Historical Places For Fine Dining In Calgary

Recently I gave a talk to Calgary’s Probus Club about how Calgary has preserved more history than most people think. In doing the research I realized one of the strengths of Calgary’s historical preservation is the conversion of historical buildings into restaurants and cafés.  I ended my talk by challenging each member to visit at least one of Calgary’s historical dining spots over the next month or two.  

In Calgary, you can dine al fresco along Stephen Avenue Walk, a three block early 20th century National Historic Site of Canada.

Here is my list of fun heritage dining spots in Calgary.

Oldest Dining Spot

The Deane House was built in 1906 on the Fort Calgary site, for Captain Richard Burton Deane, the last serving North-West Mounted Police Superintendent in Calgary. Steeped in history, the Deane House is now located on the east side of the Elbow River, at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers. The site was an important meeting place for the Indigenous peoples who have used this area for thousands of years as a place to hunt, camp and cross the river.

The Deane House site and historic house was redeveloped in 2015 by the Fort Calgary Historic Preservation Society with a garden and outdoor event space. The house was repurposed as a restaurant by Sal Howell, founder of the iconic River Café, and long-time champion of seasonal, local, and sustainable food.

The Deane House sits along the Elbow River across for Fort Calgary Park.

It was a nice March day so we were able to sit on the veranda.

Big Four Dining

Just a few blocks away from the Deane House is Rouge Restaurant (yes, the house is rouge coloured), located in the historic 1891 A.E. Cross House. Cross was one of the four Calgary businessmen who each put up $25,000 (known as the Big Four) to finance the first Calgary Stampede, in 1912. And as they say, “the rest is history.”

The restaurant was founded in 2003 by chef Paul Rogalski and restaurateur Olivier Reynaud. It is known for its "modern farmhouse" cuisine, featuring  on-site garden ingredients and Alberta agriculture and ranching products, earning it international recognition including a spot on the World's Best Restaurants list in 2010.

Rouge is one of Calgary’s signature dining spots.

Hotel Dining

Calgary offers two historic hotel dining experiences. The Fairmont Palliser Hotel’s signature dining room opened in 1914 as the Palm Room, became the Oak Dining Room in the early ‘40s and then the Range Room in the ‘50s.  In 1962 it became the Big Top Lounge for a short time before being rebranded in 1966 as the Rimrock Lounge. In the ‘80s it was remodelled as the Oak Room until 2019 when it became the Hawthorn. Regardless of the name, Calgary’s historic railway hotel has offered an elegant historic dining experience for over 100 years.

The Fairmont Paliser Hotel is full of historic artifacts as well as home to the Hawthorn dining room.

Calgary’s second historic hotel dining experience at the National Hotel in Inglewood. It too is located next to the railway tracks. The National Hotel was constructed in 1907 and began operations in 1908, serving as both a tavern and a hotel for transient workers. The hotel was close to the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.) station, the Calgary Malting and Brewery Company and the livery (stable). Although hotels and liveries were often paired enterprises on the Prairies, the National Hotel and the East End Livery Barn are a rare example of this combination still standing in Alberta.

The hotel underwent significant restoration in 2014 and became home to The Nash restaurant and Off Cut Bar while retaining its historic charm.  The restaurant is owned by Michael Noble one of Canada’s most renowned chefs.

The National Hotel is home to The Nash restaurant and Off Cut Bar.

Stephen Avenue Walk Dining

One of downtown Calgary’s most unique features is its pedestrian mall along 8th Avenue from 4th Street SW (originally called Broadway) to Macleod Trail (originally known as Drinkwater Street).  All of Calgary’s downtown streets originally had names - most were named after Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) senior executives as the CPR owned all the downtown land. 8th Avenue was named after CPR’s first President Lord Mount Stephen. It was branded Stephen Avenue Walk in the ‘90s, by the Calgary Downtown Association as a marketing tool and to avoid confusion by visitors who were looking for an indoor shopping mall.

Today Stephen Avenue Walk is downtown’s historic main street (designated a National Historic Site of Canada) lined with early 20th century sandstone buildings many of which house restaurants and pubs offering a diversity of dining options.

The longest standing historic dining experience on Stephen Avenue Walk is Teatro which opened in 1993 in the Beaux-Arts style Dominion Bank building (est 1911). It offers perhaps the most elegant dining experience in Calgary with its 22-foot ceilings, classic pillars and local art. Owner Dario Berloni was born in Italy and has created an old world experience in the one of North America’s most vibrant new world cities.

Teatro offers one of Calgary’s finest dining experiences.

The Opera Room is a private dining room at Teatro.

Historic Park Dining

Calgary is home to 7000+ parks and green spaces, so it is not surprising it would have a restaurant in a park. In fact, Calgary’s Fish Creek Park is a provincial park within the city’s boundaries and in the park is the Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant. The site began as the farm homesteaded of John Glenn in the 1870s. In 1879, the federal government purchased Glenn’s homestead to use as an instructional farm to teach indigenous peoples how to farm.

In 1883, William and John Roper Hull bought the property and made many improvements, a signature one being the construction of a Victorian English style, two-storey brick ranch house. In 1902, Patrick Burns, one of the Big Four who founded the Calgary Stampede purchased the house expanding his holdings to become a major rancher in Alberta. After his death in 1937, Burns’ nephew and his son carried on the ranching operation and the storied tradition of western hospitality at the Bow Valley Ranche House. Today it offers, fine dining in a unique park setting in that is synonymous with Alberta agriculture.

Bow Valley Ranche House.

Calgary is also home to a café in a garden. Yes, Calgary’s historic Reader Rock Garden is home to the Reader House, that was the home of William Reader who was Calgary’s Parks Superintendent from 1913 to 1943. The garden was his playground where he could test what plants would grow Calgary’s unique prairie/foothill climate.

Today the house is quaint café, where you can enjoy lunch or coffee and a treat after or before wandering the garden with its 4,000 different plant varieties.

Reader House Cafe

Last Word

This is not a comprehensive list of heritage dining spots but rather some of the more storied ones.

And yes, I did accept the Probus challenge myself and a few weeks later we had lunch at the Deane House. It didn’t disappoint as we enjoyed an elegant lunch in a chic setting. We might even make a point of trying each of these heritage dining spots over the next year.