Fiasco Gelato Truck

The Calgary Food Truck revolution has hit the streets! There are currently 8 trucks on the streets and the first one that was on my list was Fiasco Gelato. The best way to find out where they are going to be serving their delicious gelato is to follow them on twitter @fiascogelato To see a list of all the food trucks visit the YYC Food Truck website. The first thing that I noticed was how friendly the staff was. We were the only customer at the time, but I got the feeling that these guys loved their job and their enthusiasm was nice. I had the bourbon french vanilla and mambi mango flavours. The mango was very good but it was also average. The french vanilla however was very good. I could tell by tasting as well as by looking at the gelato that they used fresh vanilla beans. The flavour was really good. The prices are a little bit expensive. I got a small for $4.50 which is pictured above. They also have a large for $6. You can get as many as three different flavours in one bowl which I appreciate because I usually have a hard time picking flavours.

My wife and I both think Amato gelato is better in quality but the service at Fiasco is WAY better. I would prefer Fiasco overall is the gelato is still very good.

The Big Cheese Poutinerie

Address: 738 - 17 Ave SW Calgary, AB T2S 0B7

Website: http://www.mybigcheese.com/

Hours of Operation: N/A

Intro: A restraint that specializes in poutine, YES PLEASE! It is located right next to Melrose bar on 17 ave. It is a small but quaint place with a bench outside to enjoy as well. I discovered this restraint from the Mayor of Calgary who tweeted about how good it was.

The Food:  They have their bases covered; they have the classic poutine dish as well as many twists and options. The menu is basically broken down by protein. You have your classic poutine which is fries, cheese and gravy, and then you have the option to add assortments of Chicken, Pork, Beef and Vegetarian. They also have a custom section where they list all the ingredients that they offer and you can make your own poutine flavour. I sampled the Notorious P.I.G which as you can imagine is all about pork. It has the basic poutine plus they add Carolina pulled pork, double smoked bacon and Italian sausage! Surprisingly it was not overwhelming. I still tasted like poutine but had a nice smoky flavour from the bacon and the combination of gravy and BBQ sauce from the pulled pork was very good. All dishes come in a small and large size. I would recommend always choosing the small as the large is lots of food especially if you are adding lots of protein. They offer pop and water as well as red bull. However they are really missing the mark by not getting licensed and selling beer.

The Price:  The price can range depending on what you order. I would classify it as moderate; with some menu options (especially the custom menu items) can be pricey. The cheapest small is the classic at 5.49 and the most expensive is 7.99 (there are several at this price).

The Service: The service is pretty good. The staff are friendly the food comes quickly and the place was clean. No uniform, as staff are allowed to wear what they want. I got the feeling that all the staff were having a good time and liked their job

Other Items of Note: They music they play is a wide assortment. I am pretty sure staff are allowed to play their IPods’. They have lots of condiments for free for the poutine’s.

Amato Gelato

Address: 2104 # 7 Kensington Road NW, Calgary, AB
Website: http://www.amatogelato.com/index.html
Hours of Operation: Forgot to capture them sorry!
Intro: This place won the best gelato in Calgary award in the 2011 FFWD magazine contest. I went to junior high right across the street. When I was in school the gelato shop was a Dairy Queen.
The Food:  I love gelato, and this place has really good gelato. The quality was really good. I had the caffe latte flavour and it had nice hints of expresso. There are 72 Flavours to choose from. You can enjoy the gelato in a cone or in a cup. They also have some take home options as well as they serve sorbet. They also have a lunch menu and serve Italian specialty coffees.
The Price:  It is a bit on the pricey side. For one scoop (which was enough for me) it was $3.50 in a bowl, $4 in a cone. For a double scoop it is $6.50 and $7.00 respectively
The Service: The service is what is holding this place back, the employee's seem to all hate their job, they don't smile. Also you need to pay before you can sample any flavours!
Other Items of Note: There is a patio outside for those nice summer days. Also there is a 25 cent charge to pay with credit/debit.

ChuckWagon Cafe

Address: 105 Sunset Blvd, Turner Valley, AB,

Website: http://www.chuckwagoncafe.ca/

Hours of Operation: Weekdays 8AM – 230PM, Weekends 8AM – 330PM

Intro: This burger won FFWD Magazines best burger in Calgary award, so I thought I would go check it out. When you first see the building outside, you get a pretty good idea of what the place is going to be about. It is a small very homey and has a home cooked meal feel to it.

The Food:  They serve the breakfast menu all day. I did like their menu it was pretty simple, once side is breakfast the other side is lunch. I am course settled on the house burger. It comes with mayo (I did not have any on my burger), romaine lettuce, tomatoes, a homemade relish which was very nice, mustard, pickles, cheese and bacon on a sesame bun. The flavour is really good, the burger is seasoned perfectly, the smokiness of the bacon is nice, and while there are lots of toppings I could taste each one and thought that they each added their own flavour. I usually don’t like toasted buns, but I thought that this was a burger that could have benefited from a toasted bun. While my bun did stay intact the whole way, it was soft and starting to get soggy at the end. I also ordered the fries, and they were good but nothing special. You can also get a salad or soup with the burger. While the burger was good, I wouldn’t say it was the best burger in Calgary.

The Price:  I would classify the burger as expensive, it is $10.95 and to add a side it is $1.50. Not unreasonable but not cheap either. The lunch menu seemed to be more expensive than the breakfast menu.

The Service: The service was average, our waitress was nice, and did come check on us a couple of times.

Other Items of Note: There is a patio outside for those nice summer days.

Cowtown Beef Shack

Name: Cowtown Beef Shack

Address: 5250 MacLeod Trail SW

Website: http://cowtownbeefshack.com/

Hours of Operation: Mon-Sun 11:00am to 8:00pm

Intro: Two of my friends have talked about this place on the past but I had given it a try yet. I was reminded about it again on Saturday, so I thought I would give it a try since I was going to be in the area. My friends were not wrong when they said blink and you will miss it. The shack is 8 by 12 feet. There is something kind of appealing about the concept of this restaurant. Do one thing and do it very well. This is not the place for a vegetarian, while there are some vegetables on the premise this is place all about meat, and that is not a bad thing. “Vegetables are what real food eats” is one of the quotes on the Cowtown Beef Shack website.

The Food:  The menu is based around the six sandwiches they offer; traditional southern smoked brisket, old fashioned smoked pulled pork, beef dip, Cowtown cheese steak, BBQ beef and beef and cheddar. They also offer a small variety of side which includes coleslaw and chips. On this particular day I was feeling like the brisket. When you order the brisket you have the option of BBQ sauce or no sauce as well as onions or no onions, I choose sauce and onions. The sandwiches only come in one size which a 8’ fresh French baguette. I was very excited after receiving my sandwich as it had a good weight to it. The sandwich is very good, good flavour, seasoned perfectly and the bread was real soft and French which I think is a key in this type of sandwich. The beef was so flavourful and was very tender. Having said that there were a couple of changes I would make to the sandwich. The first one is adding more sauce; the sandwich was a bit on the dry side. Next time I am going to try the beef dip so I will have my own dipping sauce. The next thing is not something I am sure that will work but I would want to experiment with; instead of raw onions that are diced, I would try sliced caramelized onions. The reason for this change is I found that the raw onions were too over powering; however I did like the nice texture contrast that they offered. I think the caramelized onions would fit the flavour profile better IMO. I did not try any sides; I will save that for next time.

The Price: All sandwiches are $8, the coleslaw is $1.50 as are chips and pop. There is also the option for additional meat $2 and additional cheese $1

The Service: The service was very good. The employee took the time to explain the sandwiches and the sauces as well. You could tell he was passionate about the product. The sandwiches were made pretty quickly. The employee did follow up once we had a couple of bites to ask what we thought. I always appreciate when restaurants do that.

Other Items of Note: They do accept debit and credit cards. There are two windows, one for walk up customers as well as one for drive thru customers. There is lots of parking if you are walking up, as well as 7 picnic tables for you to eat at outside. There is no dine in option.

Pimento's

Name: Pimento’s

Address: 911 General Avenue NE

Website: http://pimentos.ca/

Hours of Operation: Wednesday – Sunday 4PM- 10PM

Intro: Pimento’s is in its second location, owner and chef Mario used to have a location on 9th St and 5 Ave. He decided that he wanted to try his hand at a food truck. So he closed up his restaurant and was traveling around Calgary in a food truck. That was very successful but the customers kept telling him that they missed having a place where they knew they could go to get his food. So he is back with a restaurant in Bridgeland but he still has the food truck, in fact he has two!

One of my coworkers is of Italian decent. She and I often spend time talking about Italian food and restaurants. She knows that I really like authentic Italian Pizza. The best Pizza I have ever had in my life was in Naples. She emailed me on Tuesday to tell me that she had just visited a Pizza place that I needed to try. I am not a very patient man and when I want something I always want it right away. I decided that I would try Pimento’s for lunch on Wednesday, well as you can see by the hours of operation no pizza for Chris on Wednesday! So Jenn and I decided to try it for dinner on Friday. It is a very small building and is easy to drive by. I could smell the pizza as we approached the building, it smelt awesome. Once you get into the restaurant there are basically two counters the one to the right is the prep table where Mario makes the dough and pizza. The one in front of you is where there are beverages and other items. Notice in the back left corner is where the gelato is, and in the back right corner is the oven.

The Food: The menu is broken down into three sections. You have pizza/flowers, meat cones and desserts. There are 17 different pizzas to choose from. There are the classics like the Marinara, Margherita, Cheese and Meat Lovers. There are only two sizes 12” or Personal (flower). The reason the personal pizza is called a flower is because it is shaped like a flower. Take a regular pizza dough and add a hollow cone at the bottom and that is how Mario serves his personal size pizza. Toppings on the top, sauce in the cone. I did not try one as I was looking for a bigger meal. I happen to know that he imported a tool from Italy to press the flower dough. The meat cones are exactly what they sound like, a cone full of delicious deli meats. The gelato menu is pretty straight forward; there are 12 flavouers to choose from. All the dough is made fresh, so the pizza dough, flower dough and cones are all made by Mario.

I had the full size Pimento which has Pomodoro, provolone, bocconcini, roasted red peppers, red onions, Pimento’s made in house Italian sausage. I thought that it was missing a pinch of salt and that it could have been cooked for about 3 minutes longer. The dough was not strong enough to support the toppings in the centre of the pizza. Fresh dough and ingredients make such a huge difference. The basil gave it real nice flavour and I would eat the sausage all day long.

The Price:  The price seems about average. The flowers range from $5-$8 and the full size pizzas are anywhere from $13-$17. I can’t remember the prices of the meat cones, and the gelato was $5. There seemed to only be the option to have the gelato in a cone. My pizza was $16.

The Service: The service was really good. Mario obviously knows a lot about pizza and the importance of fresh ingredients. We did not have cash on us but they still took or order and started making the pizza before we had paid, which I really appreciated.

Other Items of Note: There are a couple of items to note. They only accept cash (there is a 7-11 right beside which has an ATM). Chef Mario’s Enviro Discount – $1 off when you bring your own plate. There is no dine in option. Everything is intended for takeout. There are a couple of chairs to sit down in while he makes your pizza, but not to eat in. There are also no picnic tables outside to sit down in. We ended up eating ours in the car. On a nicer day we would have went down the block to sit on a bench by the park. Parking might be tough as well, my advice is to park in the two hour parking in the streets beside the restaurant.