for Calgary. And maybe some dull politics too. Why should everything be so interesting?

Koyro

A few days a week I stop at Koyro for lunch. It's in the +15, somewhere near 5th and 5th in the food court.

It's a Korean BBQ outlet and it's damn good. I've never much had Korean food until I came to Calgary......and it's really good. 7 bucks gets you a full plate of food, two veggies, two scopes of rice and two types of meat or 1 type of meat and dumplings. For a fast food place, the food is freaking AWESOME & worth every penny. I don't know if there are other places like this around town, but I'm sure it must be a franchise.

Le Chien Chaud

I hope I spelled the title correctly. This is a hot dog joint on 4th Street around 23rd Ave. Stopped by today walking home to eat just out of curiosity

Call it an upscale hot dog joint, it's pretty decent. I walked in to hear the guy working there listening to CKUA, the local public broadcaster which surprised me. There are about 10 choices for Hot Dogs, all of them 5 bucks. U get options like The Canadian, Greek, German, etc, all of them decked out with what you'd expect on a hot dog.

I'm not a huge fan of hot dogs, but I have to admit this place isn't bad, tho 5 bucks seems step.

Liberals win

Calgary's growth is changing it as a city. Earlier this week, we had an by-election, and in Calgary-Elbow the Alberta Conservatives lost. It was Ralph Kleins former seat.

There is alot of talk about what happened. The government of Alberta has ignored Calgary for the most part and really pissed off it's citizens. The transit system is overloaded, roads are bad, schools falling down & all of this in the richest city in Canada.

But I can't help wonder if the growth of Calgary and the huge influx of outsiders are the real reason for the change. Few cities in Canada vote in Conservative governments. That's likely due to the complexity of a city, the different cultures & income groups that live in a city. Calgary's reached that stage now so I think you'll see more changes coming. It may very well be the beginning of the end for the Conservative dynasty.

Superstore

If you are moving here, I recommend you go to Superstore to shop. It's alot cheaper than Safeway or Co-op. There are a few downfalls........

1. The stores are huge. It'll take 90 minutes to do your shopping. You'll walk what feels like 10 kms

2. If you forget something, it's a long walk back to find it. Plan accordingly.

3. The stores are few and far between. I tried the one in Deerfoot Meadows. It's new, clean, & nice, but it's a long drive and a hell of a bus ride if you're car less.

4. You have to buy bags. I might suggest the plastic bins you can buy for 3.99 and reuse. No more bags at all. They also sell a reusable cloth bag

5. You need a dollar coin to get a cart. This is THE most annoying thing about stores out here.

The Caroma Toilet

Calgary is a city with a water shortage. It gets it's water from the mountains, so when the ice all melts, well....it's not so good.

My condo has a Caroma toilet. It's this expensive, but interesting concept of a toilet. If you take a piss, you press one button to flush and it only uses a litre of water. If you take a dump, well...you press the other button. It also is much quieter and faster than a typical toilet.

Groceries:

Been shopping at Safeway. The key to shopping at Safeway is the "Safeway Club Card". If you watch the prices carefully, this card saves you money, sometimes alot of it. Salmon was 14.99 for a package for non club members, 8 bucks for club members. It's not likely to save you that much, but...will save you 15 to 25% on specific goods.

Safeway is a decent store but would not be my first choice. The stores are small (a good thing) and they're everywhere but you pay a lot. I suspect they aren't in Ontario because they couldn't compete. Safeway costs substantially more than even Sobeys.

They do have decent fruits and veggies ,but you'll pay for them. A can of orange juice concentrate will run you $2.50. I've met a few people in line that are from Ontario and they're shocked at the high costs of food in this city.

Original Joe's

Just down the street from Nellie's in the Mission is Original Joe's. I had original thought this place might be a chain of some type as there are a few of them around town. It's apparently a very local chain and it's nothing like a Kelsey's or place like that

Joe's has a good patio which is small but busy and not directly on the main drag (4th). One great thing about this pub is that it sells a HUGE selection of local/western microbrewery beer. They have their own stuff on tap as well as about 20 others, including Yukon Beer. The beer is reasonably priced ( by Alberta standards)

Inside is pub like, a few big TV's, service is fast. It's the kinda place you could go alone and read a book and not feel outta place. It's also not the kind of pub that's home to a bunch of loud obnoxious dickheads (see Melrose Cafe for that).

I've eaten there 3 times, and the food is good. This Friday I had the nacho's and be warned, the full plate is HUGE. It's so big that it's meant for 4 people, not two and half of them were tossed out because we couldn't eat any more.

There is another Joe's in Marda Loop which is really decent, but I can't say I've been to the one in Kensington. Still, if you like Micro brews & a relaxed atmosphere, it's a good place. U can park on one of the side streets (usually).

Nellies in the Mission

This Saturday, I walked down to Nellies in the Mission. Nellies is a small cafe like restaurant that specializes in breakfast. They have several locations around the city including one in Marda Loop and one on 17th Ave.

Nellie's is somewhat legendary in Calgary. The food is pretty good, but I wouldn't say it's great. I enjoy breakfast at the Palomino more.

One annoying point about Nellie's is that the bacon/ham/sausage is extra. It's not included in the price, so you have to add it in for another 1.25 or something like that. That sorta pisses me off because breakfast IS about bacon and eggs, not just eggs and toast. I also find the potatoes they serve to be only so-so. I do like the bread, I tried both Sourdough and Whole Wheat. The whole wheat is thicker.

One thing about Nellie's is that it's always crowded. If you don't like crowds you won't like Nellie's AND....the seats are very close together. It's almost impossible to walk into the place and sit down if someone else is standing. If you feel wigged out being 3 feet from a stranger, my advice is to go somewhere else.

Not a bad place, but a bit cramped at times. The server is fast, you'll be served in 5 minutes max & you can drink coffee to your hearts content. The atmosphere is sort of homey, the kinda place you'd expect to find in a small town in rural Ontario. She's really put alot of effort into that.

Worth the trip and you'll pay about 7.50 to eat there. The bacon (like all Alta meat) is very good.

Moved

So I've fully relocated out of the suburban hell known as Douglasdale and will not be returning any time soon.

I'm now living in The Mission, which is the area around 4th Street in Calgary, between the Elbow River and 17th Ave. The area is nice, full of good pubs, grocery stores, good places to eat & everything is reachable on FOOT. The local bus that runs down 4th is Route 3, and runs all the time, every 5 minutes it seems. It's a good perk when it's raining or I'm too lazy to drive to work.

Storms

Calgary has a pretty good storm last night. I think it rained non stop for about 2 hours. The city came to a crawl and they closed some roads due to water (see the picture).

Today it is still raining. This is unusual for this place, where it's sunny most of the time. Standing, in the driving rain, waiting for the bus that passed 3 times cause of crowding sure does suck. It's also cold here when it rains, something it's not in South Ontario in June. Today's high, 10C. But, it beats 36C :?)