Openings: May 2014

Check out these hot new rooms we love!

EdmontonNorth 53Opened this spring, the 55-seat North 53 makes a delicious attempt to bring everything Canadian to the table, from locally sourced cremini mushrooms and liquorice root to wild boar and fresh Alberta bee pollen—and plenty of Okanagan wines hand-picked for their exclusively Canadian wine list, natch. This chic space (complete with raw concrete and a generous amount of white oak) and the sophisticated dishes—think lamb tartare served up with sunchokes, bone marrow and pickled onions—come from the talented minds of owner Kevin Cam and former Blue Pear chef Ben Staley, who hope to introduce diners to the edible possibilities in their own backyard. north53.caCalgaryBocce PizzeriaThe best spot at Bocce (the new, pizza-centric offshoot of Italian restaurant and market Mercato) is the McKinley Burkart-designed long bar—it’s a front-row seat to watch the kitchen crew toss and knead soft, floury dough and to see your thin-crust pie emerge, bubbling, from the wood-burning oven. Keep it simple and stick with a classic margherita, topped with rich tomato sauce, fresh basil and decadently soft buffalo mozzarella, best enjoyed, of course, with a cold beer in hand.VancouverDesigners GuildWhile we wait for a flagship Designers Guild store to call our own, the new shop-within-a-shop at Chintz and Company will satisfy our cravings for those pretty textiles, rugs and wallpapers just fine. Western Living Designers of the Year judge Tricia Guild continues to create covetable pieces for colour lovers with her (sort-of) eponymous line—we’re loving the vivid Zari cashmere blankets, peppered with swatches of peony pink, from the DG spring line, and the delicate botanical-print Mokuren cushions, which pair pops of cobalt and moss with graphite sketches.