Food Roundup
July 21, 2026

Openings

• Indian restaurant and bar Sangam Social is now open in Sherwood Park at #42, 975 Broadmoor Blvd.
• Vietnamese fusion bakery and cafe Heo Bake is now open at 9407 98 Avenue NW.
• Brewco opened last month on Bourbon Street at West Edmonton Mall.
• Dickey's Barbecue Pit is now open in the Phase 1 food court at West Edmonton Mall. It is the chain's fourth location in Edmonton.
• Rosie's Burgers in the Brewery District has delayed its opening by a week to Aug. 1. The restaurant still plans to give away 100 burgers on opening day.
• Splitsville Entertainment is opening a third Edmonton location at Manning Town Centre in fall 2027, with nearly 30,000 sq. ft. of space featuring 24 bowling lanes, an arcade, and food and drink options.
• Jerusalem Shawarma is adding its sixth Edmonton location at 13204 137 Avenue NW.
• Sea Change Brewing Co. has opened the Skelly Club in downtown Calgary. The location is a taproom, brewery, and food service hybrid, offering Flat Boy Burgers alongside its beers and Shiddy's products. This is the fourth location from the Sea Change/Shiddy's owners and the first outside the Edmonton region.

Closings

• GRETA Bar is closing its downtown location on July 26 after nearly seven years. The arcade bar near MacEwan University and NorQuest College cited the "ongoing challenges" of operating in downtown Edmonton, as several others have done recently. Owner Chris DeCock wrote that he believes Edmonton "has lost its focus" and suggested a series of decisions have eroded investor confidence. The chain still has locations in Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto, with one in Winnipeg on the horizon.
• Bündok has closed after nearly 10 years at 10228 104 Street NW. "Running a restaurant is tough at the best of times and as things have continued to mount up against us, we've decided the best thing to do is move on," the owners posted. "We encourage everyone to continue to go out and dine at your local establishments as challenges continue to mount for many small businesses."
• Modern Ukrainian restaurant Zymo has closed after less than a year in business at 10166 100A Street NW.

Headlines

• Zyra Premium Vodka founder Courtney Remekie has used his tech-marketing knowledge to get his vodka brand into such venues as Fan Park and the Edmonton Convention Centre within a year of launching. "The biggest thing is if you can find the decision-maker," he told Taproot. The unflavoured, root beer, and pineapple-coconut vodkas he produces at Hansen Distillery and The Fort Distillery will be available during an event at Enigma Bar & Kitchen near Whyte Avenue on July 25.
• Sahil and Khushpreet Kapoor have been accepted into a federally funded Labs4 commercialization program to develop D-Spice, a powder that reduces the burning sensation of spicy food without altering its flavour. They will work with a food scientist at NAIT's Centre for Culinary Innovation this fall.
• Performance food brand 7 Summits Snacks has placed second in the Back the Next Canadian Startup Challenge through FrontFundr, earning a complimentary equity crowdfunding onboarding package valued at $5,500. Co-founder Kristyn Carriere signalled plans to launch a community investment round.
• Fuge Sausage has ended its weekly Fuge Friday hot lunch service, apparently a victim of the meat shop's success. "After running over 120 lunches and serving up over 5,000 meals, it's time for us to wrap it up," the company wrote. "Going forward our team will be 100% focused on keeping our amazing products in stock, helping you in the shop, and operating at the markets."
• Members of the family behind Ying Fat Foods told CBC Edmonton's Radio Active about what it's like to work with family to produce vast quantities of tofu and soy milk for restaurants across the city.
• KDays returned with more than 70 vendors in its Foodie Fairway, featuring new items such as butter chicken corndogs, Korean barbecue poutine, and a KDays-exclusive beer from North Central Co-op and Sea Change Brewing Co.. Daily Hive's Dished tried the new foods, rating Taco Nori's salmon taco the best of the new offerings and liquid nitrogen-coated cereal on ice cream the lowest.
• Station Park has ushered in a new set of vendors after an initial slate of Japanese food operators. This time, a variety of cuisines are represented, including Malaysian, Filipino, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian.
• Linda Hoang will lead art-and-food tours as part of the Edmonton Mural Festival on Aug. 19 in Old Strathcona, Aug. 30 along 124 Street NW, and Sept. 3 around downtown.
• DON'YA Ukraine's Kitchen hosted 10 community events in the past two months downtown, including a sold-out Ivan Kupala-themed vase painting workshop. Co-owner Jorgia Lindquist said the events bring people into the downtown core while sharing Ukrainian cuisine and culture. "Often, downtown becomes much quieter later in the day, so we're happy to welcome people here," she told New Pathway Ukrainian News.
• Edmonton Oilers' play-by-play announcer Jack Michaels gave a shout-out to La Patrona in Sherwood Park as part of Edify's Summer Faves series. Its menu includes barbacoa tacos, tortilla soup, toast with beans, cheese, and salsa, plus a robust tequila list.
• The rooftop patio at Boxer has one of the best views of Edmonton, wrote Daily Hive. Located on the sixth floor of the Crawford Building in Old Strathcona, it offers panoramic views of downtown Edmonton.
• Alberta distillers such as Strathcona Spirits and Anohka Distillery told Postmedia that interprovincial trade barriers make it nearly impossible to sell their products in British Columbia or Ontario, where markups of 125% and 140% make Alberta craft spirits uncompetitive. "I think it's embarrassing that Canada, at a time when we are fighting tariffs to the south of us, have to worry about our friends from other provinces keeping interprovincial trade barriers in place," said Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally.
• The former Chinatown location of the Italian Bakery at 10644 97 Street NW is on the auction block with a minimum opening bid of $990,000, down from a previous listing of $2.3 million. The mixed-use building, which replaced the original after a 2016 arson fire, includes retail, office, and residential space.
• ATB Place, which is working to enhance tenant and visitor amenities, now offers a mobile farmers market every Tuesday and Thursday at the ground level parking lot.
• NAIT shared a summer essentials guide with tips from grads and staff on summer eating, including burger-grilling advice and a directory of craft breweries operated by alumni.
• University of Alberta researcher Alexa Ferdinands and co-authors Maira Quintanilha and Matt Ormandy have published a paper on incorporating communal cooking and baking into research with youth. The study with the Girl Guides of Canada produced rich data on youth food literacy that is largely missing from existing work, the paper found.
• Prairie Gardens has opened its strawberry u-pick daily from 10am to 6pm on a first-come, first-served basis, with additional access on Wednesdays and Saturdays after the initial pick.
• Doreen Prei shared picnic tips with CBC Edmonton's Radio Active, including bagging wet sandwich fillings to both avoid soggy bread and accommodate gluten-sensitive companions.
• Edify highlighted kohlrabi as a summer ingredient, featuring tips from Brandon Golby of Golby Family Farm in Barrhead County. He described the brassica-family vegetable as easy to grow and versatile to prepare raw, steamed, stir-fried, or stuffed.
• Premier Danielle Smith held the first Premier's Breakfast since the COVID-19 pandemic on the legislature grounds to kick off KDays on July 16. Security removed a protester who confronted Smith over her government's plan to build a $13-billion Meta AI data centre north of Edmonton. Smith hosted a second pancake breakfast the following day at the Edmonton EXPO Centre grounds with no reported incidents.
• Albertans pay the most per grocery purchase of any province studied in a new Koho report, averaging just over $50 per transaction — 18% more than in Ontario and 12% more than in British Columbia.
• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is not considering restrictions on U.S. fresh produce imports despite a cyclosporiasis outbreak that produced 1,645 lab-confirmed cases across 34 U.S. states as of July 13. Alberta has reported five cases this year, none linked to recent U.S. travel.

Happenings

Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:

• July 21: Beverly Towne Farmers' Market starting at 3pm at Riverview Crossing Mall
• July 21: The Public Farmers Market starting at 3:30pm at Ritchie Community Hall
• July 21: Building Flavour - Shrubs & Syrups starting at 6:15pm at Spilt
• July 22: Southwest Edmonton Farmers' Market starting at 3:30pm at Booster Juice Recreation Centre in Terwillegar
• July 22: Community Cooks: Cree/Métis Cuisine starting at 4:30pm at Elmwood Community League
• July 22: After Dark at Delavoye: A factory tour and dessert experience starting at 7:15pm at Delavoye Chocolate Maker
• July 23: Roots & Remedies: Tummy Troubles starting at 6pm at CTC Storytelling Centre
• July 25: Suya Fest - Rooftop Edition starting at 4:30pm at Citizen on Jasper
• July 25: Chinatown After Dark starting at 6pm at 10640 98 Street
• July 25-26: Butter and Biscuits at Rutherford House
• July 26: Le Grand Picnic starting at 4:30pm at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park
• July 27: Reading Between the Barcode Lines: Scanning for Surplus starting at 7pm at Magpie Books

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• Aug. 1-3: Edmonton Heritage Festival at William Hawrelak Park
• Aug. 7-16: Alberta on the Plate
• Aug. 15-16: Open Farm Days

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.

Taproot is taking a summer break! The Food Roundup will return on Aug. 11.