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Food Roundup
Sept. 1, 2026

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Dance floors head outdoors before the snow roars

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The final patio parties of the summer are coming up, with options north and south of the river on Sept. 6. Red Star at 10534 Jasper Avenue NW will be serving chef Lili Millan's tacos, and Blair Junior and Mr. Kou will be spinning tunes, for the last installation of the Soul Garden party series. Or head to Whyte Avenue for The Black Dog Freehouse's Queer Dance Party — the bar typically hosts the event on the night before most statutory holidays, and Labour Day is no exception.

Odd Company Brewing will host its final Odd Night Out of the season at its Ritchie location on Sept. 12, promising 12 DJs in the lineup and fresh pours all night. If you want some beer but aren't so keen on four-on-the-floor, head a few blocks north that day to Blind Enthusiasm for Barrel Fest, the fourth annual event celebrating barrel-aged and barrel-fermented beer.

And there are still three chances to catch a Friday Grand Night Market, which offers food trucks and ready-to-eat options alongside live entertainment. Sept. 11's rendition will take place on 76 Avenue; Sept. 18's will take place at Frank's Community Pub; and Sept. 25's will be on Happy Beer Street at the Seventy Gr8 Ave entertainment district. The final installment of the weekly Summer Block Party series in the Rice Howard Way entertainment district takes place on Sept. 19, with a focus on country and folk music. Entertainment districts are closed to vehicles and allow patrons to consume food and beverages from adjacent restaurants in the street.

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Openings

  • Bazaar, a Ukrainian and Eastern European street food restaurant, has opened at Station Park at 8115 Gateway Boulevard NW. Owner Stanislav Shalniev, a Ukrainian newcomer who fled Russia's invasion, built the restaurant to bring familiar flavours — including borshch, Ukrainian-style shawarma, and bazaar-style hot dogs — to Edmonton. The entire staff consists of Ukrainians who relocated to Canada after the invasion began.
  • Pebre & Co., serving Chilean empanadas, has also opened at Station Park.
  • Taste of Hakka and Thakali Kitchen & Bar has opened at 9563 118 Avenue NW, bringing Hakka, Thakali, and broader Himalayan and South Asian dishes to the Alberta Avenue neighbourhood. Owner Rabindra "Ravi" Phuyal, who trained in hotel management in Nepal and previously managed a Ricky's All Day Grill, offers a menu with all-halal proteins.
  • Quiet Cafe has opened at 16731 84 Street NW, transforming the former Ark Cafe space with new art, natural details, and photographable corners. The new owners are expanding the menu with additional coffee, tea, and custom cakes.
  • Lazzarone Pizza is now open at 10358 82 Avenue NW.
  • Cafe Seoul Grove is a new forest-themed Korean café in the Wyndham Edmonton Hotel at 4440 Gateway Boulevard NW. It offers bingsu, specialty coffees, Korean dishes, board games, and private karaoke rooms.
  • Whtrabit, a new coffee and sandwich spot, opened recently at 14574 116 Avenue NW.
  • SimplyChops, a Nigerian chain now open at 9671 102A Avenue NW, offers suya-style street food and West African flavours to the downtown core.
  • Splattr Noodle Bar will open on Sept. 2 at Takam Market inside the Robbins Health Learning Centre at MacEwan University.
  • Par & Pour, a "social hub" featuring golf simulators and an Italian restaurant, will open this month at 9884 47 Avenue NW. It's a partnership between Royal Developments and Golden Sparrow.

Closings

Headlines

  • Arcadia Brewing posted reflections on a tough summer for businesses and customers alike. In an effort to ease the pain, it's reducing its pint prices by $1. "One thing that really stuck out to us was that a lot of the conversations were about why people need to support local businesses, rather than why they aren't," the post reads. "It doesn't take too many conversations to realize that it's gotten really expensive to go out these days, let alone support local small businesses."
  • Simply Supper's Lemonade Stand Day had more than 700 stands staffed by young participants raising funds for the Stollery Children's Hospital on Aug. 30. Now in its 13th year, the fundraiser has grown from just 30 stands in 2014. The amount raised will be announced on Sept. 19.
  • Chef Paul Shufelt, the proprietor of many an Edmonton eatery, shared a recipe for beet salad with The Tomato. Inspired by the version served at his Hayloft Steak & Fish, the dish features compressed beets, pickled onions, goat cheese, arugula, and candied pecans with a citrus vinaigrette.
  • Danny Koenig and his son Justin have been running the Alberta Beef Jerky Boy roadside stand just east of Sherwood Park for more than 20 years. What started as a side hustle has become a community institution, with coolers full of Alberta beef jerky, steaks, cheese, and baked goods selling out most Saturdays. "The community out here has been so good to us," Koenig told CTV.
  • The Citadel Theatre is inviting proposals for a cafe operator on its main floor (recently vacated by Ghostlight). Proposals are due by Sept. 14.
  • Juanita Gnanapragasam, co-owner of Converse and Cook, explored how the perogy became a defining part of Edmonton's food culture on CBC's Edmonton AM.
  • Nomiya has rebranded to Nom, and will be serving up fresh handmade udon.
  • Food Banks Alberta and its 112 members are calling for corporate donations of food and money as they face disastrous shortages. The goal is to restock the provincial warehouse that distributes food across the province. In 2025, the warehouse shipped 33.6 million pounds of food, of which 90% was sent in the first half of the year. The organization also notes its August 2026 output was 32.8% higher than the same month last year.
  • Richard Ozero of Parkland County's Good Morning Honey said Alberta honey is among the products hit by new U.S. tariffs after Canada-U.S. trade talks broke down. A 50% tariff now applies to about $6 million worth of Alberta honey exported annually to the U.S. "The Canadian honey has to go somewhere," Ozero told CTV News Edmonton. "If it's backed up back into Canada, now we're facing a glut of honey here, and that's going to suppress prices if we can't find other international buyers or encourage Canadian honey consumption."
  • Loblaw reversed its decision to drop country-of-origin labelling on produce signs in most provinces after customer backlash, citing Canada's renewed trade uncertainty with the United States. University of Alberta agricultural economist Ellen Goddard had predicted the reversal, saying the grocer likely felt it had "picked the wrong time to pull the labelling."
  • The new 50% U.S. tariff on Canadian liquor is forcing Alberta alcohol producers to abandon or scale back their U.S. operations. Geoff Stewart, owner and president of Rig Hand Distillery in Nisku, discussed the impact with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
  • New consumer research from IWSR shows Gen Z adults are drinking nearly as much as the rest of the adult population, with 74% now reporting they drink alcohol — up from 66% three years ago. Kirk Zembal, co-founder of Blindman Brewing, told CBC he's seen a similar resurgence locally, attributing it partly to young adults seeking in-person social connection.
  • The federal government has renewed $50 million in funding for the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network, an Edmonton-based not-for-profit that supports agri-food automation and innovation research. Over the past six years, CAAIN has committed more than $42 million to 56 projects with a combined value exceeding $133 million; new programming will launch this fall.

Happenings

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

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

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

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