Ten Foot Henry

Vegetables in Beef Country

4 of 5

Name a restaurant after a comic book character and you had better have a sense of humor. Henry was a 1980s comic figure, and a real ten-foot statue of him once stood for Calgary's art scene. Aja Lapointe and her husband, chef Stephen Smee, borrowed the name in 2016 and built a room of wooden beams, bench tables and hanging plants that feels like a picnic somebody moved indoors.

The food is anchored in vegetables, which in a beef province is close to heresy. It works because nobody here is preaching. The cauliflower comes with gochujang, sesame and ginger, and it holds its own as a main course. Charred cabbage gets Manchego. Whipped feta and tomatoes go on sourdough, and the last piece will cause a diplomatic incident. There is meat and fish for the holdouts, and executive chef Don Lee moves the menu across Asia, Italy and the prairies without losing the thread. Plates are for sharing, so bring people who do not guard their side of the table.

Save room for the butterscotch pudding. I have eaten in plenty of rooms where vegetables were a penance served on slate. Here they are the reason you came, and the bill stays sane for what lands on the table. Go at lunch on a weekday, sit near the plants, and order more than you think a vegetable deserves.

Order this: Cauliflower with gochujang, sesame and ginger, charred cabbage with Manchego, whipped feta and tomatoes on sourdough, butterscotch pudding
The damage: $$
Go: Weekday lunch, with a group that shares
Find it: 1209 1 St SW, Calgary, AB T2R 0V3