RGE RD

RGE RD is a rustic 60-seat room just outside downtown Edmonton, run by chef Blair Lebsack and his partner Caitlin Fulton since 2013. The pair started out cooking long-table dinners on local farms, and that idea still sets the menu: ingredients come from farms and small producers across Western Canada, and the menu shifts with the seasons. A wood-fired oven burning birch and maple runs through service and after hours for smoking and drying.

Whole-animal butchery is the other pillar, and a nightly special called Questionable Bits uses the cuts most kitchens skip. Food Day Canada points to wild game, cured pork smoked on site and Salt Spring Island mussels, poured alongside Okanagan wines and local craft beer. The six-course Road Trip tasting menu tours Alberta's farms and woodlands; Vacay.ca's run through it included bison tenderloin seasoned with juniper and Labrador tea. The sister shop, The Butchery by RGE RD, sells lunch and charcuterie, and the restaurant placed #89 on Canada's 100 Best in 2023.