The Pulse: May 3, 2022

The folks behind a new bar and restaurant called Fu's Repair Shop hope it can showcase Chinese culture in a different way.

Since opening in early April in the former Prairie Fish and Chips space, partner and head chef Winnie Tsing Chen says the response from guests has been overwhelmingly positive. "I think Edmonton has been needing a place like this for a very long time now, and we are so glad to be able to provide it," Chen told Taproot.

Fu's is a project spearheaded by Chen and four individuals who co-own The Common and 9910, which includes Justin Der, who separately also owns the clothing store Foosh. The establishment's name, which obscures the fact that food or drink will be served, is deliberate and is connected to some of Der's family heirlooms.

"Who is Fu? It's a mystery just like our repair shop exterior," said Chen. "'Fu' is also a double nod to the Cantonese word for fortune or good luck. A framed swatch of the character hangs on Justin's family wall, saved from the baby carrier used for Justin's dad 70 years ago."

Fu's seems to be joining a national trend of hip, Asian-inspired restaurants that have popped up in other cities across Canada over the past decade, such as DaiLo in Toronto, and more recently, Gwailo in Calgary. But for Chen, the impetus for Fu's was much simpler.

"The inspiration behind Fu's was just wanting to open a fun place ... that serves fun, delicious food that we want to eat and cook, serves drinks that we want to make and drink, in a place where we would want to hang out," said Chen. "We love dim sum and Chinese food, and we wanted it for more than just brunch."

The food menu will be familiar to those who have frequented dim sum restaurants, including dumplings, rice rolls, and lotus-wrapped sticky rice, but it also features some more fusion-style dishes, such as five-spice duck tacos and green onion cake panzanella salad (as a fun aside, the food items are all priced to end with .88; the number eight is considered lucky in Chinese culture).

Chen shared that the menu is both a practical compilation but also an homage to what she has enjoyed eating over the years. "The dim sum is basically a 'greatest hits' of our combined favourites, keeping in mind what is achievable given our budget, kitchen size, team, and equipment availability. And the rest of the menu is things I was inspired by during our mini food trip to Vancouver back in January, some personal favourites, and other delicious dishes from some personal travels from when I was young."

One of Chen's family recipes also made the cut. "My proudest dish has to be Mr. Chen's beef noodle bowl, just because it is my dad's personal beef and soup recipe," said Chen. "My family used to have a noodle shop in Chinatown when I was younger and that was my favourite dish that my dad would make. I'm really happy to be able to bring it back. It also makes me really happy to see him smile when I get to tell him about how we've sold out of soup on a particular day."

• The city announced it is rolling out new mobile public washrooms this week in high-traffic areas — including parks, business districts, and outdoor event spaces — as part of its Public Washrooms Strategy. The units will be open from 10am to 9pm, and some locations will have water bottle filling stations. On May 2, Edmonton Transit Service also reopened 10 of the 18 LRT and transit centre washrooms that council voted to close in February, a move that was criticized by riders and addictions advocates. City spokesperson Trevor Dennehy says the reopened washrooms will have sharps containers and enhanced cleaning hours and security guards have been supplied with Naloxone.
• The city has begun its three-week engagement process for Warehouse Park, a proposed 1.47-hectare "urban oasis" stretching from 106 Street to 108 Street and from Jasper Avenue to 102 Avenue. In a release, the city said the project will also include new open spaces, a public washroom facility, and the renewal of streets and alleys adjacent to the park. Right now the area is mostly parking lots, which the city has been buying since the idea first arose in 2017, Global News reports. Edmontonians can share their thoughts on design options through an online survey or by attending an online Q&A on May 10.
• The Alberta government has hired the consultancy Norrie and Co. to help explore the creation of an independent agency to handle complaints about police. The move is part of the government's ongoing review of the three-decade-old Police Act, which began in 2018. Justice Minister Tyler Shandro says the agency would lead the way in "modernizing police governing" across Canada, where most police services investigate themselves. The government has not disclosed further details, but criminologist Temitope Oriola advocates for a civilian-led body and a public database of all disciplinary actions taken against sworn officers, a model that provides effective independent oversight at top-performing police services around the world, he told CBC.
• Five Edmontonians have come home after spending 20 days helping displaced Ukrainians on the Poland-Ukraine border. Pawel Turczyk, Nestor Turczyk, Daniel Sousa, Tim Sousa, and James Sousa raised more than $86,000, which they spent on delivering supplies and transporting people further into the country and to Germany. "The conversation needs to keep going. The awareness needs to keep up. That's everyone's job," said one member of the group, which plans to continue fundraising to support their new contacts in Poland.
• St. Martin Catholic School, a Ukrainian bilingual school in south Edmonton, has welcomed 32 Ukrainian students who escaped the war, some of whom were sponsored by their families and others by parents who don't have family in Ukraine. Principal Angela Zapisocki says the school's cultural and linguistic familiarity make it a "natural destination" for some newcomers experiencing anxiety and trauma. The majority of the 70,000 displaced Ukrainians who received temporary resident status in Canada so far are women and children.
• Playoff fever has hit Edmonton, and Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl assured the public that "(it's) gonna be loud, it's gonna be rowdy." The game against the L.A. Kings on Monday was the Oilers' first postseason tilt before a full house at Rogers Place since 2017. While downtown businesses are expecting a boom while the Oilers are in the playoffs, economist Moshe Lander said he wouldn't expect a net increase in economic activity, at least not in the first round.
• More than 1,000 Edmontonians gathered in Callingwood Park on Monday to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. After morning prayers, festivities took off with food trucks, a bouncy castle, and family activities. "It feels great that the community is getting back together after two years of pandemic, after two years of isolation," Imam Mahmoud Ibrahim of Rahma Mosque told Postmedia.
• Puneeta McBryan, executive director of the Downtown Business Association, appeared on the In Development podcast from the Infill Development in Edmonton Association to discuss current and future steps in activating Edmonton's downtown.

Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) is investing more than $17 million to support 11 companies and three service providers in Edmonton's innovation community.

The recipients of the largest sums are PBG BioPharma, which will receive $5.39 million to increase its biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, and AltaML, which will receive $2.58 million to scale up its business development and marketing capacity.

RWI Synthetics will receive $900,000 to adapt its artificial intelligence-enabled synthetic modelling platform to "better support clean energy transition modelling" and for marketing to increase sales. Co-founder and CEO Myrna Bittner said the funding would help her company "accelerate transformative and convergent futures in energy, mobility and resilience."

Other businesses to get funding are Dryrun, EC Labs, Landmark Group of Companies, RJ MacLean Inc., Sidekick, Smart Access, Sparrow Connected, and The Organic Box.

Innovate Edmonton will receive $779,310 to develop a procurement model for small and medium-sized businesses to test their technologies with the City of Edmonton. CEO Catherine Warren said the project — dubbed "Capital City Pilots" — will provide companies with "a flagship municipal client to showcase on the international stage." This is in addition to the $490,625 the organization received to create an Innovation Gallery as part of a separate PrairiesCan announcement on community-led infrastructure.

NAIT will receive $1.39 million to develop a standalone 5G network for product testing, and Startup TNT will receive $780,000 to support its investment summits.

The federal government said it expects the investment to create 882 jobs.

Photo: Myrna Bittner of RWI Synthetics, flanked by Daniel Vandal, minister for PrairiesCan, and Randy Boissonnault, minister of tourism and associate minister of finance, after the funding announcement on April 29. (LinkedIn)