Calgary's first Keg Steakhouse, once 'the party' of Electric Avenue, is closing
It appears there is some truth to the "Keg-lore" surrounding the restaurant's first Calgary location.
As The Keg Steakhouse on 11th Avenue southwest gets ready to close its doors in August, the Calgary Eyeopener took a trip down memory lane with a former staff member.
"Everybody was smashed all the time," said Lance Hurtubise, president and CEO of the Vintage Group, which owns several Calgary restaurants including Rush Ocean Prime and Red Water Rustic Grill.
Hurtubise worked as a server and bar manager at The Keg in the 1980s — the heydey of the city's Electric Avenue nightclub district.
"We'd do shooters in the middle of the restaurant while singing songs and you know, the waiters would have drinks in the waiter station for them. It was a huge party."
While they weren't snorting cocaine in the bathroom, Hurtubise says they were expected to drink on the job.
Even the big boss encouraged it.
Hurtubise recalls the time when George Tidball, the late founder of The Keg Steakhouses, requested that 'GM' — or Grand Marnier — be served at a regional managers meeting.
"They came out with shot glasses for everyone around the table and he said, 'No. I want a bottle of GM in front of everyone for this meeting.' It was a different culture back then."
Bouncers ruled
"If you were a bouncer, you were the king," said Hurtubise, who also worked the door at the city's first Keg.
During one Calgary Stampede, he remembers being attacked by a "little guy" waiting in line outside the restaurant.
"I wouldn't let him in and I had a new shirt on. And he grabbed my breast pocket and ripped it right off."
Hurtubise says he "removed" the customer.
He adds that in the '80s, restaurant bouncers were mostly there to breakup fist fights.
"There weren't many guns and knives."
Restaurant woes
A spokesperson for The Keg says it is closing its Mount Royal location after 42 years to push business to a newer location downtown on Fourth Avenue.
However, Hurtubise says there are many factors affecting the city's restaurant businesses right now.
"The foreign worker programs have been taken away, so that's tough. Minimum wage, the dollar, commodity prices are out of control. It's a whole pile of things."
"Il Sogno. Closed. Brava Bistro...closed. Black Betty...closed. People are just re-evaluating if it makes sense to push this thing or throw in the towel."
The Mount Royal Keg officially closes its doors on Aug. 8. Many former staff from across the country are coming out for the restaurant's final night.
