My Blog = My Life: restaurant

With the official start of summer, comes the official start of soaking up the sun on restaurant patios.

Here are a few of my recommendations in Regina:

Cafe Orange: At the moment, Orange is doing coffee and sweets, but they tell me that a full menu is coming soon. Hopefully by Canada Day. In just two years, this place has gone from a coffee house/kitchenware store; to an all-out coffee house; and now a restaurant. The latest transformation looks to be the best. And the deck out front on Robinson Street (by the 13th Ave. Safeway) is so new you can still smell the sweet scent of new wood. (306) 779-0779 (no website)

Sweet Bakery and Coffee House: An ever-expanding list of baked goods, combined with comfortable surrounds in a heritage building (and a very nice, if small, patio outside) are turning this new Broad Street place near College Avenue into a favourite of many. Recommend an Americano with a Lemon Tart, if you're at a loss. (306) 352-9338 (no website)

La Bodega: the treetop patio at this Cathedral Village favourite is... tops, no pun intended. Sip a few drinks or have lunch high above the Albert Street traffic. You won't even notice the cars going by. www.labodegaregina.com / (306) 546-3660

Fireside Bistro: while opinions on Fireside often vary, their patio on the corner of Smith Street and 15th Avenue is second to none. Definitely worth a drink or two and an appetizer on a hot day. (306) 761-2305 (no website)

Beer Bros.: Watch the people go by on downtown's pedestrianized portion of Scarth Street. Beer Bros newly refinished patio is small but full of sunshine. Stop by and sample an exotic beer whose name you can't even pronounce (and that's before you start drinking). www.beerbros.ca / (306) 586-2337

Atlantis: This downtown coffee spot isn't licensed for liquor, but that doesn't keep the crowds away. Open from the early morning until late, and offers free wireless. Oh, and the artwork on the walls is all by local artists. www.atlantiscoffee.com / (306) 565-2213

More to come! Please follow the blog for updates to this list, and new reviews.
Follow me on Twitter: @The_FoodDude

The Round-up:

• Food - 3.5 out of 5
• Service - 3.5 out of 5
• Atmosphere - 3 out of 5
• Overall - 10 out of 15

It's slightly gutsy to open a restaurant on a semi-abandoned block in downtown Regina that has seen its share of restaurants come and go over the years.

But entrepreneur Astrid Baecker did exactly that two years ago when renovations at 1822 Broad Street got underway. After sitting empty for a few years, the building was looking in pretty rough shape when things got started. Within a few months Baecker and her team added plenty of shine.

What's now known as Bitten used to be home to Gingerz. Before that it was a satellite location of India House for a matter of months. And wayyy before that it was New Orleans. And that's all the history I know of the place.

The room itself, long and narrow with a balcony looking over the main floor, is an awkward shape for a restaurant. That being said, Bitten has made things work by modernizing the colour scheme and placing high-top tables with bar stools on the main floor that can be easily moved around to accommodate groups of all sizes.

The second floor balcony is cozy and closer to the bar. If drinking is your main reason for visiting Bitten, sit upstairs.

The menu has grown over the last two years. It's now several pages long and covers a surprisingly wide range of cuisines. If you want Asian, Bitten does that. If you want Italian, Bitten does that. If you want Cajun, they do that too. While the variety is nice, the menu lacks focus overall. Some of the appetizers, like the stuffed mushroom caps, seem like a throwback to the '80s.

On the other hand, appetizers come in very generous portions. Some might even find them large enough to be a meal. They definitely make for good sharing in a group.

As for the rest of the food, it's generally good. Some entrees, like a Surf and Turf I had around Valentine's Day in 2009, lacked flavour. However, the pizzas and salads are filling, tasty, and priced just right.

I've been to Bitten five or six times in the last two years and the service has always been good, no matter the server. Service isn't always lighting fast, but it's attentive. And Bitten isn't really the type of place you go for a speedy meal.

I can't finish this review without talking about dessert. Bitten's motto, after all, is "Life is Short... Have Dessert First."

The menu features a whole page of desserts to choose from, all of them made in-house. Bitten does a good job of classics like the Creme Brulee and Creme Caramel. The Mascarpone Toffee Parcels were delish when I tried them a few months back. I haven't had Bitten's version of Sticky Toffee Pudding just yet, but that's next on my list.

My advice: check Bitten out if you haven't been, or if it's been awhile. It's worth supporting a local eatery that's breathing life into our downtown core.

The Round-up:

• Food - 3 out of 5
• Decor - 3.5 out of 5
• Service - 3 out of 5
• Overall - 9.5 out of 15

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Several months ago a food-loving group was created on Facebook. Its name was the "Cathedral Village Needs a Cheap Breakfast Place", or something like that. It seems that the Village just hadn't been the same since the Quality Tea Room shut down several years back.

I quickly joined the group, as did several hundred other Regina folks (What did we ever do before Facebook groups became the new face of activism, by the way?).
The Facebook fan page continued to grow, many of its members calling for a cheap plate of hash browns and bacon... like now.

Well, some wishes do come true.

The Mercury Cafe and Grill opened its doors in April. The place seemed to spring up overnight on the corner of 13th and Robinson streets in a spot that has housed numerous other restaurants.

The Mercury is a diner, no doubt about that. From the bright red vinyl booths to the formica and chrome tables, stepping into The Mercury is like stepping back 50 or 60 years in time. The Mercury is also under the same ownership as Regina's well-loved Novia Cafe, another all-out diner. This is a good thing -- who better to start a new diner than the folks who run one of the city's oldest and best?

I've been to The Mercury twice now, once for breakfast and once for supper. It's hard to find the right word to describe both experiences. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't horrible either. Perhaps satisfactory is the right word.

Weekend breakfast bustles and hustles in The Mercury. If you're not there by 11 on a Sunday, you're going to wait in line for awhile. Granted, The Mercury could easily jam a few more tables into the dining room in order to shave some time off the waiting game.

Your choices for breakfast are classic standbys: bacon and eggs; hash browns; pancakes; an omelette. You get the picture. Now, is it cheap? That depends on your definition of cheap. Most items run around the $8-9 mark, plus the cost of coffee and/or juice. I've had cheaper, but I've also had more expensive.

Service can be a little disorganized, but hopefully the servers work that out amongst themselves as the restaurant irons out the operating wrinkles. We had to wait 30 minutes for any food to hit the table at breakfast, almost enough to push us to the breaking point, but not quite. Fortunately, our waitress took good care of us in the meantime.

Now let's talk about supper for a moment. Once again, there are few surprises on the evening menu. Nachos; chicken wings; chicken fingers; burgers; clubhouse sandwiches; and grilled cheese are a few of the choices.

We ordered up a plate of nachos to get things started. With a $10 price tag, we pictured a nice platter of cheesy chips and veggies. We couldn't have been more wrong. A dinner plate with a puny pile of nachos on it was what we got. Even worse: the scarce bits of cheese on the chips were overcooked and rubbery. Epic fail, my friends. Epic fail.

Next up: the burgers. Now this is where the action is at. Tender homemade beef patties are smooshed between fresh buns with all the fixins. I went for the Mushroom Swiss. Big Willie had The Mercury Burger (two patties with fried onions, mushrooms, shaved ham, Swiss and cheddar cheese). All burgers come with a side. We went for the french fries and they were done to perfection.

Big Poppa (my dad) went for the open-faced Hot Turkey Sandwich... which came with hot chicken, oddly enough. But he got past that.

All in all, The Mercury offers up decent food in a comfortable room. The motto seems to be: come as you are, eat what you will. Now if they'd only fine-tune the nachos and up the portion size for most of the breakfast menu, we might have a sure-fire winner on our hands.

(no website)

I was really happy to hear that a new restaurant is coming to the downtown 'hood.
Tangerine by chef Aimee Schulhauser of Evolution Catering will be a welcome addition to the strip of shops on 14th Avenue next to Lorne Street (2234 14th Avenue, to be exact).
The restaurant will be open mainly during the daytime and into the early evening hours, with later hours a possibility once the restaurant has its feet under it (the same goes for a liquor licence). Schulhauser tells me that fresh garden vegetables from her grandma's garden will be front and centre this summer. She calls Tangerine's menu a "chef's playground" featuring a handful of semi-permanent sandwiches and salads, along with whatever else she creates on any given day.
Tangerine's website will be up and running in June. In the meantime, check out Schulhauser's other website: http://www.ecff.ca/

I'm excited to bring news about a new restaurant about to open its doors in Regina.

Tangerine, by Chef Aimee Schulhauser of Evolution catering, will be up and running in approximately one month. No word yet on location, but I've noticed some construction happening at Evolution on Lorne Street. Perhaps Tangerine will open in the same spot?

There's a very good chance that Tangerine, like Evolution, will emphasize fresh, local food as much as possible. The restaurant will be a welcome addition to our downtown food scene, especially since Zest closed its doors last month.

Stay tuned....

The idea that a mother's place is in the home is no longer a popular one - not even within the Church. That said, most God-fearing mothers who choose a career over staying at home are not necessarily motivated by selfish desires, but by a culture which seems to leave them with no choice. It just doesn't make sense when an extra income would surely be more beneficial for their children in the long run... wouldn't it?

Scene #1: Perhaps a couple recognizes their young children are extraordinarily gifted and bright. University is certainly within their future. The parents want to give each of them the gift of a good, post-secondary education but know that's not possible on the husband's income alone. So Mom searches through the Yellow Pages and begins working from 8am-4pm - for the good of her children.Scene #2: Or maybe, as was the case with one of my grandmothers, a mother grew up in a very poor family and was never able to enjoy the kind of material wealth that seemed common place for everyone else. She doesn't want her children to know the pain of doing without and so works hard to bring in a paycheck that will cover trendy clothes, restaurant meals, and the latest technological gadgets that all the other kids on the block seem to have.Scene #3: Perhaps it's the cost of Christian schooling that forces a mother to work outside the home. It breaks her heart to drop her 10-month-old off at her sister-in-law's each morning, but she quickly reminds herself that the value of a Christian education is worth the temporary sacrifice.
The mother in each one of these examples has made her decision, perhaps with the support of her husband, based on "common sense." To the human mind, (especially the one that has been affected by years of feminism, liberal rhetoric, and publicly funded Marxism) it's perfectly logical to submit ourselves to "expert" opinion and abandon our kids while they're young in order to give them what they really need when they are older.

However, one very important detail is missing from each of these scenarios. Did you catch it?

A mother and father may arrive at the decision for her to work outside the home together after much consideration. Perhaps they even commit Mom's new job to the Lord in prayer. Maybe the children are made aware of the new changes and everyone agrees that this is what is best for their family. But through all the deliberations, the Bible remains on the shelf, and no one stops to ask, "What would God want Mom to do?"
"'The Lord told me,' is no substitute for 'the Bible says.'" - Voddie BauchamI am not suggesting that no woman can ever have a career, that parents shouldn't send their child to university or pay for their tuition (that's a topic for another day), give them good gifts, make every effort to provide them with a Christian education, or that a mother can't supplement the family income (if I believed that, I wouldn't have this blog or have written my two eBooks, How To Design Your Own Blog and How To Grow Your Blog And Manage Your Home).

I'm asking you, dear mother, to examine where God considers your presence most important. There are several parental responsibilities required of us that are difficult or impossible to perform if we are physically away from our children:

• Availability - morning, noon, and night (Deuteronomy 6:7)
• Training (Proverbs 22:6)
• Discipline (Proverbs 29:15-17)
• Teaching the Scriptures (Deuteronomy 4:10)
• Nurturing (Titus 2:4)

• Does my absence mean someone else will care for my children?

• How long will they be under another's care each day?

• Is this the person I want to raise and influence my child in my place?

• How many surrogate mothers will be involved over the years?

• What impact will that have?

• Does my job sap my energies so that I am tired and pressured and unable to give them quality time?

• Are my creativity, my wit, and my best efforts spent outside my family?

• Do they get only the leftovers?

The biblical solution involves a radical reform in our thinking. Christians must operate on the premise that pure and undefiled religion requires individual benevolence towards widows (James 1:27), families must take responsibility and look after their own (1 Timothy 5:8, 16), and the local church (whose diaconal ministry would be well funded if we tithed more than 2%) is called to care for those who are truly widows (1 Timothy 5: 3-16).

Mom, your job is so eternally important, that God ensured there would be a way for you to minister through full-time motherhood. The right thing to do is not often the easiest thing to do. Staying at home to raise your children will cost you. It may require painful sacrifices, tighter budgets, and perhaps even swallowing our pride enough to accept the aid available to us. But I believe it can be done and that the reward you receive will be eternally worth it.

If financial concerns are keeping you back from staying home with your children, here are some articles and books to help and encourage you.
Articles

• Saving Money In Your Baby's First Year
• Income-Earning Ideas
• We Couldn't Afford Children - Glad We Didn't Have To
• You CAN Stay Home - Earning Money From Home

• Money Saving Mom by Crystal Paine
• Family Feasts for $75 a Week by Mary Ostyn
• America's Cheapest Family by Annette Economides
• Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman

The Round-up:

• Food - 3.5 out of 5
• Decor - 2.5 out of 5
• Service - 3 out of 5
• Total - 9 out of 15

(NOTE: this is a new feature of the blog, featuring restaurants within driving distance of Regina -- we all need to get out of town once in awhile, right?)

The Round-up:

• Food: 3 out of 5
• Service: 3.5 out of 5
• Decor: 4 out of 5
• Total: 10.5 out of 15

Need a little drama on your lunch hour?

Head to Old City Hall Mall on Thursday, March 11, for the official Soup Duel between Beer Bros. and The Willow on Wascana.

Beer Bros. is fronting its Traditional Ale and Cheddar Soup against The Willow's Land Chowder. Who will win? Well, that depends how many bowls of each soup are slurped. Bowls go for $5 each with all proceeds to the Z99 Radiothon.

Last year the restaurants raised $1,700 on a -40 degree day. Perhaps this year's far-warmer temps will help them go the extra mile.

Soup will be dished up starting at 11:30 a.m.

The Round-up:

• Food - 4 out of 5
• Service - 4 out of 5
• Decor - 3.5 out of 5
• Total - 11.5 out of 15

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Until about a month ago I'd never ventured into the warm and cozy world of Skara restaurant.

I don't exactly know why this is.

Maybe it was Skara's former life as a middle-of-the-road family restaurant that kept me away -- it's hard for a restaurant to reinvent, after all.

Or maybe it was the fact that until quite recently I lived and worked downtown. A jaunt to South Albert Street wasn't as routine a thing as it is these days.

Maybe I just didn't like Skara's red-and-black colour scheme. Or its aura. OK, kidding about that last part.

Whatever my reasons, I've come to realize they were wrong. All wrong. I've now been to Skara twice with plans to go back for more.

The first thing that struck me about Skara was the size of the place -- a lot bigger than I'd imagined. The restaurant houses a moderately sized dining room with plenty of comfortable booths; a lounge with more booths, several tables and TVs for watching sports; and a private dining room large enough to seat 30 or 40 guests. Even the bathrooms are roomy at Skara (truth be told, I can only speak for the men on that point). The best part of Skara's decor? There's plenty of deep, dark wood and dim lighting. It's like an old-school steakhouse without all the velvet. And it's very relaxing.

Now, as for the food? On both of my visits it has been delicious. The appetizers and a number of the entrees have a Greek/Mediterranean flair to them -- the restaurant is under Greek ownership, so it figures. And of the ones I've sampled, everything has been pretty much perfect. The Calamari is crispy without being too chewy; the Shrimp Ouzeri (tiger prawns and cherry tomatoes sauteed in ouzo) was absolutely delicious, striking just the right blend of sweet and savoury.

The other night I opted to try something from the entree menu. It was a tough choice between the Skara Stuffed Chicken (recommended by our waiter), the Greek Chicken, or the Tomato Feta Garlic Prawns. In the end, the prawns won out. Mr. K, my pal and tablemate, went for the Stuffed Rainbow Trout.

Neither of us were disappointed. The food was brought to the table in good time by our excellent waiter. My prawns were artfully presented in a mound, next to pan-friend veggies and a stuffed potato. Yes, there are many stuffed things at Skara. This isn't a bad thing, in my books.

I guess my only complaint about my dish was that there wasn't quite enough of it to eat. It wasn't exactly small, but then it wasn't huge either. And I have a bit of a reputation for being a "big eater". Or so I'm told.

On the other hand, I definitely didn't go home hungry.

As I hinted above, the service at Skara has been good-to-excellent on both of my visits, particularly the last one on a Friday night. Staff seem to genuinely want to make sure that diners are happy and enjoying their meals -- not always the case in other eateries.

All in all, Skara, you have a new friend. A hungry one. See you again soon.

I was flipping through the pages of the latest Prairie Dog magazine this morning when I stumbled across a new contest.

The 2010 Best of Food poll is now open for voting online (and only online). The poll is much like the annual Best of Regina poll but this one focuses strictly on matters of the tummy. Why not? Regina's food scene has seen tremendous growth over the last three or four years. For a city of our size, our food scene is pretty rockin', I'd say.

Here's just a sample of some of the categories for which you can vote: Best Budget Lunch; Best After Work Drinking; Best Pub Grub; Best Restaurant for a Luxury Date; Best Bathrooms, and the list goes on.

PLUS, the big news, there is a grand prize (by random draw, I assume) of $1000 worth of gift certificates to Regina's eateries for one lucky winner.

Vote online by March 25 at noon.

www.prairiedogmag.com