Hockey, thoroughbred racing, soccer, football – when there is a sports-competition of any kind, Home & Away is Calgary’s latest rallying point.
You’ll find it on 17th Avenue S.W. in a space most recently occupied by Moxie’s. It’s from the team behind Craft Beer Market, Commonwealth Stage & Bar and HiFi Club, including PJ L’Heureux and Smalltown DJs Mike Grimes and Pete Emes.
The sport-centric restaurant is an ode to sports fans with reclaimed gymnasium floors and vintage memorabilia on display. Televisions are strategically placed around the room for optimal viewing from all tables and one giant screen can be pulled down in front of a wall otherwise adorned with vintage skateboard decks.
It’s the kind of place where you order a bucket of chicken – served with honey, hot sauce, slaw, pickles and macaroni and cheese – and settle in for a rowdy, community-based viewing of whatever sports game happens to be on.
Beyond fried chicken, executive chef Mike Pigot created a menu that pairs well with sporty revelry. There are burgers and sandwiches, including a Cubano, club, and pulled chicken. Requisite pub-type food includes macaroni and cheese, flank steak, fish and chips. The appetizer menu has crispy cauliflower, tuna tostadas or chorizo corn fritters. Home & Away’s selection of salads includes Caesar, quinoa and cobb. Order a salad and you won’t feel so guilty for getting dessert, which includes peanut butter and jelly brownies, banana splits and custard pie.
There are 20 beers on tap, almost evenly split between Canadian (home) and international (away). For wine, your options are two reds and two whites served by the glass and a few more sold by the bottle. Cheeky cocktails include Lanny’s Ginger Stache, Fernando Valenzuela, The Goswell Pushbroom and Martini Navratilova. It wouldn’t be a Calgary watering hole without Caesars. The Home & Away Caesar comes garnished with a pickle, smoked sausage and cherry tomato. And, you gotta love a restaurant that puts the Shirley Temple and Roy Rogers on its menu for those who are opting for no alcohol.
A few facts that might help negotiate your time at Home & Away include that its happy hours are weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and offer beer, wine and well drinks for $4.50. It serves weekend brunch. And, perhaps most useful to guarantee one of the 175 seats inside during your favourite game, Home & Away takes reservations.
1331 17 Ave. S.W., 403-455-9789, homeandawayyyc.com, @homeandawayyyc