Phil & Sebastian Coffee Company

Calgary Farmers Market

Phil and Sebastian were an early find in my quest for good coffee in Calgary, recommended by my barista friends back at Gimme! in Ithaca. They are a small operation, initially offering very freshly roasted beans (all bags marked with the roasting date), which you selected from a weekly email description. The beans were then home delivered.

The newest development for Phil and Sebastian is a stand at the Calgary Farmers Market, where they now offer espresso drinks as well as the beans (now chosen after sniffing beans in large jars). The beans are excellent, as were the 2 lattes I’ve had. A visit to the Farmers Market has always been worth the drive; Phil and Sebastian make it even better!

Simple Simon Pies

Calgary Farmers Market

The humble meat pie is an Australian institution sadly unappreciated by our North American friends. I have to admit that the situation in Calgary is much better than in Ithaca, with frozen meat pies of reasonable quality readily available in the supermarket. However a weekend lunch of hot meat pies from the local bakery is generally not an option.

Simple Simon Pies brought a happy end to my meat pie wasteland theory. A trip to the Calgary Farmers Market is well worth the effort for the pies alone. I walked up to the counter and was immediately offered a taste. My request for “something that tastes like an Aussie meat pie” brought two offerings, steak and tourtiere. The steak pie was a fantastic open faced pie filled with real pieces of meat in enough (but not too much) gravy. Tourtiere is a French-Canadian pork, beef, and potato mixture, which was delicious in a lidded pie. Simple Simon make fruit pies too, and the mango pie we tried was a welcome taste of summer in the cold weather. Not too sweet, but sticky enough to satisfy.

We came home from the markets with a dozen frozen pies, and it won’t be long before we go back for more.