My Balcony: One of My Favourite Places
Posted on July 13, 2007
Filed Under Uncategorized |
I’m writing this on Thursday, and the high temperature today was somewhere in the low 30s (that’s high 80s to low 90s for those of you using the Fahrenheit system), and it’s expected to be the same all weekend. This kind of weather is patio weather, something that we get too little of here in Edmonton.
Personally, my favourite patio is my balcony. I’ve got some nice trees; I can watch the cars go by on the road nearby; and squirrels and magpies frequent the area. It’s not uncommon to see a squirrel running along the fence just metres away from my railing. In the winter and spring there are a lot of rabbits that run around in the parking lot, but I haven’t seen them at all since the weather got warm.
Now, telling you that my balcony is my favourite place to sit and drink cold beer on a hot day doesn’t really help you beat the heat this weekend, does it? (Unless I like you enough to invite you over.) In order to remedy this problem, I’ve put together a list of a few of my favourite patios around town.
- Earls Tin Palace (11830 Jasper Ave) - I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of Earls, especially not the Tin Palace location. I’ve rarely had good service there, and I find their food to be fairly pricey considering the quality. Having said that, it’s been a few years since I’ve been, so things may have improved. Despite my bad experiences, I simply can’t knock the patio at the Tin Palace. It’s probably the largest patio space in the city, and the location is great. If you want to knock back a cold one, and maybe have some chicken wings (the wings, I like), the Tin Palace is as good a place as any.
- Brewsters (11620 104th Avenue) - Choosing the Oliver Square location for my favourite Brewsters patio was a somewhat arbitrary choice. The patios at the other locations might be nicer–the Oliver location overlooks the parking lot–but I’ve only ever been to the Oliver Square location. Plus, I only live a couple of blocks away. Brewsters has done good beer, and they brew it all themselves, on location. I like the downtown location, but I’m sure the other locations around town are just as good.
- Anywhere on Whyte Avenue (Whtye Ave, between 109 Street and Gateway Blvd.) - Admittedly, a lot of the “patios” on Whyte Ave are just tables and small chairs set out on the sidewalk, but that doesn’t matter. Whether you’re sitting on the sidewalk sipping on an iced coffee, or drinking a beer at Hudson’s or O’Byrne’s, there are few better places to be on a hot summer day than on Whyte Avenue. It’s the gathering point for the city–the watering hole on our urban Serengeti. If you want to see or been seen, it’s the place to be. Plus, it’s a great place to gawk at attractive members of either sex–especially in the lusty heat of a prairie summer.
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I feel the need for some of us to gather at one of these patios that you’re so fond of next month sometime… What do you think??