Nestled in a historic building along downtown Edmonton’s 104 Street are two separate eateries under the same roof. On the surface, the two seem completely different. In the front is a cafe serving local roasted brew along with baked treats: this is the Sober Cat. In the back sits a trendy steakhouse with an open kitchen, creative cocktails, and a menu boasting some of the finest cuts of beef you can find in the city: this is the Drunken Ox.
Drunken Ox Sober Cat marries the cozy cafe with the trendy steakhouse almost seamlessly with the two separate environments still feeling like they belong together. The space inside the building is completely open, so you can see the cushioned couches of the cafe from the stools at the steakhouse. But the transition between the spaces isn’t jolting to the system. Instead, it makes your after dinner walk to find coffee and dessert a little shorter.
On my visit to both the Drunken Ox and the Sober Cat, my evening started in the steakhouse with cocktails. My dining companion opted for the Rose & Leaf, a Beefeater gin based cocktail with green chartreuse, lychee syrup, watermelon citrus agua fresco, and topped with a shiso leaf. I decided to go classic with my cocktail trying out the Roper Manhattan. Flambee glassware (meaning they light the glass on fire first) holds this Old Grand Dad Bourbon based cocktail with sweet vermouth and aromatic bitters.
Glancing at the menu, my eye immediately darted to the $94 nine ounce Miyazaki Wagyu Strip (it would totally be worth defaulting on a car payment). That $94 covers the thin sliced beef cooked and served on a hot stone along with mushroom, leeks, onion, pickled shallots, and a cured egg yolk sauce. Not wanting my car to be repossessed, my dining companion and I decided to explore some of the more affordable cuts, though we certainly were not sacrificing quality.
The way Drunken Ox’s meals work is more of a sharing style. You typically order the beef separate from the sides and everything comes to the centre of the table for sharing. Thankfully, my dining companion and I both had the same beef dishes in mind: Ribeye and Brisket. The nine ounce Ribeye comes to the table cut longways against the grain. The meat is so tender, the side of your fork is more than enough to cut your perfect sized bite. The Brisket is served in what looks like a cauldron, still simmering in its broth. The spice rub used for the brisket seeps into the broth and I found myself scooping out spoonfuls long after we finished the moist and tender chunks of beef inside.
For sides, we tried the Brussels Sprouts, the Marrow Mash, and the Daily Bread. The Brussels Sprouts are fried and served with thick chunks of pancetta, egg white foam, and cured yolk. I love Brussels Sprouts but the star player on this dish was the peppered pancetta, carrying a small enough kick to excite the palette. The Marrow Mash (Yukon potatoes mashed in bone marrow with herb oil) was light and fluffy and the extra flavour from the marrow gave it a little extra savouriness, making for a mashed potato with a well rounded flavour. The Daily Bread (as the name suggests, baked fresh every day) was an onion loaf and served with a cultured butter (a tangier tasting butter whose cream base is closer to yogurt). Fresh bread is a criminally underappreciated delicacy and the Daily Bread being served up here does inspire one to pause and re-evaluate how much they’ve taken the beauty of fresh bread for granted.
After dinner, we settled up our tab and made our way to the relaxing seats in the Sober Cat, each of us ordering a cappuccino and a biscotto. Having the cafe so close by was a really nice touch to the evening. Moving from the formal table to the relaxed coffeehouse setting made for enough of a change in scenery that the coffee felt like a whole other experience from the meal.
Having the cafe so close to the steakhouse is an interesting concept that brings something new to the dining experience downtown. Beyond the conceptual environment to Drunken Ox Sober Cat, the quality that comes out of that kitchen really sets a new standard for artisan dining in the city. And the next time I find myself sitting in the Drunken Ox, I’m going to have the $94 Wagyu. I have no doubt it will be worth every penny.
Do I have something on my face? 
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