Photo from Charcut’s website

I mean did you honestly think after all those Top Chef Canada recaps that I’d go to Calgary without eating at Connie’s restaurant?

Danielle and I visited Charcut on the Friday night of my visit, and it was jam-packed. Sometimes trendy restaurants make me nervous, but the hostess was nice and our waiter was very down-to-earth.

Now the menu changes daily, so I may not have some of the descriptions exactly right because I can’t consult the website for details.  I also don’t have any pictures of what we ate, but that won’t stop me from telling you all about it.

First up, we had homemade pretzels. Delicious! Instead of the curly pretzel shapes, there were two long pretzels sticks; perfectly brown and salty on the outside and chewy on the inside. The pretzels came with some grainy mustard for dipping, as well as a small dish of pickled vegetables. Let me just tell you that pickled carrots are a revelation! Danielle was surprised I’ve never had one before…but I have never come across them. We also had pickled golden beets and picked cucumbers.

For dinner, Danielle had slow-roasted chicken, and after seeing Connie make so much sausage on Top Chef, I thought I better try some. I remember it was kielbasa, but I don’t remember the details about it! It came thinly sliced on a little cutting board, with sautéed fennel and more whole grain mustard. We also got some fluffy little rolls with it, so I was kind of going to town stacking up little kielbasa sliders.

Sides are a la carte, so we got two to share. First was broccolini with lemon, chili and parmesan, and second was truffle smashed potatoes with bacon. I loved them both. It was especially nice to eat something green after eating all those doughnuts that morning!

For dessert, we both had cherry cheesecake in jar, which had a graham layer on the bottom, a creamy cheesecake layer, and housemade cherry preserves. YUM. If you think I haven’t already picked up a 12-pack of 250mL mason jars at Wal-Mart so I can re-create this at home, then you don’t know me at all.

Throughout our dinner, we could see Connie working in the open kitchen, and I asked our waiter if she minded people coming over to talk to her (I know I get annoyed sometimes when people come to bother me at my desk when I’m working!). When he brought us our credit card slips to sign, he told us to hang on for a few minutes because Connie was going to come over to say hello!

We got to tell Connie how much we loved our dinner, and especially our cherry cheesecake in a jar. She talked a little bit about the seasonal fruit preserves that they make at the restaurant. I also asked if she had a good time on the show, or if it was too stressful to enjoy. She told us that Charcut opened only six months before she left to film the show, so that was a crazy time for her. Apparently the pace of the show was insane, and the cheftestants only got three days off over the six month shoot. She said she was really excited to meet up with everyone again at the end of August in Toronto at the CNE. We thanked her again for dinner and went on our way!