7/14/2023 0 Comments Biergarten dasbootWalking into WURST, I was pretty taken by the expansive space that the classy main floor took up. Indeed, confirmed that he had, in fact, been so unimpressed by the poor service at CRAFT that he left 15 min. Twitter was abuzz with mentions of CRAFT and WURST, and it was quite clear from the tweets that most people were pretty unhappy with the level of service at CRAFT. I was actually feeling sick that day, but still opted to check out WURST as I was pretty jazzed about the positive reviews it was getting in twitter verse. I did try some of Kent’s pork knuckle, though, and it was all I imagined and more! Kiran’s Observations Perhaps my taste buds were just numb from the couple pints of beer. Wurst’s website boldly proclaims “We’re bringing mustard back”, but I could barely taste any on my dish, despite the picture clearly showing it. I wasn’t a huge fan of the bratwurst, actually – I thought it was too dry and didn’t pack much flavour. As such, I wasn’t able to see what I was eating – though given that it was just a pan full of bratwurst and beets floating in some sort of potato-ey substance, that wasn’t a huge problem. However, the table that we moved to was in utter darkness – the light bulb above us emanated only the faint glow of a dying ember ( to be fair though, they turned the lights down in the entire beer hall in some misguided attempt to generate ambiance and mystique –Kiran). Just as our food arrived, a table opened up. The food came out in sizzling cast-iron pans – quite a striking presentation! – and definitely looked delicious (especially the pork knuckle… mmmm, 80% fat!). As Kent had already settled on the knuckle, my aversion to ordering the same dish as someone else at the table caused me to order the pile of bratwurst instead. The schweinshaxen (pork knuckle) immediately caught my eye, as it was one of the dishes I associate most with beer halls in Europe. Given the storied history of its chefs (the executive chef has worked at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, the Drake Hotel, and Bison in Banff amongst other places), I had high expectations for the food at Wurst. Unfortunately, Wurst had the same problems as Craft: of the 20 draft beers that they have on the menu, only three were available! It was as though there was a mini-prohibition going on in the city or something ( good social media marketing, poor planning, or are Calgarians just getting ready for Stampede? –Kiran). No joke – for the price of $25 (though the website says $30?), you can have a 2L boot of beer, just like in Beerfest! As we walked in without a reservation, we were relegated to sitting around a barrel in the basement – not the most comfortable of situations – but we were at least promptly served with some beer! The waitresses were dressed in mock-Bavarian-beer-girl outfits (they were actually T-shirts), and while the service was quite average, it was a vast improvement over Craft that day ( I personally thought it was excellent considering how how packed the place was –Kiran). Much like Wildwood, Wurst has both a main floor and a basement with different styling and demeanour – the upper floor is classier with tablecloths and lighted trees (putting the garten into biergarten), while the lower floor is a boisterous beer hall with benches, barrels, and boots of booze. I had been meaning to check this place out for some time, though I had mistakenly thought that it had opened in April when it, in fact, was opening the same weekend as Craft – it was like two Hollywood blockbusters going at it for the opening weekend box-office title! Summary: Looking like it could be a great overall addition to the YYC food scene, Wurst deftly navigates the line between classy and casual while bringing a classic alternative to the traditional watering-holes in Calgary.ĭespite the rain a couple of weekends ago, Kent and I decided to join up with Kiran and head on over to Wurst, the questionably-named, German-inspired restaurant/beer hall that has taken the place of Wildwood in the district of Mission.
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