Hello friends! Thanks for joining me again as we near the halfway point of this series
I truly appreciate all of your encouragement and support! Today on the blog is someone who has played an important role in the shop local scene in Edmonton. Darcy and Jessie Radies are the owners of the Blue Pear restaurant and Jessie is the creator of several wonderful organizations such as Original Fare and Keep Edmonton Original, which is in the process of becoming Live Local Alberta. Talking with Jessie was very inspiring for a young Edmontonian like myself and I only hope that I can continue to contribute to the development of Edmonton’s local scene.
Jessie also let me in on what they are currently serving at the Blue Pear, and although I’d just come from lunch…it made me pretty darn hungry! I’ll be back soon, and I’m thinking you will be too when you read the description of Jessie’s current favourite items on the menu. The Blue Pear is located at 10643 – 123 st and has a website you are welcome to visit!
What is the Blue Pear?
It is a small, fine dining restaurant. It’s also kind of like my 3rd child…
How did your business come about? What’s your story?
When I got married my husband was the chef at Jack’s Grill and I was working for a large multi-national restaurant company. Not long after we got married we discovered that we were never going to see each other in those two jobs so we thought with our combination of experience it would just make sense to have our own restaurant. So we bought this place, and here we are 10 years later.
What’s on the menu?
We’ve always done a 5 course menu and the menu changes every 4-6 weeks. So there isn’t really a specific style or flavour of food that is consistently on the menu. It will change with the seasons as well, lighter in the summer and richer during the colder months. I’d say that the food is quite modern, but it doesn’t really fit into a specific style.
So what would you order?
You know, I was here on Friday, so I can tell you what I ordered. I ordered the lobster linguini for an appetizer and the grilled lamb sirloin and goat cheese dumplings with eggplant-pepper stuffed crispy cannelloni, oven dried tomato, garlic herb wine sauce and red wine lamb jus. (ummmm…WOW)
Where do you source your ingredients?
A mix of all over. We have some ingredients that are very local and we deal directly with the suppliers for those, and then we have quite a few specialty ingredients that often come from the Italian Centre. We also make a lot of things in house like some of the pastas and breads.
Did you grow up in Edmonton, or are you a transplant? If so, what brought you here?
I moved here about 20 years ago for a job. I grew up in southern Alberta, but I really enjoy it here. It’s got all the things you find in a big city, but it’s got that feeling of community that a lot of big metro cities lose.
So you are behind the Keep Edmonton Original organization. How did that come about?
7 years ago I started Original Fare, which was a program for independent restaurants. As soon as that got started I began receiving calls from other kinds of businesses that wanted to have something similar for their industries. At the time I had just had my second baby and I have a two-year-old and a restaurant so I gave them some advice and left it there. When the oil boom came around I had this idea that it would raise the standard of living for everyone and it would create positive change in the community, and I just didn’t see that happen. In fact, I saw quite a few negative things happen, like small businesses going bankrupt and theft and prostitution. At that point I started to do some research into economics and the role that local business plays in our economy and how important it was. Before that I didn’t understand that impact it had, and if I didn’t understand it there were probably thousands of other people out there who didn’t either. I feel that local independent business is critical to creating a vibrant community and we need to be aware of that. I’m not saying that we need to spend all of our money on local business, but we need to be aware of it and shift our spending where it’s appropriate.
Why is it that people are so hesitant about shopping local?
I think it’s harder and it’s an unknown. When you walk into a mall all of the stores look pretty much the same. When you walk into a local independent you never know what it’s going to be like. An independent business generally represents the owner to a certain degree so it feels different and there’s a level of authenticity there that is absent from big box retailers. I think it can be a little scary. So that can be a negative thing if you want the same thing all the time, but if you want variety small independents are what you want.
Any last words?
I think sometimes people feel like they can’t make a difference, but they can. Every little bit makes a difference. In our restaurant we count our success literally by the number of people that dine here in a day. If you dine here once, that makes a difference to us. If you visit another local business, that makes a difference to them.
Thanks for meeting with me, Jessie, it was awesome to hear your viewpoint.
Amanda
1 comment