The actual Stampede doesn’t kick off for another two weeks, but Stampede Park has been a beehive of activity over the last few weeks. The splashy new BMO Centre expansion opened earlier this month, but it’s not the only new facility to visit at the grounds. The Calgary Stampede Foundation’s Sam Centre, a new 30,000-square-foot building just northeast of the Saddledome and west of the bridge into Ramsay opened at the end of May, serving as a permanent year-round home to Stampede artifacts and the spirit of Calgary’s most famed festival.
Think of it as part museum and part public gathering space — and when people gather, there’s no better way to do it than over something good to eat or drink. While there is an admission fee to see the exhibits at the Sam Centre, accessing the building itself is free, which means anyone ambling through Victoria Park can grab a bite at the Maisie Eatery, the centre’s counter-service restaurant. Embedding destination restaurants in top museums and interpretive centres has become a trend worldwide — visitors to places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam often pop in solely for the restaurants — and the minds behind the Sam Centre knew they needed to get the building’s food service right.
Rather than simply outsourcing to a faceless, mass-market food provider, the Stampede Foundation brought in executive chef Barbara Spain, the former chef and owner at Cleaver, a hip 17th Avenue cocktai.