Calgary’s Oldest Restaurants

A Taste of History

A meal at Hy’s Steakhouse.

Calgary’s oldest restaurants tell the story of a city shaped by immigration, industry, agriculture, and constant change. Before Calgary became known for its modern dining districts, craft breweries, internationally inspired cuisine, and its connection to the creation of ginger beef, long-standing restaurants were serving generations of residents through periods of growth, economic shifts, and changing culinary trends.

These establishments reflect the people who built the city’s neighbourhoods, the families who turned recipes into businesses, and the places where Calgarians celebrated milestones, shared conversations, and created memories.

Calgary Restaurants That Continue Today

Some of these businesses have operated continuously, while others closed for a period and later returned. Opening years refer to the earliest documented beginning of the business or dining venue; interruptions and later reopenings are explained in the individual entries. Where two restaurants opened in the same year and no precise date is available for both, their order within that year is approximate.

King Eddy (1905)

The King Edward Hotel opened in 1905 and became home to the bar and music venue eventually known as the King Eddy. The hotel closed in 2004, and the historic building was later dismantled, reconstructed, and incorporated into Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre. The King Eddy reopened in 2018 as a live-music venue, bar, and restaurant. Although its history begins in 1905, it has not operated continuously since that date.

Dairy Lane Cafe (1950)

Dairy Lane Cafe opened as a neighbourhood milk bar in April 1950. Over the following decades, it developed into a full-service restaurant while retaining the small dining room and community presence associated with its early years. It remains one of Calgary’s longest-running independent neighbourhood restaurants.

Hy’s Steakhouse (1955)

Hy Aisenstat opened the first Hy’s Steakhouse in Calgary in 1955, above a women’s clothing store. The original restaurant established the formula that became associated with Hy’s across Canada: steaks, traditional service, dark wood interiors, and a dining room suited to business meetings and celebrations.

Hy’s Calgary location closed in December 2006. The company returned to the city in 2014 with a new restaurant in The CORE shopping centre, meaning the Calgary operation includes an interruption of nearly eight years.

Phil’s Restaurants (1956)

Phil Tetrault opened the 15-seat Phil’s Snack Bar in Calgary in 1956. The first Phil’s Pancake House followed in 1960, establishing the breakfast-focused restaurant format that became familiar to generations of Calgarians. Phil’s remains known for pancakes, eggs, breakfast skillets, and the style of family dining that once occupied a larger place in the city’s restaurant landscape.

Blackfoot Truckstop Diner (1956)

Edna Taylor opened the Royalite Truck Stop in June 1956 on what was then the southern edge of Calgary. It was the first truck stop within the city limits and later became the Blackfoot Truckstop.

The diner eventually moved across the property from its original location, but it has continued serving truck drivers, workers, travellers, and Calgary residents. Its all-day breakfasts, pies, and roadside-diner atmosphere preserve part of the highway culture that developed as Calgary expanded around it.

Peters’ Drive-In (1962)

Peters’ Drive-In opened in 1962, three years earlier than the 1965 date sometimes given for the restaurant. Its walk-up windows, burgers, fries, and milkshakes made it one of Calgary’s most recognizable roadside businesses.

Although Peters’ has since expanded beyond its original location, the 16th Avenue restaurant remains closely associated with family drives, summer evenings, and the long lines of vehicles that have formed outside it for generations.

Silver Dragon Restaurant (1966)

Silver Dragon Restaurant opened in Calgary’s Chinatown in 1966. It began in the historic Canton Block before moving to its present Chinatown location during the 1970s.

Known for Cantonese and Sichuan dishes, dim sum, and family-style dining, Silver Dragon has introduced generations of Calgarians to shared Chinese meals. Its continued operation preserves a connection to an earlier period of Chinatown restaurant life and Chinese Canadian entrepreneurship in the city.

Caesar’s Steakhouse + Cocktail Bar (1972)

Caesar’s Steakhouse opened on April 26, 1972, founded by four Calgary restaurateurs of Greek heritage. Its downtown dining room became known for Alberta beef, tableside service, red leather seating, and an interior influenced by the elaborate steakhouse style of the period.

The restaurant has remained closely associated with business lunches, family celebrations, and special occasions, preserving a form of formal steakhouse dining that has disappeared from many Canadian cities.

Capri Pizza & Steak House (1976)

Capri Pizza & Steak House has served Calgary since 1976, rather than 1968. The restaurant belongs to a generation of independently owned neighbourhood establishments that combined pizza, steak, pasta, and familiar family meals on a single menu.

Restaurants of this kind became gathering places across postwar Calgary, particularly as immigrant families opened businesses in growing residential neighbourhoods. Capri continues that steak-and-pizza tradition from its location on Edmonton Trail.

Nick’s Steakhouse & Pizza (1979)

Greek immigrant Nick Petros opened Nick’s Steakhouse & Pizza in March 1979. Located near McMahon Stadium, the family-run restaurant became a gathering place for sports fans, families, community groups, and generations of university students.

Its menu of steaks, pizza, pasta, and traditional restaurant favourites reflects the independent steak-and-pizza houses that became common across Alberta during the second half of the twentieth century.

Ship & Anchor Pub (1990)

The Ship & Anchor opened on July 29, 1990, rather than in 1975. Located on 17th Avenue in the Beltline, it developed into one of Calgary’s best-known neighbourhood pubs.

Its patio, live music, soccer broadcasts, community events, and broad mix of regular customers have allowed it to remain a gathering place despite major changes along 17th Avenue.

Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant (1999)

Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant opened in the historic ranch house in Fish Creek Provincial Park during the summer of 1999. The house itself is considerably older, but it did not begin operating as the present dining venue until the end of the twentieth century.

The restaurant later closed and underwent another restoration before reopening under Great Events Group in 2014. Its setting connects contemporary dining with the ranching and agricultural history preserved within the park.

Deane House (2016)

Deane House should be dated according to the opening of the restaurant, not the construction of the building. The house was built in 1906 for Captain Richard Burton Deane of the North West Mounted Police and was moved across the Elbow River in 1929.

After the house and grounds were redeveloped, the present Deane House restaurant opened in 2016. Its seasonal menu and restored historic setting make it one of Calgary’s most significant dining locations, but it is not a restaurant that has operated since 1906.

Calgary Restaurants That Have Closed

Not every historic restaurant survives changing neighbourhoods, rising operating costs, redevelopment, and shifting dining habits. These restaurants remain part of Calgary’s cultural memory through the meals, celebrations, and experiences they provided.

Smuggler’s Inn (Opened 1974; Closed 2026)

Smuggler’s Inn opened in 1974 and became a prominent destination restaurant on Macleod Trail. Known for its prime rib, salad bar, dark interior, and distinctive theme, it was particularly popular for birthdays, anniversaries, and family celebrations.

The restaurant suspended operations in 2020 before reopening in June 2023 following renovations and delays caused by a fire. In March 2026, the business vacated its Macleod Trail premises and announced that it was exploring a future in another location. As of July 2026, the restaurant is closed.

Silver Inn (Opened 1975; Closed 2022)

Silver Inn opened in 1975 and earned a lasting place in Calgary’s food history through its association with ginger beef. Chef George Wong is widely credited with developing the dish at the restaurant during the mid-1970s, adapting battered beef to local tastes and creating what became a signature example of Calgary-style Chinese Canadian cuisine.

After nearly five decades of serving families and community groups, Silver Inn held its final service on October 9, 2022.

Burger Inn (Opened 1988; Closed 2022)

Burger Inn began in late 1988, rather than in 1980. The independent restaurant became known for its charbroiled burgers, extensive selection of toppings, and small dining room in Mission.

After approximately 34 years in business, Burger Inn closed in 2022. Its disappearance marked the loss of one of Calgary’s familiar independently owned burger restaurants and a business closely associated with the changing streets of the Mission neighbourhood.

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