Edmonton's overlooked queer history
Edmonton has a big place in Canada's 2SLGBTQ+ history — but it doesn't always get the credit it deserves. Now, there are people trying to change that. In recent years, projects highlighting Edmonton's queer history and stories have gained traction, and there is work being done to preserve decades of activism and community for the next generation. Host Clare Bonnyman sits down with Ron Byers of the Rainbow Story Hub, to talk about Edmonton's queer history and what's so unique about our city's story.
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Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Mocktails catch up to their booze-filled counterparts on restaurant menus
Six guests enjoy a languid dinner in a charming circa-1600s building in Quebec City. Here, at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Tanière³, small plates of venison tartare with smoked potato chips are served with a cocktail called Bog and Labrador. Most of the guests get the drink made with Canadian Club, homemade Labrador tea liqueur, L'Arme Secrète vermouth and a hint of blueberry. But one guest receives the same drink, instead made from non-alcoholic HP Juniper whisky and NOA red vermouth, Labrador tea syrup and blueberry. It's one of the most generous acts of hospitality I've ever seen. Up until a few years ago, non-drinkers were made to feel other than, especially at high-end restaurants where the wine cards were often snatched from the table with a sniff. Yet here, all guests were seamlessly included. With the low- and non-alcoholic sector now a US$13-billion global industry (with Canadians among its top consumers), restaurants around the world are embracing booze-free diners, proving that fine dining needn't be limited to fine wines. Flexing creativity with their non-alcoholic beverages, the alcohol-free, one-Michelin-starred restaurant Idam in Doha serves a persimmon, melon and espresso mocktail smoked with star anise, to go with a vanilla ice cream and pecan dessert. At the three-Michelin-starred Geranium in Copenhagen, there's a drink made from green apples, fennel and sweet woodruff from the garden. At Hisa Franko in Kobarid, Slovenia, chef Ana Ros's three-Michelin-starred restaurant makes Pine Booch: Fermented with natural sugars from the local Pituralka pear, the drink boasts a unique balsamic flavour that comes from pine needles harvested from the forests behind the restaurant. And Andrea Carlson's one-Michelin-starred Burdock & Co in Vancouver just announced their latest tasting menu with non-alcoholic pairings, including a fig and rhubarb koji (a type of mould on rice used in fermentation) cocktail served with a Hokkaido scallop crudo with fresh begonia flowers. 'Restaurants that don't have a comprehensive non-alcohol program are now leaving money on the table,' says Kurtis Kolt, a Vancouver-based wine consultant. 'You can't put the genie back in the bottle.' Kolt is the founder of Free Spirit project, which hosts booze-free pop-ups and events such as non-alcoholic wine, beer and cocktail tastings featuring dozens of vendors. He says the question he is asked most often at his events is, 'Why doesn't Gen Z drink?' No alcohol, no problem: Four zero-proof cocktail recipes to try at home There are plenty of reasons why a growing number of people of all generations are drinking less or not at all. Industry research shows that millennials and Gen Z consumers are looking for even more alcohol-free alternatives, driven by factors such as diet, legal cannabis consumption, cost and awareness around alcohol's impact on overall health. 'Plus, they grew up in a time when taking care of yourself is more a part of the zeitgeist,' says Kolt. While seemingly simple, making a restaurant-worthy mocktail isn't easy. 'Our mocktails are like liquid food,' says chef Moeen Abuzaid of Toronto's Arbequina, who along with his wife and co-owner, Asma Syed, decided not to serve alcohol at the Roncesvalles neighbourhood restaurant, to align with their Muslim values. Instead, they thoughtfully create drinks to pair with their elevated Arabic cuisine (think: freshly baked za'atar buns with house labneh, and Muhammara steak tartare). For their Lychee Pink cocktail, for example, making the base alone is a three-day process. They peel fresh lychees then infuse them with a strawberry consommé they've made by cooking down fresh berries and straining them. They then vacuum seal the juice with the lychees, along with organic agave syrup and toasted pink peppercorns, letting the mixture steep. Finally they filter it before shaking it up with white cranberry juice. Abuzaid says the cocktail goes particularly well with the likewise bold flavours of their Angus short ribs, which are cooked down with cinnamon, coriander, chili, date molasses and tamarind. 'When your mocktails change, the flavours of your food changes,' says chef Abuzaid. Other mocktails on the menu range from the Peach Blossom (white peach, sumac, orange blossom) to the Red Ruby (grapefruit, thyme, rose, hibiscus). There are also sodas such as Salaam Cola and de-alcoholized wines. For me, tucking into plates of the chef's savoury manti and chicken shish while drinking a simple pomegranate lime mocktail tasted just right, the spritzy freshness of the drink allowing the aromatics to shine. 'One of our challenges is getting guests comfortable with the idea of having mocktails to start the meal then moving on to de-alcoholized wine,' says Abuzaid. 'You can have a group that has no idea what wine even tastes like, and we're exposing them to a whole new world.' Others don't need convincing. 'Just yesterday we had a guest who drinks regular wine but was so excited to try the de-alcoholized wine that he drank an entire bottle of our Chilean chardonnay.' Arbequina's cocktails run from $13 to $16, though at most restaurants non-alcoholic cocktails often cost the same as standard cocktails (around $20). That's because many of the fresh bases and zero-alcohol 'liquors' are often as expensive as those found in traditional cocktails. For instance, at the LCBO a 700 ml bottle of Seedlip Grove Non-Alcoholic Spirit costs $45. 'We've definitely seen a steady and noticeable increase in demand for non-alcoholic cocktails over the past three years,' says Joey Simons, CEO of the Montreal-based restaurant group estiatorio Milos, which has 13 restaurants around the globe from Athens to Singapore. 'While there has always been a need to cater to different preferences – due to personal taste, pregnancy or health concerns – we started to see a more pronounced uptick around 2021 after the pandemic.' He says non-alcoholic options are no longer a niche request: 'It's now a key part of our beverage program.' Simons says a good restaurant should offer the full spectrum of preferences without compromising on quality or experience. 'We've made a conscious investment in our non-alcoholic program, both in terms of ingredients and empowering our bartenders to be creative.' They use the same obsessively sourced ingredients found on all Milos menus, such as honey from Kythira, Greece, and fresh citrus blossoms. 'We'd estimate that about 10 to 15 per cent of guests will opt for a non-alcoholic option at some point during their dining experience,' he says. 'Some remain entirely non-alcoholic throughout their visit, while others may start with a zero-proof cocktail before transitioning to wine or spirits with dinner. The proof of concept is absolutely there.'
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Three Days Grace: Canada's top band back on the road with original singer
Ontario's Three Days Grace is visiting the Montreal area for the second time this year and packed Place Bell in Laval on Monday night on a double-headline bill.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Appreciation: The Panthers set their own path to a 2nd consecutive Stanley Cup
The best team in hockey, again, was a team that did things totally its own way. The Florida Panthers went to Finland early in the season and wore their gifts from that trip — plush robes, a nod to the sauna culture there — to the next few games instead of suits and didn't care how ridiculous that looked. They blared Paul Simon's 'You Can Call Me Al' in the locker room after wins for reasons that nobody fully understood. They not only welcomed a one-time hated rival in Brad Marchand into the fold from Boston at the trade deadline, but they became Blizzard-eating buddies with him on off days during the playoffs. 'This team,' forward Matthew Tkachuk said at one point this season, shaking his head, 'is special.' 'Different,' was the word forward Evan Rodrigues used. 'They are something else,' coach Paul Maurice said. Call them whatever you want. But you have to call them back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, an absolutely absurd development for a franchise that spent most of its first three decades unable to win anything but now simply cannot lose. Final score: Panthers 5, Edmonton 1. Final score of the series: Panthers 4, Oilers 2. The result: Another Cup, and a team that won't be forgotten. 'It's incredible. It's a feeling you can't really describe,' Marchand said. 'Seeing the family and everyone up there and everyone that supported me and helped me get to this point, words can't put this into reality how great it feels. Such an incredible group.' South Florida was a football town when the Miami Dolphins reigned 50 years ago, then became a basketball town when the Miami Heat started winning championships, and it's always been a baseball town because of the area's strong Latino culture. But now, it's a hockey town. The Panthers never had any doubt that they would repeat as Stanley Cup champions. They didn't care what the regular season results were, nor did they care about their seeding, nor did they care that they were going to have to start every playoff series on the road and probably had the most difficult of all possible paths: in-state rival Tampa Bay in Round 1, a now-or-never Toronto team in Round 2, a tough-as-nails Carolina team for the Eastern Conference title, and after all that, Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers were waiting to avenge their loss in last year's Stanley Cup Final. The Lightning were overmatched. The Maple Leafs wore down. The Hurricanes couldn't keep up. And the Oilers, after a year of studying, had even fewer answers for the big test. 'We've got to be a dynasty now,' Tkachuk said. 'It's three years in a row, finals, two championships. This team is so special. Stanley Cup champion. This never gets old.' Everything changed for Florida in July 2022 when general manager Bill Zito shocked everybody by swinging a trade with Calgary for Tkachuk. They went to the final in 2023 and got rolled by Vegas. Back to the final they went in 2024, nearly blowing a 3-0 lead before beating Edmonton for the franchise's first title. This season, there were injuries and suspensions and trades to deal with. But there was no doubt. Maurice said all that mattered was getting into the playoffs healthy. He was right. Tkachuk came back despite a torn adductor in time for Game 1 of the playoffs. Aaron Ekblad was back from a 20-game suspension for taking a banned substance in time for Game 3 of Round 1. The Panthers kept getting stronger and stronger, all the way to the end. They have a player in captain Aleksander Barkov who rarely says anything, just leads by example. They have a goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky who never takes credit for wins, and whose many quirks include not getting any haircuts during the season. They have a coach in Maurice whose claims to fame include overzealous coffee consumption and copious swearing. They did not care who got the credit for anything, because it was a team built for just one thing — winning the Cup, something that required everyone on the roster to do something big at the right time. That's exactly what happened. And when the Cup was awarded to Barkov, who accepted it as captain, he didn't hand it to Marchand or Tkachuk or Bobrovsky or playoffs MVP Sam Bennett. He handed it to Nate Schmidt, because Schmidt — who paid for all those Blizzards, by the way — hadn't won a Cup before. And Schmidt handed it to another first-timer, Seth Jones, another late-season trade addition. And so on, and so on, and so on. The last on-ice act of the season was the epitome of what sort of team it was. Backup goalie Vitek Vanecek got to hoist it before most of the regulars; Vanecek, it should be noted, didn't play one second in these playoffs, and the Panthers could not have cared less. He was part of it. He earned his lap with the Cup. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. 'These men just love one another,' Maurice said. 'That's the only way to explain it.' There's a parade in a few days, and then free agency is coming. Bennett could be moving on. Marchand might not stay. Ekblad's future is the source of speculation. The salary cap is the salary cap and everybody can't be kept. But it sounds like Florida will try to keep as much of this team together as possible. 'We're going to enjoy this together,' Bobrovsky said. 'And then, we'll go back to work.' ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
