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Over the past year or so, Calgary has seen a necessary increase in the number of cheap and cheerful quick-service restaurants that make affordable food with relatively wholesome ingredients. When it comes to the more expected categories of casual restaurants — pizzerias, taquerias and fried chicken shops — Calgary is almost reaching the point of saturation. But a meatball emporium like the new Meatball Project in Kensington? That’s a new one.
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Or, more accurately, it’s sort of a new one. The Meatball Project is actually the second meatball-focused restaurant to pop up in Kensington in recent memory. The first, the somewhat confusing Prohibition (which was pretty much just across the street) tried to do a fancier bar-style approach to a meatball-heavy concept, but the idea never quite resonated with customers. The Meatball Project is a vastly different player — headed by much-celebrated chef Keith Luce, the food and flavours are put together by an expert hand, though without any pretension or an attempt to be overtly “gourmet.”
Luce doesn’t pretend that he’s doing anything beyond serving up meatballs, which is the whole point of his new business. The chef quite successfully spent the first part of his career in the world of American top-tier fine dining, moving to Calgary in 2014 for a quieter culinary life. After his laid-back Tavernetta restaurant closed at the beginning of the pandemic, Luce went even more casual with his still-thriving Little Tavern Pizza Project in Strathcona but felt a pull towards something even simpler. Not wanting to throw his hat into an increasingly cramped taco and fried chicken categories, he decided to go with the humble meatball, albeit with some chef-y flourishes.
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“Quick service was an area I’d never explored and I really wanted to,” Luce says. “In its heart, Meatball Project is like a taqueria or burger joint, but with a different, though still familiar product. I thought I could give people something they were familiar with while choosing to explore it with other flavours.”
Foodwise, the Meatball Project, not surprisingly, sells meatballs. You can get a quarter-pound gluten-free, dairy-free meatball or plant-based ball ($6) in one of four sauces and garnish combinations: an Italian concoction with red sauce, basil and Parmesan cheese; the Southern Gold with Carolina honey mustard and crispy slaw; the Olympus with creamy lemon sauce and fresh dill; and The General with hoisin sauce and sweet sticky garlic. For an extra dollar, the meatballs can be turned into a slider. For a more substantial meal, Luce created four similarly flavoured handhelds (minus The General, which is subbed out for a less-intense Santa Fe-style flavour profile) featuring meatballs and toppings wrapped in pizza dough ($12). The menu is rounded out with a couple of starchy sides and a kale salad (all $5 each) and desserts consisting of oat milk soft serve, donut balls, or a combination of the two (also all $5).
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Speaking of pizza dough, Luce has also opened a clandestine version of his pizza restaurant (simply dubbed the Pizza Project) from the back door of the Meatball Project, where he does takeout-only, 18-inch, NYC-style pies in classic flavour combinations ($28-$32) as well as cheese or pepperoni by the slice ($6). The pizza is a tweaked, more genuinely New York version of what he’s developed for Little Tavern, without a sit-down dining room so that he doesn’t compete directly with other excellent Kensington pizza options nearby. All of the pies are made with the same dough that Luce uses for his meatball wraps.
The Meatball Project and the Pizza Project are located on the lower level at 1130 Kensington Rd. N.W. and can be reached at 587-356-0792. For more information, visit meatballproject.ca and pizza-project.ca .
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In other quick and tasty news, there’s another new single-focus eatery to explore with the newly opened Four Corners Wing Stop, a pandemic passion project from Toronto Argonaut Shane Richards, who grew up in Calgary. The lunchtime-only kitchen is at the downtown Ampersand Building and is currently only open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Wing Stop serves up some big and juicy chicken wings presented as whole wings rather than split into flats and drums. Richards also throws a little bit of his Jamaican heritage into the mix with the option of a Caribbean-style hot sauce that the company hopes to begin bottling soon.
Richards has big dreams for his little wing joint and is also using it to platform young athletes who may need a little extra attention and funding. He utilizes Four Corners’ social media to highlight student-athletes looking for sponsorship opportunities so they can move towards professional careers. There are all kinds of plans for growth (including developing a location in every quadrant of the city so he can make the company live up to its name) but, for now, Calgarians can order a wing lunch with a side of Jamaican festival dumplings at 4cornerswingstop.com .
Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @elizaboothy or Instagram at @elizabooth.
Chorney-Booth: The Meatball Project rolls into Kensington with fast, casual flavour - Calgary Herald
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