Best of Award of Excellence

Edmonton – With 600-plus wines on its well-chosen wine list, Edmonton’s upscale regional dining favourite, Hardware Grill restaurant, has recently been awarded a Best of Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator magazine. The 2004 awards were announced in the August 31, 2004, issue of this well-known New York-based wine publication.

Wine Spectator offers awards on three levels. The basic Award of Excellence recognizes restaurants that provide a sound wine program for their customers. These lists show attention to purity producers, a thematic match with the menu and clear concise presentation. In 2004, 2791 earned this award or 80 percent. The Best of Award of Excellence is the middle category, held by 608 restaurants (55 in Canada) and constitutes 17 percent of the field. This award is bestowed on those who take their wine programs to another level, offering at least several hundred selections, showcasing vertical collections from top producers, displaying extended breadth over several major wine regions and exhibiting superior harmony with the menu. The highest honour, The Grand Award, is a distinction reserved for restaurants offering unparalleled wine experience, deep cellars of older vintages, fine food, professional service and a distinctive ambiance. Only 88 restaurants world-wide, or 3 percent, have this award.

“We’ve actually won an Award of Excellence every year since we opened,” says chef and co-owner (along with his wife Melinda) Larry Stewart. “Still, we’ve been building our wine program over the past 7 1/2 years, and I’m very happy that the Wine Spectator thought that this time around we were good enough for its ‘Best of Award of Excellence’ class.”

Hardware Grill is renowned for its seasonally inspired Canadian Prairie cooking and its excellent wine list. Duck sausage, truffled potato perogies, bison meatloaf with a dark Alberta ale sauce and warm gingerbread cake with caramel sauce and a saskatoon-rhubarb compote are regular menu items. As well as its 7 Award of Excellence and its most recent Best of Award of Excellence awards from Wine Spectator, Hardware Grill also holds numerous dining awards: voted Where Edmonton’s readers choice for Best Fine Dining in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003; best in region in EnRoute magazine’s readers’ 1998 “Top 100 Restaurants in Canada”; and is listed in Anne Hardy’s Where to Eat in Canada with a two-star rating since 2001.

Hardware Grill is located at 9698 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta. Reservations are recommended for both lunch (Tuesday to Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) and dinner (Monday to Saturday, from 5 p.m.). Closed Sundays and holidays. The phone number for reservations is (780) 423-0969. The fax number is (780) 423-4739.


For interviews, photos or more information about Hardware Grill, please contact Larry Stewart at the above phone number. To view a current menu, wine list and other goodies about the restaurant, please log on to www.hardwaregrill.com. The e-mail address is email@hardwaregrill.com.