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Luke Butterworth can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

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The COO of Epic Market has been waiting for the opening of his new food hall in Station Market at the corner of Gateway Boulevard and Whyte Avenue for a few years now. Originally announced by Beljan Development in 2020, the building constructed from sea cans has slowly gained customers over time, but Epic’s opening has dragged on. The two-story hall officially opened its doors in mid-August, showcasing a number of different food vendors on one level, a patio, two bars and an upper area that serves as an event space with a chef’s table for private events.

“It was really the culmination of years of experience learning what works and what doesn’t,” says Butterworh, who co-owns Epic with Jennifer Keith. “We learned a lot running the 5th Street Food Hall downtown. We had a food hall-type operation for a good two years, which we had never done before. Before that, I was mostly in tech startups, and like any startup, that kind of changed. We got really excited about different aspects of what we were doing, which eventually led to us hosting events. We also learned a lot, even about the design of downtown, about how we would structure things if we could change them. So we put all of that we learned in two years into this place.”

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Epic Market features five different food stations, with Italian, Asian fusion, chop house, Mexican and French Canadian cuisine available on both floors. Unlike the 5th Street location, which had an independent crew of chefs, all five are under the direction of Butterworth’s brother Oliver, who has served as assistant executive chef at Nicklaus North Golf Club in Whistler, BC, since 2014.

Rowena Cui of Planet Sound collaborated with Butterworth and Keith for the event portion.

“Food is very emotional and very personal, just like events,” says Cui. “It tells a story, it creates an emotional connection. And what we’re finding from the perspective of the events landscape is that post-COVID, in this post-pandemic world, people want quality. So when Luke and Jennifer approached me with this idea, it was honestly a no-brainer. Through our personal and professional travels, I’ve had experience with the upscale food hall as a customer. It’s been around in Asia and Europe for over 20 years now. I was just in Las Vegas for a working vacation, and even the new hotels that are being built are all upscale food hall experiences.”

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It’s a market hall, but for Butterworth it’s much more. The team has reached out to neighbours on Whyte Avenue and built connections by working with the farmers market, the various theatre groups and the Edmonton Radial Railway Society. The intention is to create a community and offer Epic as a gathering place.

“We want to collectively try to raise the bar for Whyte and work together rather than compete against each other, which in my experience never works particularly well,” says Butterworth. “Happy Beer Street does that really well and I think we should approach it the same way. And the attitude of all the business owners here has been great, they’ve really worked together. Hopefully if we work on it as a community we can get Whyte back to the pre-pandemic feel.”

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Pop-up concept allows vagabond couple to get creative in Whyte Avenue cafe

When Roger Letourneau and Christine Sandford left their jobs for a year in France in the summer of 2023, a certain level of burnout was noticeable.

“The hours had something to do with it, but the motivation also changed,” says Sandford, who ran the kitchen at Biera while Letourneau, who worked at Bar Clementine and Woodwork, shifted his focus to spices with his company Lessig Ferments. “We had to reevaluate. I think we decided, did we want to start this big, grand thing or do something more down to earth?”

With their new venture, Vagabond, they’ve chosen the latter, returning to Edmonton with the concept of a pop-up restaurant where they can work with local, seasonal produce for small groups. The pair have taken over the back of the Take Care Café at 9621 82 Ave. on weekends, changing the menu and seeing what works and what doesn’t. Most of all, they’re just enjoying putting into practice what they’ve learned abroad about preparing food for others.

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“It was just refreshing because all the ingredients were so high quality and no one there was really marketing,” says Letourneau. “It’s all relationship-based. It’s boiled down to really good, seasonal ingredients, good wine and relationships. We felt like we could do that here. It’s pretty casual. We don’t take reservations and rely on word of mouth. I guess we’re just transferring what we saw there to here.”

That means the operation is stripped down to the bare essentials and can quickly pivot based on demand: heirloom tomatoes from southern Alberta, local peas, produce from Prairie Gardens, pork from Berkshire Farms. The horiatiki dip made with goat feta is a highlight, as is the jambon beurre. Be sure to get the small bowl of pickled potatoes and the hot chicken with Cheesy Wheezy hot sauce.

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The pair are preparing to take the pop-up to other cities in a few months, but Letourneau and Sandford have bigger plans for the future. On the way to Vancouver, they’ll stop in the Okanagan, which they describe as not dissimilar to the area where they settled near the border of France and Spain. It’s still a vague idea at the moment, but the pair are thinking about opening a store there and offering more than just another dining experience.

“We’ve talked about opening something that’s kind of a seasonal place where people stay and also has production facilities,” says Letourneau. “That’s why we picked this particular area in France because there are winemakers and culinary arts there and agriculture is very strong there. We’ve talked to people there about staffing and seasonal workers and things like that. But maybe we could just do some kind of journey, tour and bring stuff back and forth, exchange ideas and cultures and see what’s going on in the rest of Canada. Nothing’s set in stone yet, but I just feel like we need to keep moving so we don’t stagnate.”

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