If you were to walk down 2 Avenue of NW Calgary in the early 1900’s, you would see a building called Vendome Block. It may have housed a grocery store, a candy store, and more recently Heartland Café. Fast-forward to today and you will find Vendome Café, part of the Teatro group of restaurants in Calgary.
Since moving to Sunnyside last month we have frequented Vendome Café. As soon as you walk through the door you feel transported. I worked in the building when Heartland Café occupied the space and it truly has been changed. ‘Vendome’ is a city in France and also happens to be what the building was named when it was built. Very appropriately and tastefully, the décor and ambiance mimics France and Europe. It feels like you’re in a different country, in a different era.
Today’s visit showed Vendome’s popularity with the line up trailing out the door. Other times when we have visited Vendome the line up moved pretty quickly but we waited what felt like quite a while today. Sam and I both ordered the ‘Sunnyside Eggs’ which is 2 eggs, hash browns, bacon, Vendome-made Focaccia toast and jam. The total was $25.00 for both which I find to be a fair price.
We waited about 20 minutes for our food, which is all prepared upstairs in an open kitchen where you can watch the cooks work. One little blip we experienced was receiving fried eggs when we had ordered poached. It wasn’t a huge deal but feel that it is important for customers to receive what they order.
The food was delicious, for sure. I have had this dish twice but the paninis, soup, salad and waffles are very enjoyable. Vendome is definitely my new favorite café, and I love it even more because it’s our local watering hole. If you’re heading down for lunch make sure you come early as it does get very busy. Anticipate a wonderful meal for a very reasonable price.
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