| I wonder whether the maturity of the River Café has caused people to forget about it? The restaurant, located in the middle of Prince’s Island Park (phone 261-7670) remains busy, but it’s much harder to get a reservation at, say, Catch or Teatro or the Belvedere, than it is at the River. Why is this? The place is dedicated to western Canadian cooking, and does this as well as anyone.
Some stock answers:
"The food is too weird" – The menu used to be very complicated, but it’s now remarkably simple yet still inventive.
"It’s a hassle to get to" – I guess if a five-minute walk in the park from Eau Claire is a hassle, you shouldn’t really go.
"It’s too expensive" – It’s an expensive restaurant, but no more so than other top-notch restaurants in town.
In fact, I think the River Café probably represents the best, purest evocation of western Canadian food and a western Canadian ethos that I’ve experienced in a restaurant. It’s overcome the unevenness of the past, and it’s now a great – and possibly Calgary’s best – place to eat out.
This success is due to the vision of two people: Sal Howell, the effusive and demanding proprietor, and Glen Manzer, the chef, who is back in the kitchen after an illness. Manzer has returned with a new menu focused on simple (but perfect) technique and the best ingredients.
Some of the previous successes remain, including my favourite, the smoked fish and game platter ($31, for three or four to share) containing an array of house-cured and smoked stuff you can’t get anywhere else, such as native candied salmon, tea smoked duck (which I think had been smoked in Lapsang souchong tea when I tried it during a recent visit, that’s how intense the smoky flavour was), creamy venison pâté, wild trout gravlax and buffalo pepperoni. With a glass of Pinot Noir, this is a fabulous way to whet your appetite. There isn’t a ton of food on the platter, but the flavours are incredibly intense.
There’s also a creamy Taber-corn bisque ($11), which, in homage to the northeastern U.S., has a lump of Dungeness crab salad in the middle. This cooks as you eat the soup, so you can experience the texture and flavour change. The mussels ($13) I ordered had a cattail heart (like an artichoke heart) with some leeks and preserved lemons; they were tiny and intensely flavoured, and the best ones I’ve had outside the Mediterranean. For the less adventurous diners in the crowd, there’s a chicken chorizo flatbread with aged cheddar ($15), otherwise known as an Italian-style pizza, cooked in the wood-fired oven.
But I always seem to order the special, as it’s invariably offbeat and wonderful. If you’re there and they have the lamb sirloin ($36), order it. It’s as succulent and well-prepared a piece of meat as I’ve ever had, perfectly seasoned and tender. Cooking lamb like this takes real skill – you can turn it into old shoes in a heartbeat. Equally beautiful was the seared sablefish ($34) from Vancouver Island, which was rich and intense, but retained a beautifully light texture, coming with Asian-themed accompaniments of soba noodles and braised shiitake mushrooms.
And, in addition to the above, there’s a dessert on the list which is fantastic and appeals to my Prairie heart: the carrot-cake trifle, which comes in a small conical bowl with a little bit of butternut-squash mousse and brandied oranges. The contrast of the richness of the cake with the acidity of the oranges is intoxicating ($8).
The River Café has also introduced a new policy that I’m glad to publicize widely: there is no corkage fee on Sundays. So you can bring your own bottle and save a little dough.
I feel as though I’ve rediscovered the River Café and how damn good it is. Go and go often. |
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