Inglewood, Calgary


The Inglewood neighbourhood, just a few blocks from downtown Calgary is a world away from the towers and franchised stores. In just a few short blocks, there's an interesting combination of independent food and art/design stores.


I started my neighbourhood visit at Choklat where you're invited to design your own chocolate. This was new to me and I had a hard time selecting the “perfect” combination of centre, dip and coating. This is a bean-to-bar chocolate store – no ready-made ingredients here.

Silk Road Spice Merchant is in a wonderful old building with a pressed-tin ceiling. You could spend hours sniffing and sampling all their spices. Presentation, product and service are first class. If you just want a small amount, they’ll weigh it out and put it in a small bag for you so you can try something new without spending a fortune.


I had lunch at one of Wild Grainz Artisan Bakery’s outdoor tables (there is lots of outdoor seating all the way along 9th Avenue). They use local ingredients, no preservatives and traditional techniques. A sign on the wall proudly announces that all their breads take 3 days to make.


Bite is a large, quality food store, a combination of health food store, delicatessen and restaurant (and there’s a wine bar just outside). It was so much fun looking at all the products and I bought a wonderful Wisconsin cheese that had been aged in balsamic vinegar.


I was more than happy to discover Tea Trader and went home with a new variety of oolong.


I had great fun wandering around one store with upcycled furniture and household items, but I’m afraid I can’t remember its name.

See also:
Market on MacLeod, Calgary

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