Two weeks ago I did what I hadn't done yet this summer: visit the outdoor St. Albert Farmer's Market. Since the closure of the amazing 104th street outdoor market in Edmonton, St. Albert is the only major farmer's market to take place on a weekend outdoors.
It was okay from a window shopping perspective (helpful hint, never ever buy at a farmer's market what you can also buy in a regular grocery store), but the one highlight from last year appears to have vanished: the outdoor patio at the Royal Canadian Legion located at the far western tip of the market. This was a little disappointing, especially as I had finished talking it up, but there's other places to go in that little burg so we decided to try again.
And again.
And again.
Until we went back to Edmonton.
The first place we hit was Central Social Hall on the northside of the city, which had a nice expansive patio and...nope, it was deserted.
Nevermind, down Mark Messier Trail you can find the only Irish pub left in town, the Dicey Reillys. Literally zero people. Okay, further down there's the previous Irish pub, the Thirsty Rooster (formerly Paddy's, formerly formerly Celtic Knot, formerly formerly a buffer restaurant), which also had an...empty patio. In fairness, the Earl's next door had a few people on the patio but none of us wanted Earl's or for that matter the Original Joe's near Central Social apparently had a few patio-dwellers according to the people who drove past it.
Okay, fine, you know who has an impressive patio even though every staff member is a worthless cunt? Canadian Brewhouse near the Henday. I mean just look at this thing:
Okay that's the outside, what's it look like inside? Couldn't tell you: unlike the other deserted patios this one you have to get in to discover that the patio is closed.
For those of you keeping score, this was early September and the weather was almost +24°C which may not sound impressive but felt considerably warmer.
Last Saturday was similar temperature on Whyte Avenue, and despite the 10+ air quality index caused by the summer of smoke, there were full patios galore. No, this is apparently a St. Albert thing.
