Step inside Cucina Market and Bistro, located on 8th Avenue, and you can expect a warm, inviting atmosphere and top-quality ingredients, culinary techniques and passionate industry professionals. As part of Teatro Group — a reputable group of Calgary restaurants with over 30 years of experience — Cucina upholds Teatro’s excellent service standards while providing a unique experience of its own.
Cucina’s small, intimate atmosphere offers an opportunity to enjoy the company you’re with, its downtown location makes it easy to access, and the menu’s variety provides something for everybody — all great reasons to plan your next date night here.
The perfect spot
Inside Cucina, guests will find intricately tiled floors, warm lighting and an open kitchen. The space is small enough that there’s limited ambient noise so you can converse with ease, but not so small that the energy in the room falls flat.
“It’s a gorgeous little room, sort of like a nook of Florence, if you will,” says Teatro Group chief operating officer Matthew Batey. “There’s this element of intimacy in that room that really makes it a very comfortable and inviting place to be.”
Cucina’s central location is convenient — it’s easy to access by car or on foot by Stephen Avenue’s pedestrian walkway. And it’s the perfect spot for when you don’t want the evening to end. After dinner, take a stroll along the buzzing downtown streets to window-shop or people-watch. Keep the date going with a show at Vertigo Theatre or Jack Singer Concert Hall.
A tailored experience
Not all date nights are the same and an evening at Cucina can be exactly what you’re looking for — whatever that may be — without any compromise.
Looking to sip on thoughtfully crafted cocktails? Cucina puts a delicious twist on its boozy beverages — think vanilla martinis or the perfect balance of gin and basil. Or maybe splitting a nice bottle of red is more your speed? Thanks to Teatro’s esteemed wine cellar, which holds over 15,000 bottles, Cucina guests can find exceptional options exclusive to Teatro Group. The group buys wines in futures, meaning they are purchased before the grapes even exist. When the wine arrives in the cellar, it isn’t always quite ready to drink, so Teatro tucks it away until it reaches its prime — sometimes for years — before adding it to the menu. The menu itself, and its rarity in range and offerings, is thanks to Teatro’s carefully hand-selected choices, offering a specially curated program for guests to enjoy. And, if you don’t drink, it’s not a problem. The menu includes a great non-alcoholic program, too.
A curated menu
The Italian-forward menu features plenty of options for snacks, small bites and things to share, as well as carefully curated main courses, like handmade pastas. “Italian cooking is typically a simpler approach, which is where you really let the quality of the ingredient shine because you’re not masking it or hiding it with technique. Top quality ingredients are so important,” says Batey.
Cucina has recently welcomed a new Chef de Cuisine, James Lawson, who brings fresh, fun and highly executed dishes to the restaurant, including beef tartare, endive salad, tuna crudo, pork rib piccata and gnocchi. “You can taste when people cook with love,” says Batey. “One of the things that’s exciting about this new menu is that you’ve got an injection of new excitement and energy.”
Book your next date night at Cucina Market and Bistro, visit cucinamarketbistro.ca.
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