Calgary, Alberta

Calgary is a city where an international population and a strong local culture assure a broad range of dining choices, whether you are looking for an old-fashioned family restaurant or feel the need to sample exotic foreign spices. The bar and club scene is no less diverse with establishments catering to every crowd, from draft beer swilling traditionalists to martini-loving professionals to techno-rave enthusiasts.

There are several restaurant and bar districts, each with its own distinct flavor and character. From the refined pubs of Kensington to the rough and ready cowboy bars of the Stampede area, there is something for everyone to be found here.

Kensington

Kensington is the place to find the exotic and unusual in Calgary, with several blocks packed with small shops and restaurants. This is where the ethnically diverse establishments such as the Marathon Ethiopian Restaurant and the Irish Kensington Pub . The Vietnamese flavor of the Blue Ginger Cafe and Restaurant adds even more character to an area famed for its diversity and adventurous architectural style. This is also ground zero for coffee shops, with over a dozen establishments ranging from cyber-cafes to old-fashioned bakeries crowded into a few blocks.

Inglewood

Inglewood is the oldest region of the city, and the area where the first settler in the Bow Valley built his homestead. The buildings date from the turn of the century, with many built in the now-crumbling sandstone blocks popular at the time. The local businesses reflect the frontier character by offering a more down-home Canadian atmosphere than the upper-crust cuisine of Kensington. This is where you will find Kane's Harley Diner, located in a Harley Davidson shop, as well as the Hose and Hound Pub, which occupies a deserted fire-hall.

17th Avenue

Fashion, flash and panache dominate 17th Avenue. Home to most of the city's upper-end clothing and jewelry designers, this is where the young and upwardly mobile strut their stuff. Martini and hibachi bars line the east end, while family and international restaurants nestle amongst the shops of the west end. The Chianti Café and Restaurant and the Buon Giorno's Restaurant specialize in traditional Italian dishes, while Kashmir and Spicy Hut offer other types of distinct regional cuisine.

Stephen Avenue Walk

Stephen Avenue Walk is a cobblestoned street in the heart of the city which is closed to vehicles and has become a gathering point for Calgarians from all walks of life. This is where you will find the Palace Nightclub, which is the undisputed monarch of Calgary nightclubs, as well as the more sedate Unicorn Celtic Pub and a host of street cafes and small restaurants. Located beneath the towers of Bankers Hall, the sidewalks are always alive with street performers and buskers plying their trade amongst a steady stream of bike couriers, business people and travelers.

Fourth Street

If you are looking for a restaurant of any nationality, flavor or decor, chances are that it will be found somewhere on Fourth Street southwest. Between 17th street and the Elbow River, both sides of Fourth are jammed with dozens of restaurants serving fare as diverse as the Burger Inn's ostrich burger or the garlic-saturated "stinking steak" at Antonio's Garlic Clove. The Fourth Street area is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the best places to eat in western Canada because of its ethnic diversity and wide range of prices.

Macleod Trail

If you are looking for a chain restaurant of any description, it will probably be found somewhere on Macleod Trail. A drive along the strip will reveal at least one franchise of every American fast food restaurant imaginable, as well as the Southcentre and Chinook shopping malls. Lined with Macdonald's, Pizza Huts and similar establishments, the strip is 10 miles of blazing lights and deafening music emanating from the many boisterous nightclubs. Sandwiched between the Porsche and Ferrari dealerships is a vast strip mall complex which shelters Outlaws, the Back Alley and the French Maid , the largest and loudest of the Calgary clubs.

Stampede

This area is a little bit seedy, but contains some of the wildest and most interesting bars in the city. As it is close to the Stampede Grounds and the Saddledome, hockey fans and Stampede-goers make sure that an exciting time is had by all. The area is often frequented by sports celebrities traveling incognito and has become a favorite haunt of Prince Albert of Monaco.

The country-western tradition is especially strong here, with many bar patrons sporting cowboy boots and large-brimmed Stetson hats. Local saloon owners are fiercely loyal to the home hockey and football teams, and one has made a habit of standing in the street dressed only in red long underwear and sporting a shotgun while he waits for the opposing team's bus to drive by, which it invariably does after hockey games, accompanied by much derisive hooting from both the bar patrons and the occupants of the bus.

The city of Calgary has only been incorporated since 1904, but it is estimated that the Bow River Valley has been inhabited for the last 10,000 years. At the end of the last Ice Age, the ancestors of the present-day native tribes made their way across the Bering Sea from Siberia, traveling down through Alaska before settling in the Rocky Mountain foothills. There they formed the Blackfoot, Sarcee, Blood, Stoney and Shaganappi nations, and subsisted on the seasonal migrations of American buffalo herds. Their way of life remained relatively unchanged until the late 1870s, when Europeans hunted the buffalo to near-extinction. With the buffalo gone, the natives began trapping beaver and other fur-bearing mammals for the Hudson's Bay and North-West Trading companies, who set up trading posts in the Bow Valley and at Rocky Mountain House to the northwest. The local furs were especially prized by designers in Paris and New York for their richness and quality, and commanded high prices from the traders.

This lucrative market lured opportunists from the United States, who began selling cheap bootleg whiskey to the traders and native trappers. The resulting anarchy inspired the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to dispatch officers in 1894 to build Fort Calgary and restore order. Meanwhile, farmers were beginning to move into the fertile Alberta prairies. The first settler in the area of what is now Calgary was a cattle rancher who started a small farm near the junction of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, in an area now known as Inglewood. His ranch was the first of hundreds built by the flood of immigrants that would soon pour into the region.

In the late 1800s, Western Canada was still mostly wilderness and the Canadian government was afraid that the United States might try to annex the as-yet-undefined provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. To unite the nation, a railroad was proposed stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic. This railroad, which was constructed in 1881, was to drastically change the nature of Calgary, and transform it from a remote frontier outpost into a bustling jumping-off point for the settling of the Western Prairies.

The Calgary townsite had the good fortune to be built at the entrance to the Kicking Horse Pass, one of the few passages through the sheer eastern wall of the Rocky Mountains. The 10,000-12,000 foot-high peaks denied access to a railway all along their thousand-mile length, except for a narrow valley which led from Calgary into the heart of British Columbia. This meant that the railroad had to be routed through Calgary, which became a major supply station during the construction process. Hotels, saloons and shops sprang up to serve the construction workers, and the first train loads of immigrant farmers and ranchers began pouring in. The fertile plains to the west of Calgary made ideal grain farming territory, while the rich and abundant natural grasses also produced a grade of beef unequaled in North America. In 1904 the City of Calgary was incorporated with a population of 6,000. It grew slowly until the event occurred that would determine the city's direction for the rest of the century. In 1914, just before the start of the First World War, huge reserves of oil were discovered in the surrounding hillsides. Half the local ranchers became instantly wealthy, and a boom rocked the city. When the demand for oil dried up after the war, recession set in and many residents set off to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

In 1930, seeking to revive the floundering local economy, an American promoter and four local ranchers set out to create the "Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth," the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. This celebration of cowboy culture and the ranching lifestyle became the most celebrated festival in Western Canada, and the rodeo competitions are still a showcase of the best and toughest cowboys and cowgirls in the world.

As the Second World War was winding down, a vast oilfield was discovered to the north, near Edmonton, ushering in a new boom. While most of the actual drilling and processing of the oil was centered around Edmonton, most company headquarters, refineries and related industries chose locations closer to the railroad in Calgary.

In the 1990s, many of Canada's largest corporations moved their head offices from the more traditional business centers of Montreal and Toronto, and have set up shop in downtown Calgary. The electronics and e-commerce industries have found the community appealing, and are now a driving force behind the city's development.