Lindork’s Lists #140 – Indoor Beach Party, Story City Adventure, Best Bars, and more!
Newsletter for October 26 – November 1 2022
Note: this is the public version of my weekly email newsletter that gets sent to subscriber inboxes first each Wednesday. Get the full newsletter first by becoming a free subscriber.
Things to Do This Week
We’re still in a pandemic! Please mask up, stay home if sick, and get vaccinated/boosted.
Experience Canada’s largest Afro x Latin Indoor Beach Festival (West Ed)
Don’t miss the Pour Me Water Festival—Canada’s largest Afro x Latin Indoor Beach Festival taking place at West Edmonton Mall’s World Waterpark this Saturday, Oct. 29. It’ll be 31C and feature 12+ live performers, body painting, a 360 photo booth, wave pool, VIP cabanas and more.
Head to Bent Arrow’s The Great Pumpkin Event (11648 85th St.)
Bent Arrow is hosting The Great Pumpkin Event on Thursday, Oct. 27 from 4-7:30 p.m., featuring a zombie run, hay ride, hot dogs, hot chocolate, costume contest, crafts, fireworks, and candy! It’s happening at Parkdale School and is free to attend (donations welcome).
Shop the Alt After Dark Halloween Night Market (Alberta Aviation Museum)
Celebrate Halloween at the Alt After Dark Halloween Night Market taking place at the Alberta Aviation Museum 11410 Kingsway this Friday, Oct. 28 from 7-11 p.m. Featuring 85 spooky vendors, local brewers, food trucks, face painting, live music and a costume contest. All ages welcome and entry is by donation to the Edmonton Food Bank.
Check out the Indigenous Market Collective’s Halloween Family Games Party
Head to the Downtown Edmonton Farmers Market this weekend for the Indigenous Market Collective’s Halloween Family Games Party. It’s on the 2nd floor of the market Friday (11 a.m.-5 p.m.), Saturday (9 a.m.-3 p.m.), and Sunday (11 a.m.-3 p.m.) with board games, puzzles, Halloween crafts, treats, and free glow sticks for trick-or-treaters. Free to attend + free parking!
Catch the 22/23 season opening of the Edmonton Opera (Jubilee Auditorium)
The Edmonton Opera’s season opens with Puccini TOSCA, with shows happening this week including one on Friday, Oct. 28 at the Jubilee Auditorium (11455 87 Ave.) This show is sung in Italian with projected English translation, a story about a divided Italy, threatening authority, a talented painter, and a singer, whose voice weaves throughout this piece of love, deception and cruelty in 19th century Rome.
Hit up an Edmonton playground using a new directory (various locations)
Congratulations to Jill of Edmonton Playgrounds for the launch of her new Edmonton Playgrounds web directory! This is a pretty extensive directory of playgrounds in the Edmonton area, categorized by location, turf, features, and more. Consider checking out a new playground using the directory!
Explore Edmonton using the Story City app!
I’ve partnered with local app Story City to tell you about their fun app and a way you can turn a regular walk around Edmonton into an adventure! Just in time for Halloween too: Get your Halloween thrills, chills and take advantage of being able to wander around in public in costume as the hero of real-life choose your adventures through Edmonton streets! Why go for a regular walk when you could capture escaped magic creatures, or pull of a daring heist at the Legislature? Or perhaps put ghosts from Edmonton’s past to rest in a spooky downtown adventure? Or tempt fate monsters in a creepy coffeeshop crawl down Whyte Ave.?
Story City is a collection of stories that encourage you to get out, walk and explore your city while reading and listening to stories connected to a theme. Different story chapters pop up as you reach specified locations (it uses your phone Map/location).
Stories can be done at any time, using your smart phone and a sense of adventure (costumed adventures especially for Spooky Season are encouraged!)! Just download the free Story City app and select from over half a dozen escape-room style puzzle trails, choose your adventures, and walks all created by local storytellers that let you discover and play in a whole new downtown. There are free Stories and paid Stories (that range from $4-$10)! And they’re always working on adding new Stories (for instance, I may load up an Instagrammable Tour in the app next summer!)
#StoryCity_Partner
Got an Edmonton area event, virtual event, or something coming up you think my readers would be interested in knowing about? Let me know!
Food to Try This Week
Please continue safely supporting local restaurants, in whatever way works for your comfort levels. If not dining in, please do take-out! Mask-up and please stay home if you’re sick.
Explore culinary delights as part of Beverly Dining Week (various locations)
Beverly Dining Week returns this week with various restaurants offering special menus to entice you to explore this east Edmonton neighbourhood. Deals are being offered at 9 eateries and range from $15-$30. Beverly Dining Week runs until Oct. 30.
Grab a cocktail at two of Canada’s Best Bars—in Edmonton!
Congratulations to Bar Clementine and Baijiu/Little Hong Kong for making Canada’s Best Bar list of 2022. Clementine comes in at #15 and Baijiu/Little Hong Kong comes in at #23. A little bar crawl to celebrate sounds like a plan!
Try All You Can Eat Japanese at Sushi Toshi (13619 St. Albert Trail)
I recently tried the All You Can Eat Japanese Restaurant Sushi Toshi in north Edmonton and it was excellent! Great variety of high quality dishes ranging from raw to cooked items, including hot stone meats and seafood. It was *very* busy—so reservations are highly recommended!
Check out the new-ish dim sum spot Lucky Kitchen (10346 University Ave.)
My family tried dim sum at Lucky Kitchen recently, and thought it was great! I felt like the menu was maybe a touch smaller than some other dim sum spots in town, but the quality of the dishes was great. It was also pretty empty when we went on a Saturday morning, so would be a good spot to consider if you’re craving dim sum! (They also have other Chinese dishes).
Don’t forget to check out Chinatown restaurants! (various locations)
In partnership with the City of Edmonton, I’ve got a Twitter thread going where I’m adding weekly suggestions on restaurants to consider trying in Chinatown. For instance, if you haven’t yet, you should try the Vietnamese Bột Chiên from Xu Hue, it’s a delicious fried rice cake with egg dish! Xue Hue also has a great Bún Hến clams vermicelli—and other Vietnamese specialities not found at too many other spots in town! You can check out the #YEGChinatown hashtag for more ideas too!
Also: consider voting for local baker Larry Harris in the Greatest Baker contest!
Larry Harris, formerly of Edmonton micro bakery Bonne Vie, is competing in the Greatest Baker online contest. Consider casting a vote for Larry! Up for grabs is the title, a $10,000 prize, and a feature in Scratch Magazine.
And: check out #YEGFoodFaves and visit one of the spots for a chance to win!
Last week my friend Sharon and I released our Edmonton Food Faves We Crave list and it’s been pretty well-received so far (thank you!!) We are running a contest until Nov. 16, if you try a spot featured on our list and share about it on Instagram or Twitter, you’ll be entered to win gift cards to try even more of these #YEGFoodFaves! Jessica recently had the carbonara udon from Dorinku Tokyo (one of our #YEGFoodFaves) and is now entered to win!
Eaten something amazing recently? Want to show some love to a struggling restaurant? Have a take-out suggestion? Let me know to include in this newsletter.
Easy, tasty dinners—that’s basically free!
I’m partnering up again with Fresh Prep, my favourite meal kit delivery service 🚚 to share about what makes them different (better!) than others, and give you a very steep discount off your first order! Fresh Prep is a Canadian meal kit business that has a focus on sustainability. Recipes come in recycle or reusable bags including something called a ZERO WASTE KIT with easy grab and pour, reusable and portioned containers you return with your next delivery.
I first tried FreshPrep last October and we’ve actually been getting meal kits delivered every week since (so, I really, really love it!)
Whether you’re busy and could use an assist, or tired of cooking and want a delicious break—get up to 90% off your first order by using my code INFLINDORK90. 🥰
#FreshPrepCA – Made with ❤️ in Alberta!
#FreshPrepCA_Partner
Small Business Spotlight
Pikante serves up authentic Mexican and Latino American cuisine and can be found at the Bountiful Farmers’ Market. Subscriber Tammy writes:
“A few weeks ago Bountiful Farmers Market had a tasting at various vendors. One of the best was Pikante in the food court area. I love their empanadas and Tostadas. Their quesadillas are good too!”
Before beginning Pikante, the chef/owners ran 3 Amigos restaurant in downtown Edmonton. Along with homemade chips and salsas, you can also find frozen tacos doradas (flautas), empanadas, and Mexican tamales too. They also do custom orders/catering.
Got a suggestion for a small business to spotlight? Let me know!
From the Blog Vault
Around this time last year, I had round up a few local Advent Calendars you could consider getting as gifts for the holiday season (eep! how is it already almost the holiday season?) I am hoping to do an update but knowing how behind I’ve been on things, figured I’d share last year’s for now so if you’re interested you can double check if the places are doing advents for 2022.
Popular on my Blog Right Now
Here are the top four most popular posts on my blog this week:
- Edmonton Food Faves We Crave (2022) (Oct 2022)
- Travel Guide: 12 Foods to Eat in Maui, Hawaii (May 2019)
- Guide to Instagrammable Walls of Edmonton(June 2017)
- Guide to Dog (Pet)-friendly Patios in the Edmonton Area (May 2017)
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