Arts, shopping, nightlife… wait a minute, this is Saskatoon?

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This article was published 28/03/2015 (3874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SASKATOON, SASK. — Saskatoon?

Believe me, I know what you’re thinking. Saskatoon?

I heard all the jokes when I mentioned I was planning to visit Saskatoon. And when I added that I was seeking an urban adventure, all arts and restaurants and boutiques, no roughing it in the wilds on this trip, the laughter really hit a fever pitch.

Saskatoon?

That’s right. Saskatoon. You can stop laughing now. For not only did I have an urban adventure, I had an urbane adventure.

A wonderful arts community. A cool downtown. Hot shopping spots. Live and lively venues. A vibrant street scene. Terrific restaurants. There’s more than enough here to keep you busy for a long weekend and more. It all makes for an ideal jaunt from Winnipeg. Who needs Minneapolis when Saskatoon is less than an eight-hour drive away? And you can spend Canadian dollars at par here. (Little Canuck humour.)

Yes, Saskatoon. But this is not your grandfather’s Saskatoon.

Let’s start with eating.

The city is becoming a bit of a mecca for foodies. Perhaps that started when hometown boy Dale Mackay won the first Top Chef Canada in 2011. Mackay had already bopped around the world a bit in the restaurant trade, putting in some time under notorious chef Gordon Ramsay before Mackay won the top Canadian prize. Two years later, he was back in his hometown to open Ayden Kitchen and Bar, http://www.aydenkitchenandbar.com/, with partners.

And what an experience it offers.

The restaurant boasts homegrown, globally inspired comfort food paired with handcrafted cocktails and an extensive wine list. But it’s so much more than a meal. Be sure you are seated where you can see into the open kitchen to watch the long line of chefs and sous chefs at work.

We started with two very special cocktails: a Rhubarb Margarita, which is pretty much what you’d expect, and a Corpse Revivor #2, which is nowhere near as frightening as it sounds, particularly if you are a gin drinker. The menu offered a wide variety of interesting dishes — lobster Caesar, ahi tuna with watermelon, hickory smoked duck confit with grapefruit.

We topped our meal off with the perfect dessert: warm citrus madeleines with chocolate dipping sauce.

Also downtown is Truffles Bistro, http://www.trufflesbistro.ca/, a lovely little French restaurant although you might not guess it from the outside. It felt so French once the door closed behind us, there was simply no choice but to start with Champagne cocktails. We had the trout and finished with our first taste of Saskatoon berries with cream. But it was hard to resist the table d’hote menu with its offerings of either three or five courses. Particularly tempting was the starter: hush puppies with red pepper jelly and pimento cheese.

For something lighter, cross over the Broadway Bridge and head to a little shopping area on Broadway Avenue. Calories Bakery and Restaurant, http://caloriesrestaurant.ca/, was definitely the start of something special when it opened here 30 years ago as a little coffee shop. The neighbourhood had a very different feel then. Calories wasn’t in the midst of the trendy shops and a live venue, a true feeling of community, which is the strip now. But French-born executive chef proprietor, Remi Cousyn has put his restaurant, its neighbourhood and its city on the map, with a whole slew of awards for food and service.

We stopped in for cold glasses of Saskatoon berry lemonade and desserts chosen — after much painful indecision — from Calories’ enormous display. The chocolate orange pecan trifle and rhubarb crumble cake won us over in the end.

Now on to shopping.

While you’re on Broadway, take some time to check out the boutiques along this strip. Handmade House, http://www.handmadehousesk.com/, carries arts and crafts by Saskatchewan artists. We bought tiny carved wood Prairie dogs.

For larger wood pieces and other furniture, Modern Country Interiors, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Modern-Country-Interiors-Saskatoon/113157052052854?frefts, just down the street, carries wooden furniture made in their factory and boasts local artists’ work on the walls.

Tonic, http://tonic-life.com/, is where you can find unique clothing including some vintage pieces.

Downtown has its share of indie stores, too. Etceteras, https://www.facebook.com/EtceterasLadiesBoutique, says it specializes in women’s accessories of all kind, but it’s the massive collection of bling that will grab you.

Spank clothing boutique, http://www.spankclothing.ca/, is part of a small chain with four stores in B.C. and one in Saskatoon, but the individual pieces and the personal service makes it feel like a one-of-a-kind shop. It specializes in Canadian and independent labels.

If you’re in the mood for a different kind of shopping, try Saskatoon Farmers’ Market, http://www.saskatoonfarmersmarket.com/. The merchants are open Tuesday to Sunday, with farmers joining them Wednesdays and weekends, year round. There’s not much you won’t find here from wine to art works to Moroccan goods to baking to water gardens to the ubiquitous Saskatoon berry in many forms.

Several live entertainment options

There’s a lot to choose in live entertainment in Saskatoon. You won’t be disappointed if you plan your trip to catch Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival, http://www.shakespeareonthesaskatchewan.com/. Under a tent on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River as it wends through the centre of the city, Shakespeare’s work is given a twist throughout July and August. Think a post-nuclear Julius Cesar. An Indiana Jones inspired The Comedy of Errors. Last year’s offering of The Taming of the Shrew, set to 1960s Doo-Wop girl groups, with a surprise ending, would have brought a smile to old Bard Bill’s face. This summer it’s Othello as a First Nations business executive and Much Ado About Nothing in the wake of the Second World War.

The Capitol Music Club, http://capitolclub.ca/, offers a very different kind of live entertainment. Former Sheepdogs’ guitarist Leot Hanson opened the club last year shortly before he left the group, which won a contest to be on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2011 and promptly rose to international fame. The club is appropriately gritty and serves a selection of burgers and roadhouse fare, including a wicked ploughman’s lunch, as well as booking local and touring bands.

Friends of the Broadway Theatre, http://broadwaytheatre.ca/, set out to preserve this historical theatre and created a venue for live performance as well as independent, repertory and foreign films. Live performances include such names as Joel Plaskett, Denzal Sinclaire with the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra and the Arrogant Worms.

Discovering the quirky

If you’re looking for the quirky, there’s lots to go round in Saskatoon.

Stroll through downtown, and the next thing you know, long-time Saskatoon resident Sergei Romanoff will drive up in his Volkswagen Beetle/ organ, pull into a parking space and play an impromptu concert.

Order street food from a double decker bus on 21st Street.

Picasso on the Prairies? A city art gallery boasts an extensive collection of Pablo Picasso linocuts and ceramics. Marvel how this collection, worth more than $20 million, so quietly resides in this prairie city. It is to be housed in the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, currently under construction. Meanwhile, the permanent collection of the Mendel Art Gallery, http://www.mendel.ca/, nestled on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River, includes more than 7,700 works by local and national artists. The gallery’s conservatory is a little slice of the tropics with its gardens of orchids, other blooms and the odd gnarled cactus or two. Admission to the gallery and conservatory is free.

But for genuine quirk, you can’t beat a tour of the Lucky Bastard Distillery, http://www.lbdistillers.ca/#home. (Saskatchewan officialdom had a problem with the cuss word so officially it’s LB Distillers.) It’s a bit off the beaten path at 1925 Avenue B North, but well worth the cab ride if you’ve been footing it. The business name alone screams quirk: physician Michael Goldney won the lottery. He was buying a bottle of champagne to celebrate when he told a woman in line that he’d just won the lottery. She answered, “Lucky Bastard.”

Co-owner Cary Bowman — his business card reads President of Good Times; Goldney’s reads President of Vice — is likely to lead your tour of the craft distillery. They believe their New Western Dry Gin, made in tiny batches, is the only gin made with Saskatoon berries. Be sure to try their Ukrainian vodka, Horilka, a peppery, honeyed drink they also make in small batches.

And for one last piece of quirky, particularly appealing if you decide all this urbane entertainment is fine, but you want to do one traditional Saskatoon activity: call up Cliff Speer at CanoeSki Discovery, http://www.canoeski.com/, and arrange a quick canoe trip. Paddling into town, under Saskatoon’s famous bridges, gives you a whole other view of the city.

Julie Carl’s visit to Saskatoon was supported in part by Tourism Saskatoon.