sidewalk citizen bakery

thanks for saving us a flight to paris. the bread...makes you want to sit in a corner with a baguette, giggling to yourself, while eating the whole thing. the pastries are incredible. spiking the ol' glycemic index never tasted so good. homemade pizza and ever-changing selection of sandwiches makes your visit feel new every time. bonus: the sunnyside market that's attached at the hip allows you to take home some of the nicest fresh vegetables in the area, and whatever other healthfoodstore goodies you may be running low on.

went for late breakfast/ brunch today’s memorial park location , beautiful day, seating outside, nice views and atmosphere
had shakshuka and loved the taste, also had chicken schnitzel that was all good.
going for extended breakfast you would expect decent coffee, they have no drip coffee and charge for every cup which is fine but the americanos were weak and watery, much less taste than any diner drip coffee which is saying something. i would go for thefoodagain but have cold drinks next time

everything they make is phenomenal. their pizza and savoury scones are standout. if you get hummus to go, keep it as cold as possible and eat it with a day or two because it goes bad quickly. staff can be hipster and too cool for school but thefoodmakes up for it.

centrally located cafe in calgary in upscale area. crisp fried egg sandwich, bacon potato leek chowder accompanied with phil & sebastian coffee made this weekend brunch a memorable experience. expect a bit of wait as it is a busy cafe but the servers will bring thefoodto your table. only regret is not enough room to try their desserts!

i was expecting to be alone but looking down the thread reveals several common themes:

- very limited selection past early afternoon
- incompetent staff (yes, they are 'nice' but that doesn't solve the slow lineup)
- arbitrary hours as to whenfoodis available (it does not match what they advertise)

i've experienced all of these problems over my last 3 visits and it seems many others below have as well. on two occasions i had to walk away empty handed.

yes, some of theirfoodis tasty (skip the breakfast options though) but generally the overall customer experience is poor and is more than enough to drive away anyone with even the lowliest expectations for customer service.  

the area needs some real competition - until then: don't waste your time with this place.

been to this location a few times. pros- the quality was great each time i went there. i had products from cookies, other baking goods, to their sandwiches. the location is great- central, close to the trails & adjacent to summer venues. the building they're located in is superb- the restored heritage building makes for great ambience & vibe.
cons- the amount of products are not as available during the afternoon or later during the day (esp., during weekends). this leaving not much selection in terms of variety or further choices; with conclusion of having to spend money onfoodyou may or may not want at the time. it does not appear they bake onsite despite the apparent space to do so (or so it seems), with the amount of space to store products for sales. i wish they would make or provide a bit more baking products, esp. during weekends so that there would be more to choose from (near the afternoon or end of day). for example, this afternoon after 3pm, i was going to go buy something for a work potluck, but had nothing to choose from. it was a disappointment as i was looking for more baked products and had to go to another bakery further away.

a part of the hipster utopia in the simmons building. i visited twice, and enjoyed thefoodboth times. as constructive criticism, i would offer the following:

1. the little bread boards that are used as plates are awkward, and i wouldn't be surprised if 10% of diners drop theirfoodon the floor as it slides off the wax paper. i almost lost my breakfast sandwich this way.
2. the breakfast sandwich was very interesting and delicious, but the mechanics of the hard boiled egg halves were awkward. there has to be a more effective way to incorporate the egg?
3. the shakshuka was tasty for sure, but i would caution the chef to go easier on the cumin and coriander seeds. i found their abundance off-putting. i'd suggest to use 1/4 of what you did use, and augment with a pinch of fresh ground roasted cumin and coriander to kick up the flavor while finishing the dish. the extreme quantity of spice seeds could be a barrier to the dish gaining word of mouth popularity in my humble opinion. i offer these comments as constructive criticism only, based on my experiences with cooking and the like. i hope they are helpful.

at lunch, m and i went to check out the simmons building in east village. charbar was packed so we went over to sidewalk citizen. i really like the soups and pizzas at sidewalk citizen’s kensington location, so i was confident thatfoodat this location would be good as well. m picked up a pastry filled with cream that was decorated with blueberries. she said it was one of the best pastries she has eaten in a while. at 63 years old and an avid traveller and eater of desserts, i’d say that’s quite the compliment.

went there to get brunch, but they had a hard stop right at 11 so missed that boat. would highly recommend for those eating there to secure a seat first as those are hard to come by. although the line seems long at first it actually does move quickly and thefoodif not expedited then and there does get to you in a reasonable amount of time.
friends suggested to try the bread pudding... you cannot go wrong there, it was delicious.
even though they had breakfast, the menu is very limited. i ended up ordering their meat pizza, fantastic crust and great flavours. but not at the point where i would have to get it again...
overall, great little spot. ok service. great place for deserts to go along with your coffee!!, but don't expect to much from their menu outside of deserts.

we went to the east village location for lunch. they start lunch at 11am and when we got there there were no more sandwich options left but grill cheese ?! and a veggie pita option. seriously? we decided we'd try the veggie pita. the line took forever, the service is so slow, and it was just over $12 for what was a mostly pita, and a few veggies! bland at best.
i noticed others were have a "salad with a slice of bread for $9.75 , the salad portion was roughly 100 grams! calgary have we become this gullible? there was no value , quality or service here. i hope people will get tired of the crappyfoodexperiences that exist and simply don't frequent these places until they can offer the consumer a fair product for their dollar.

sidewalk citizen was always awesome in their kensington location. the only problem was it was super cramped. this new location really lets them shine with the space to serve their amazingfoodin style overlooking the bow river. the pastries we tried were amazing! a triple chocolate cherry cookie and peach cheese cake. the flat breads we had for dinner felt like they should have been served in a fancy sit down restaurant and not a cafe style deli. great location. great food.

thefoodat sidewalk citizen was delicious and the service was quick! staff were friendly when answering questions and the menu was laid out clearly for guests.

posted by yyc's best eats on february 1, 2012 in bistro , calgaryfoodand restaurant reviews | 0 comments i'm probably the last one to write about the wonderful experience we had at charpop, but better late than never and you get to hear our take on this night. if you haven't heard about charpop yet, a brief description of what it's all about. charcut restarant (connie desousa and john jackson), grant van gameren and baker extraordinaire aviv fried opened a stealthy new restaurant at a secret location from jan 15-17, 2012. open one day and close the next. they will be doing this a few more times in the year so keep an eye out at www.charpop.com . tonight, fellow foodie guy (not fieri) and myself attended the last seating of the event on the 17th at 9pm. we got a phone call earlier that day to let us know where to enter from. tonight it was the red back door marked with an "x" on it. as we entered through the rear of sidewalk citizen bakery, it was such a cool atmosphere, it felt like