I was at the Prairie Regional Barista Competition at Fratello's roasting facility today. 150 people showed up- incredible. In 2008 I'd say the audience was maybe 30. Representing the Prairie region at nationals in Vancouver (nb "prairies" is competitors from AB. SK, MB and the NT but everybody at this one was from either Calgary or Edmonton) will be
1. Ben Put (Transcend, Edmonton)
2. Chris Tellez (Phil & Sebastian, Calgary)
3. Josh Hockin (Transcend)
4. Jeremy Ho (P&S).
Rounding out the top 6 (of 13 competitors, which is a lot for a regional btw) were Joel May from Fratello and a young woman from Cafe Haven in Sherwood Park.
So a great day for Transcend and P&S. Ben was until last year the head barista trainer at P&S and moved to Edmonton with his wife after she got accepted for grad school at the U of A, so I see this as the bigger winner for P&S but I'm a Calgary coffee booster
. Ben came in second at nationals last year and I really think this is his to win now. He has won prairies 3 years in a row now.
ANYWAY, one problem with having the event at Fratello (which is near Century Casino, 4021 9 St SE) is that there is nothing to eat anywhere close. They solved this problem this year by having the ALLEYBURGER truck do its maiden voyage there today! So we got- after a two hour wait in a huge line that was mostly made up of people not attending the PRBC- to sample them. I wanted the original pork burger but they'd run out by the time we got to order (from Connie herself!) so sated my hunger with a large "whole truck" burger which is angus patties. I got a "regular" which had two patties and a small order of fries- fried in duck fat.
Oh my fucking God and Jesus Christ in fucking heaven. Hype met, hype exceeded. The fries- oh dear lord. Perfect, UNCTUOUS fries. The burger was just a thing of mesmerizing beauty with peri-peri aioli and I got mine with pickle too. The bun- how they get a bun so soft and almost melting like that?
Here it is: