Calgary Openings, Closings, and Developments

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Shazam

If it can survive Eau Claire Market, it can survive BVS.

The garage is more puzzling than the king tut store. It’s like the pied pickle. How the hell did it stay in business so long. Need to change the name to “I’m having a buyout craphole”.

[Faust]

Sauce Italian Kitchen & Market is closing down this weekend. The owner posted an emotional video mentioning that her business partner passed away, and a local home builder / angel investor has left her high and dry with partial funding and unfinished renovations.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Faust

Sauce Italian Kitchen & Market is closing down this weekend. The owner posted an emotional video mentioning that her business partner passed away, and a local home builder / angel investor has left her high and dry with partial funding and unfinished renovations.

I wasn't a big fan of the restaurant but I liked the counter service for coffee, desserts and deli.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I wasn't a big fan of the restaurant but I liked the counter service for coffee, desserts and deli.

I live a couple blocks from there. Def didn’t care for the Ragu pasta but that is sad for sure. The deli was way cheaper than it should have been. Weirdly cheap for sliced meat.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by fotze2

The garage is more puzzling than the king tut store. It’s like the pied pickle. How the hell did it stay in business so long. Need to change the name to “I’m having a buyout craphole”.

Nothing is more puzzling than the King Tut store...overpriced kitschy garbage that nobody ever bought paying what must have been an outrageous amount of rent.

At least The Garage had pool tables and Beer so when your wife or family drag you for a walk around Prince's Island theres somewhere you can get a drink!

I have fond memories of The Garage. I met Anson Mount and Common there once and, way back in the day, thats where we'd take breaks and have dinner when I was working at the old downtown Greyhound Depot during Christmas.

[FurnaceFace]

Originally Posted by fotze2

I live a couple blocks from there. Def didn’t care for the Ragu pasta but that is sad for sure. The deli was way cheaper than it should have been. Weirdly cheap for sliced meat.

We are almost neighbours, I’m more like 4 blocks away.

We liked everything about the place, mostly the awesome Black Friday gift card sale. We’d at least monthly get takeaway pasta as this was a decent deal. It was probably our favourite restaurant in the area though I’ll admit it seemed to be a little less good recently. We were there on Saturday with friends for a final dinner.

Hopefully something good takes over that space, and hopefully that developer eventually gets what’s coming to him.

[calgarygeologist]

Does anyone know what the new Heliopolis Social Club is across the corner from the Palliser Hotel? I can't find anything online about it and the only thing I tracked down is some blog post from an artist who is apparently playing there in June? I'm not sure if the place is open yet? I'm always looking for a new place to grab some drinks especially if they make good cocktails.

If you know anything about this place please share.

[HitterD]

Originally Posted by Faust

Sauce Italian Kitchen & Market is closing down this weekend. The owner posted an emotional video mentioning that her business partner passed away, and a local home builder / angel investor has left her high and dry with partial funding and unfinished renovations.

Dang they were in the process of opening a location in Legacy (Township shopping centre). I'll assume that location is likely going bust as well.

[FurnaceFace]

It sounded like from our waiter on Saturday that Legacy was still going to open.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

It won't be open in mid June from what I've heard. It sounds like they might not even be ready to open for the Stampede.

Looks like The Garage opened the other day. I haven't been inside to see if all the construction is done but the signs outside the door say that people are welcome to come inside. The plywood walls are still up on the outside though.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Looks like The Garage opened the other day. I haven't been inside to see if all the construction is done but the signs outside the door say that people are welcome to come inside. The plywood walls are still up on the outside though.

Was there today. Looks good. They finally opened up the space so it’s not just a dark ####ty bar. I didn’t eat so can’t comment on food. But there were 10 pool tables. I think it will hold on longer than other iterations in that spot…

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Was there today. Looks good. They finally opened up the space so it’s not just a dark ####ty bar. I didn’t eat so can’t comment on food. But there were 10 pool tables. I think it will hold on longer than other iterations in that spot…

Went to a party there yesterday. But went to Eau Clair first like an idiot.

[flamingchina]

In related news, Ol' Beautiful burnt down last night
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...overnight-fire

[ZedMan]

Terrible news. Good thing they have their offsite facility but hopefully they'll be able to rebuild the taproom, I really liked that place.

[darockwilder]

That is awful!

[Muta]

This is terrible news. Ol' Beautiful was great, their Okami Kasu is one of the best local brews to come out of YYC.

[Lubicon]

Adrenaline Source for Sports just opened in the Northland Village mall redevelopment (kitty corner from Best Buy). Great option for hockey and other sports equipment if you are in the NW.

[calgarygeologist]

Another downtown office conversion has started and I saw the new tenant sign yesterday while leaving downtown:

A number of projects are underway to convert vacant office space into residential units, but one conversion project will focus on a hotel. Element Hotel by Westin is the first hospitality project under the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program and work has begun in converting the Canadian Centre at 833 – 4 Ave. S.W. into 226 much-needed hotel suites.

https://calgaryherald.com/business/l...t-hotel-westin

[Sr. Mints]

~25 years lates with this comment, and this isn't really a gear grinder, but an observation.

The parkade entrance at the 16th Ave. Home Depot is in the absolute dumbest spot. I don't know if there's a specific reason it had to be right in the middle of everything, or if a more efficient layout is even possible, but it's really limiting. Plus the entrance to the Home Depot and then the parkade are a mess, especially when 2/3 of the parkade is filled with pallets of stuff, a "gardening centre" takes up 1/4 of the parking spaces at ground level, and it's like every 45 minutes a moron shows up on a set schedule to impede the flow of traffic just for fun.

I don't remember when they were building it how it went down. The Highlander Hotel was dozed, but the Highlander liquor store was still there for a few years afterwards? Did they excavate the parkade first?

I do remember the Habitat for Humanity townhouses on the north side of the property went in a few years afterwards.. I don't think the parkade extends beneath them.

[timun]

That is indeed a fustercluck ####-show. I think part of the planning there was a presumption that the parkade would see a lot more use than it does. Anecdotally it's funny (strange, not ha-ha) how many people I've talked to about that store who don't even know it has a parkade. Once I start describing, "Okay, so y'know there's an entrance from 17th Street, right? If you turn left into the Home Depot parking lot..."

"OH! Yeah, there is a ramp there, isn't there? I thought that was a loading dock or for staff or something."

"*facepalm*"

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

I don't remember when they were building it how it went down. The Highlander Hotel was dozed, but the Highlander liquor store was still there for a few years afterwards? Did they excavate the parkade first?

I do remember the Habitat for Humanity townhouses on the north side of the property went in a few years afterwards.. I don't think the parkade extends beneath them.

FYI to answer these burning questions the City maintains an online repository of aerial imagery going back to the mid-1920s. https://maps.calgary.ca/calgaryimagery/

If you go to the site on 16th Ave, you can see how:

• it started off as empty fields until the 1953 image, where there were houses on the north side of the block along 17th Ave.
• The hotel went up in the late-'50s/early-'60s, and shows up in the 1962 image.
• By '66 three of the houses on 17th had already been bulldozed to add more parking for the hotel,
• by 1972 another couple houses were gone, and,
• by 1975 they'd taken over the entire block save three houses at the corner of 17th and 17th.
• By 1979 those three houses had been bulldozed too, and in the 1982 image it was paved over parking lot.
• The liquor store building at the corner of 16th and 19th Street didn't get built until the late-'80s/early-'90s, and shows up for the first time on the 1995 imagery.
• By 2004 the hotel and liquor store were demolished and the Home Depot quickly went up in their place.
• You can compare the 2003 and 2005 images to see that the parkade doesn't extend under the townhouses ( ), and,
• They were done by 2007, only a couple years after the Home Depot opened.