Chorney-Booth: Bar Gigi brings top culinary talent to Edmonton Trail

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Sometimes, working in an excellent award-winning restaurant isn’t enough for a young chef. Cooking great food and watching people enjoy it is rewarding when you’re in the hospitality biz (it’s kind of the whole point of running a restaurant — there are certainly easier ways to make money) but executing another owner/operator’s vision doesn’t always satisfy the soul. This is why chefs Sandro Chinea and Jaden Kanomata and restaurant wiz Kayla Blomquist left their jobs at the popular D.O.P. to try their hand at ownership with a new restaurant called Bar Gigi.

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Stepping into proprietorship can be daunting, so Bar Gigi’s partners have wisely chosen to keep things fairly intimate for their first venture. The 22-seat restaurant sits in the former Halibut Hut/Halibut House on Edmonton Trail, and while the interior has been overhauled, the independent spirit and sign (which is now overlaid with a little neon “Bar Gigi” script) remain intact. The new crew has transformed the fish and chips joint into a beautiful blue jewel box of a restaurant, ripping out the service counter, installing a stylish tiled floor, and revamping the kitchen (which, compared to the nook at D.O.P. must feel palatial to the chefs). Make no mistake, Bar Gigi is a hip restaurant, but there’s no intimidation factor at play — it is elegant and pushes the envelope, but it also feels homey and personal.

“We envisioned it being a neighbourhood restaurant and being a spot in the neighbourhood where people could hang out and drink nice wine and eat great food,” Kanomata says. “We wanted it to be a small restaurant so the three of us can be in control of everything we do.”

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The partners earned strong reputations at D.O.P. (Kanomata and Chinea also cooked together in a pandemic-era pop-up called Chilli Vanilli), but Bar Gigi gives them a chance to stretch beyond Italian food and wine, with a menu designed to be a collection of things they want to cook and serve with no real restrictions. It’s a fairly small selection of share-style dishes, but every item packs a significant punch without veering into territory that guests may find weird or unapproachable.

While these sorts of menus are bound to change seasonally, Kanomata says customers shouldn’t expect an ever-revolving menu at Bar Gigi. He and Chinea worked hard on these recipes and don’t want customers to be disappointed if dishes are phased out just as they gain traction on social media or through word-of-mouth. The opening menu includes several smaller plates, including hits like a pair of smoke-kissed cabbage skewers in a pool of sesame vinaigrette with a dab of hot mustard on the side ($14), fried bocconcini balls with grated tomato and chili oil for dipping ($12) and crunchy prawn toast sandwiches, topped with a picturesque blanket of chives ($22).

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An ambitious skate wing ($41) has emerged as a signature on the larger plates section. Relatively rare in the local restaurant market, skate is a fish from the ray family and the meat of its pectoral fin is rich and buttery, resembling scallop or crab more than a typical flaky fish. It’s notoriously tricky to prepare and must be served fresh, but Bar Gigi does a heroic job, serving theirs with herbed butter and crispy fried capers. The chefs also continue to showcase their pasta game, with a couple of pastas including a surprisingly complex confit duck leg spaghetti in a slow-cooked truffle chicken jus ($29).

All of this is best paired with something from the restaurant’s carefully curated wine list — Blomquist is the expert here and will happily suggest pairings. Again, while the food and drinks are top-tier, the approachability level is high — everyone is just out to have a nice time together in a small but elegant setting.

Bar Gigi is located at 336 9th Ave. N.E. and can be reached through Instagram at @_bargigiyyc. The restaurant is open Thursday through Monday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations can be made through OpenTable.

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In other restaurant news, the annual list of Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants was released earlier this week and as always, our restaurant scene made a showing, although there are fewer Alberta restaurants than we’ve seen in recent years. Calgary and area didn’t place any restaurant on the top 10 new restaurants list this year, but there are some local spots on the overall rankings. Our highest-placing restaurant is River Cafe, which comes in at #23, followed by Eight (#25), D.O.P. (#46), Major Tom (#52), and Canmore’s Ankor (#76).

Overall, Montreal’s Mon Lapin took top spot for a second year in a row, followed by Edulis in Toronto. The highest-ranking restaurant in Western Canada is Vancouver’s Published on Main, coming in at #7. The entire list is published in the summer issue of Canada’s Best Restaurants magazine as well as at canadas100best.com. The list is chosen annually by a panel of 150 culinary experts from across the country.

Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram at @elizabooth or sign up for her newsletter at hungrycalgary.substack.com.

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