Old School Emporium

I am giving the store 4 stars even though they are moving (location u/​k at this time) and there was not a lot of selection left. What was there grocery-​wide was pricey but there seemed to be a good selection of specialty goods. We were lucky enough to meet the owner and he was very nice, down to earth.
As soon as you walk in here the awesome spice smells hits you and it is like walking into home.
It is too bad they have to move as the building they are currently in is being renovated so the tenants have to vacate. They have a perfect set up but I am sure they can and will do it all again elsewhere.
Will return when they are back up and running as I prefer to buy my produce at markets as opposed to big box grocery stores.

If this store was what it set out to be, we’d have a big win. Instead we have overpriced «organic» food that I can buy anywhere else in town these days. While some people dig the retro charm, I don’t really need to buy straight razors in the same store that sells $ 12 bread. Give me a better selection and higher quality then we will talk.

Whenever I mention how awesome this place is to people, they tend to all say the same thing:
«A green grocer?! That’s what it is?! I thought it was… *insert clothing/​mens barber shop/​bicycle store here*»
But yes, this little space is packed full of wonderful gems like hand pulled taffy, straight razor kits, my favorite brands of coconut milk ice cream, nutritional yeast, roasted coconut chips, fresh; local produce, vegan drinking chocolate, the sweetest cocktail tomatoes and the cutest aprons and t-​shirts. Tofu Monster Apron, anyone?
Also, not one of the produce items I saw was bruised and stealthily turned over, exorbitantly marked up — or — halfway to rotten… like someone else mentioned here. And I spent hours here, so I had a long time to look!
Not to mention, Evan and the lovely Heather are the nicest! Chat them up, they’ll be happy to help you find anything you want. I can’t come here often, because I don’t live close enough, but I’ll come whenever I’m in the area.

When I saw this was no longer an Indigo, and I tried to read the sign while waiting to cross from the corner of 17^th and 8^th, squinting as hard as I could I got «Old School… Tea?» and continued walking. Yes, I am blind, even with contacts in.
I figured it was another coffee shop adding to the 80 other coffee shops that are appearing nearby to 17^th.
It wasn’t until a happy mistake that I had some time to kill walking that I decided to walk along 16^th and saw it was the Old School Emporium, not another tea/​coffee mine.
I pledged immediately I would return when they were open and scout it out. That Saturday, I had some shopping to do, specifically for two dishes so we stopped in on our way back from the Ship.
The store is simply lovely, I wanted to take a nap on the couch in front, and there is lots of space to walk through. The salt water taffy adorning the shelves behind the till was almost too tempting.
I was a little disappointed that I could not complete all my grocery shopping here though.
We needed: pears
brussel sprouts
bacon
I was only able to find pears and I bought a package of gluten free cookies for the host of the house I was attending later that night. So unfortunately still had to make a trip up to the Safeway.
I will be back to raid the lunch, quick eats section, but I might have to plan my grocery shopping for meals around what is available in store.
Review #26 of Unilocal’s 30 Day Challenge

Somebody get these folks a «People love us on Unilocal» sticker. If they don’t, I’ll run over there and hold a sign up as long as my attention span can warrant… hey BUNNIES!
At the end of our Unilocal event I perused their store and really enjoyed the Old School Emporium experience. The music really accompanies the lay out of the store. Personally I just love the saloon look that subtly seeps the feeling of vintage in with it’s 50’s music. It gave me different vibes depending on the aisle. In the produce section I felt like I was a character in an episode of Deadwood, carrying about Al Swearengn’s bidding. In the frozen pastry and goods section, I felt like I was in a midnight marathon of FALLOUT 3. And paying for my goods at the counter in front of the massive Taffy collection made me feel like I was visiting Mr. Gower’s (re: It’s a Wonderful Life) store.
But it seems like a lot more can go into this place, and maybe these folks are taking their time carefully picking out the things they feel would best represent Old School Emporium but after 20 minutes I felt like I’ve seen everything. After all, if you say you are going to «provide an abundance of local produce, organic dairy, grass-​fed and free-​range meats and eggs and other pantry staples» the last thing you want people seeing on your shelves is a can of Presidents Choice beans or a Monsanto product (E-​V-​I-​L). Anyways Evan and Heather are great. They love engaging conversations and coming from a unique advertising background their approach is refreshing.
But within closer proximity to the south Farmer’s Markets, I doubt I’ll be visiting this place for necessary things. But for entertaining guests and what I call «sunder dinner treats» I’d stop by here, picking up the fresh ingredients I need to make that perfect meal to savor.
Wow listen to me talking like I ALWAYS hit up the Farmer’s Market. haha I’m not going to lie, some of them PC brands are guilty pleasures: P
Unilocal’s 30 Day Challenge ²²⁄₃₀

Grocery shopping while listening to old-​time (also read: gaming) music? How can it get any better?
We ended up shopping at Old School Emporium after the Elite party on Sunday because there were so many new and interesting products to try out. Not to mention, we got a 10% discount to boot!
This is a great little market, especially for people who live inner city or are close during the work day. It’s not the kind of place where you’ll necessarily be able to do all your grocery shopping, but it has enough for you to pick up an ingredient or two at the end of the day. They’re all about local — the freezers are packed with products from vendors right here in Calgary. We purchased a package of chicken franks that were awesome.
It’s also the go-​to destination for anything who struggles with food intolerances. The shelves are packed with gluten-​free and dairy-​free products.
Believe it or not, the cherry tomatoes were the hit of the party. We couldn’t help but go back and pop another one, and another one, and another… nomnomnom!
Parking isn’t so much of an issue — if you can’t park on 16^th Ave, try the lot across 8^th St. And it’s very walkable and transit-​accessible.
I’d highly recommend checking out this spot. I’ll definitely be back when I’m in the area.
Review #10 of Unilocal’s 30 Day Challenge 2012

Had the chance to visit Old School Emporium today, and am now bummed out missed such a great Unilocal Elite party here. However, chatting up the friendly folks there today and scoping out the shelves was a treat enough on its own!
There is seriously so much packed into this little place! I was happy to see tons of vegan friendly and organic products I love; Food Should Taste Good chips, Luna and Larry’s ice cream varieties, non dairy milks, and even some Cocoa Camino drinking chocolate (their «hot chocolate» isn’t vegan but their «drinking chocolate» is) which I look forward to sipping later tonight while I nerd out with a book. Oh, and there was totally a tofu monster tshirt there which was the cutest.
Everyone working there was knowledgeable and completely delightful! Prices are comparable to other organic markets and grocery stores in the area from what I can see, and there is such variety. I look forward to watching these guys grow, and stopping in again soon! Cheers!
*Review ¹²⁄₃₀ of Unilocal’s 30 day Challenge 2012

Old School is a GREEN GROCER that stocks and sells an incredible collection of produce, local and organic when available (not the case for bananas of course, for example) and has– you can’t see this but trust me here– absolutely incredible prices by Calgary standards. BC peaches were $ 1.19/lb. More than a pound of perfect green beans were something like $ 3.50. Those non-​local bananas are $.79/​lb at Safeway and $.59/​lb at Old School. I could go on and on but on top of a great selection and great prices on produce, Old School sells bagged and roast-​dated Fratello coffees, free-​range and otherwise ethically raised meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb), dairy from small Alberta dairies that sell their milk in bottles and yogurts and ice creams from another in Victoria BC, various baked goods, and a huge selection of saltwater taffy at $ 1 for five pieces. They also sell straight and safety razors and shaving supplies. They’re open seven days a week.

I really, really wanted to love this place and make it my go-​to for groceries. However, this cannot be the case. Owners, a word of advice about running a business geared towards repeat clientele, you may want to be open when you say you’re going to be. Both of you working at a food event last week where one of you could have easily managed is just one of the examples. Consistency on all fronts seems to be the big problem here. Some days you have fresh bread some days you don’t. Some days you have milk, some days you don’t. And if you do, I’m not going to buy milk that is about to expire in a day. Now I find myself walking right on by your place because I can’t be bothered to be disappointed one more time.

I gave them until Xmas. They closed sooner! Why my review was different from all the enthusiastic asshole Unilocalers was I went when they weren’t expecting a party.
I emailed Double Elle asking them what the shelf life is for their baked goods. A helluva lot less time than Old Barn is selling them for. And they were stale. Twice.
This place is so poor and pathetic. Those who are too young to remember «fern bars» will think it’s «so cool and groovy and it has BARE BRICKS!»
Oh yes, I forgot to write «kewel». (pass me the barf bucket, please)

What a place! The ambiance was the first thing to hit me as I walked inside this inviting old-​timey shop and I felt welcome even before the staff sang out their greetings.
Old School Emporium is clearly meant to be an engaging experience, not only a place to acquire specialty vittles, and it succeeds very well in that regard with its array of antiques and creative furnishings, clearly put together with thoughtfulness and affection.
Others have written in detail about the store’s offerings so I will simply say that I particularly enjoyed OSE’s Sunrise apples, smooth Fratello espresso beans, and hearty brown bread from Double Elle Bakery, and also that I found the variety of produce to be remarkable.
In this age of dehumanizing big-​box stores, it is a real treat to find a small-​scale grocer’s that nourishes the spirit as well as the body. Long live Old School Emporium.

This store is AWESOME!
I walked in on a slow Friday afternoon with a friend and we were instantly greeted by the three staff there. As soon as you know it, we were offered samples of their salt water taffy, the Village Ice Cream they had in stock (salted caramel. sooo creamy and delicious) and even some of the Zazzubean chocolate that a staff had opened up for herself.
One of the guys gave us a little run down of their products, and the fact that they were using as much local product as possible.
As of now, they have a little bit of everything… vegetables, to go meals, baked goods, frozen meats, chocolate… They definately have space for more items on the shelves… so here’s to hoping they pile the place with more great stuff!
The service alone made me decide that I’ll try to stop in here as much as I can when Im in the area.

Can’t disagree with the previous review. Will make this a stop at least every Friday night to pick up something fresh for dinner. Now no worries about firing up the car and fighting the crowds to leave downtown and try and get fresh food at the market. If Calgary keeps this up we will become a real live able inner city.

Attention Beltline and 17^th Avenue goers! There’s a new world grocer in your midst. And thank goodness for that! Now we won’t have to gripe as much about how far away all of our farmers markets are. There fresh local produce right downtown. Old World Emporium has taken over the space that was once Indigo books on the corner of 16^th Ave SW and 8^th St SW. Today is only its 9^th day open to the public.
From fresh produce to baked goods and even a bit of kitchen gear (or maybe just t-​shirts so far from local company Medium Rare Chef Apparel?), everything is sourced as locally as possible. If it can’t come from Calgary, it’s from Alberta. If not from Alberta, then no farther than Western Canada.
The wall behind the counter is lined with rows upon rows of salt water taffy. The front of the store carries most of the baked goods from a couple of Calgary bakeries. Freezers in the back house what I like to call «sustainable meats.» As in, they could be free-​range, grass-​fed, organic, etc. I also noticed some frozen cinnamon rolls from Pascal’s Patisserie just waiting for one of y’all to snag and bake up in your oven at home… on second thought maybe I’ll beat you to it!
I picked up a small bag of carrots and a white chocolate chip cranberry cookie. Gotta keep those meals balanced!
I’m looking forward to seeing what else they start stocking their shelves with. Go buy everything off the shelves right now so we can help these ladies get off the ground and have even more local food that’s super accessible in the city centre!
Oh, and if you’re a fan of Fratello coffee, they sell the beans!
Double score… best FTR (first to review) I’ve had all summer!