Breakfast with my other family

[Update: I'm re-posting this with edits due to the fact that word got out that my favourite place in the greater Calgary area to eat breakfast is barely getting by. If you want a meal like your grandma would make - go! Soon! While there's still a place to go to]

Sometimes when I go out for breakfast, I feel like family. I certainly get treated like family. You know how sometimes you go to someone’s house for a visit, and they waste no time at all making you feel at home, to the point of even being mock rude and telling you if you want something that badly, go get it yourself? That’s the kind of place I’m talking about. It takes me 35 minutes to drive here, but I don’t mind at all. I beg Darlene to let us come here at least once a month while the weather’s nice.

This house, out in the country, is home to the Priddis View & Brew Bistro. It's run by an older lady named Lynn. She could just as well be your grandma. Her son helps out too and I don’t know if the cook is related, but she may as well be. The house itself is pure country living. A large porch / patio on the south side, 5 assorted sized tables in the dining room. A separate room with a little cozy sit up counter and a display case with all sorts of baked goods. Little gifts and art and nostalgia hanging all over the place.

If you’ve got the place to yourself, you might get a coffee right away. But what’s more likely is that Grandma is still putting on a fresh pot and you had best just relax and wait. Sometimes I’ll get up once I know the pot is done and grab it and pour a cup for our table and anyone else who needs some. Good luck getting away with that in your average restaurant. Someone will spy me doing their job and jokingly ask if I’m looking for a job. The place is usually filled with friends, cyclists stopping in for a quick java, or first timers who’ve heard about the place, but had to come see it for themselves.

The food. It’s home cooking. Nothing here tastes like it fell of the back of a Sysco food supply truck. It’s made with love and butter and it tastes real. The toast is made from little mini focaccia  loaves. Breakfasts are served with freshly made pan fried potatoes with onion. The bacon is sublime, almost like candy. On Saturday night they cook up a beef tenderloin meal, which we’ve had. It’s great. On Sunday night, they put on a traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings. We tried it the weekend after Thanksgiving once, because we missed the big dinner while returning from vacation. It was awesome!

This place can fill up unexpectedly fast, so you really do need to make a reservation. You especially need a reservation if you're going for dinner, as they only cook enough turkey or beef to meet the needs of who is coming. The name of the place is the Priddis View and Brew Bistro, and it’s in the hamlet of Priddis, Alberta, southwest of Calgary. Do us all a favour and go so this wonderful establishment can stay open at least another year.