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Calgary Herald

Chorney-Booth: Acme Pizza and Pasta Co. finds a new (familiar) home

When restaurateur Dean Symonds moved to Calgary over 15 years ago, the first restaurant he had a hand in opening was Vendome Café, owned and operated by the Teatro Group. Symonds has since become a regular fixture in Calgary's restaurant landscape, working at and eventually owning several beloved restaurants, including The Beltliner and Gorilla Whale. Now, a decade and a half after walking into the Vendome Block for the first time, Symonds and his business partner Jason Wankel are back in that historic Sunnyside venue with a new restaurant of their own, Acme Pizza and Pasta Co. Article content Article content Article content Vendome had a great run under the stewardship of the Teatro Group, but that company decided to close it down last year to focus on other projects. Meanwhile, Symonds and Wankel, frustrated after losing their other restaurants in the wake of the pandemic, had pivoted to pizza, the one foodstuff that seems to thrive no matter what the state of the world may be. Their Acme Pizza Co., with a location in Tailgunner Brewing Co. in Sunalta and another standalone takeout spot in Renfrew, was a bona fide hit. The pair were ready to expand into a larger facility with capacity for a commissary kitchen and a full-service, sit-down restaurant to showcase their well-honed hospitality skills. Article content Article content Article content Timing, as they say, is everything. Right as the Acme crew were ready to expand, that familiar Vendome space suddenly became vacant. Article content 'It is interesting to come full circle,' Symonds says. Article content Symonds and Wankel originally toyed with the idea of opening Acme Pizza and Pasta as a scrappy red sauce joint. But their heritage building location, which Teatro renovated extensively over the years, with its gentle archways and sleek bartop, felt a little too elegant for red checkered table cloths and New Jersey-style spaghetti and meatballs. They knew they had to develop a friendly neighbourhood spot that could do double duty as a romantic date night destination and a go-to for family pizza night. Article content Article content 'We can be playful here, but the room dictates we put a little bit of parsley on top of things,' Symonds says with a chuckle. Article content 'We wanted to match the room,' Wankel says in agreement. 'But the other guiding force is that everything on the menu is going to be on a table with a pizza. We had to remember that, too.' Article content To help strike that balance, the Acme kitchen team – head chef Alexander Row, chef de cuisine and pasta wizard Elyse Trimble, and sous chef Colby Tio – created a menu to entice locals looking for both a quick pizza and beer or a plate of seafood-studded, house-made pasta. The king of the menu, to Symonds and Wankel's admitted surprise, are the gooey panko and parmigiana-crusted mozzarella sticks ($15), which feel both remarkably modern and like a (much-welcome) throwback to the '80s. There are other snacks and small plates worthy of investigation, such as a gorgonzola beet salad with apple and pistachio ($21), marinated olives with rosemary and lemon ($8), and mussels in a lemon-butter garlic sauce ($25), but ultimately, this is a pizza 'n' pasta restaurant.