Deane House

The Captain's House

3.5 of 5

Captain Richard Burton Deane was the last North West Mounted Police superintendent to serve at Fort Calgary. He was also a gardener, an amateur magician, a stage actor, a writer and a collector of recipes. That is a man worth having dinner with. The house built for him in 1906 is the next best thing.

It has already moved once, across the Elbow River in 1929, and now faces 9th Avenue SE in Inglewood. Sal Howell, the restaurateur behind River Café, turned it into a restaurant in 2016 with the same faith in seasonal, regional cooking. A garden out back supplies herbs, vegetables and edible flowers to the kitchen a few steps away. Menus turn with the seasons, but the house has long served a Red Fife sourdough with cultured butter that you should not skip, alongside a smoked red lentil hummus and a lamb tartare from Driview Farms when the kitchen is in that mood.

Weekend brunch is where the house seems happiest. Brioche French toast with Saskatoon berry jam is a prairie breakfast in a clean shirt. Go on a Saturday or Sunday morning, find a table near a window, and raise a coffee to the captain. He would have asked for the recipe.

Order this: Red Fife sourdough with cultured butter, lamb tartare, smoked red lentil hummus, brioche French toast with Saskatoon berry jam at brunch
The damage: $$$
Go: Saturday or Sunday brunch, from ten
Find it: 806 9 Ave SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0S2