{"id":73280,"date":"2023-12-05T12:26:07","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T19:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=73280"},"modified":"2023-12-05T12:26:07","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T19:26:07","slug":"approach-cafe-bar-where-climbing-meets-culinary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/12\/05\/approach-cafe-bar-where-climbing-meets-culinary\/","title":{"rendered":"Approach Cafe & Bar: Where climbing meets culinary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

C<\/span>algary’s SoCal Bouldering Gym is changing the traditional gym experience by merging fitness and fine dining at Approach Cafe & Bar.<\/p>\n

Josh Carvelli, a climber for eight months and a chef for eight years, opened Approach Caf\u00e9 and Bar, a sit-down restaurant, in March, offering an array of dishes for anyone passing through.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIn a way, it’s a very European way of thinking. In Europe, almost all the gyms have restaurants or cafes inside of them,” said Carvelli<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is people [could] spend a day at the climbing gym, so they could work for a few hours, climb for a few hours, or they could just like, meet friends and then go all out for beers after and create this like, community network.”<\/p>\n

Although the restaurant is located inside the gym, there is no need to climb to get some grub. Anyone, whether they are climbing or just there for dinner and a show, can enjoy the food at Approach.<\/p>\n

Carvelli is not only the head chef but also the creative and administrative driving force behind the restaurant, creating the menu and assembling an impressive team of cooks and servers.<\/p>\n

Having a restaurant inside of the gym has proved to have its challenges. The use of chalk is essential to the sport of climbing, but due to its fine, powdered nature, it can easily become airborne.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just like constant cleaning; we have standards that are almost different from your regular restaurant,\u201d Carvelli said. \u201cWe’ve just installed like a bunch of chalk eaters, [they] are like super powerful and above what would be regularly needed for the kitchen so that we can suck up all the chalk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carvelli works closely with Alberta Health Services to ensure standards and cleaning are achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s almost like we’re best friends,\u201d he joked. \u201cIt\u2019s just like more inspections, and [AHS] is a lot stricter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past eight months, Carvelli has put together a rotating, seasonal menu which currently boasts 17 dishes focused on sustainability that still provides a wide range of food anyone can feast on.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The dishes] aren\u2019t necessarily the healthiest dishes on the planet but dishes that are made with high-quality ingredients,\u201d said Carvel.<\/p>\n

Even someone looking for a less formal meal can get a fix.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimbers love beer and chicken wings, so there’s like everything from chicken wings to what you would see in like a casual fine dining restaurant,” said Carvelli.<\/p>\n

Additionally, there are daily specials on the menu, a classic being wing night on Fridays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m launching a wine and pasta night on Wednesdays \u2026 we’ve experimented with some like, fresh pasta and added gluten-free gnocchi to the menu,\u201d Carvelli said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Josh Carvelli cooking a new dish at Approach Cafe + Bar on November 29, 2023. Approach opened up eight months ago, it is not unusual for Carvelli to be working sixty-hour weeks. (Photo by Theo MacFarlane\/SAIT)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Approach Cafe + Bar is a casual fine dining restaurant inside of a climbing gym in south Calgary. The Chef behind Approach, Josh Carvelli speaks on what makes the restaurant work, and how running a restaurant inside of a climbing gym works. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":873,"featured_media":73282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S3 Approach Cafe + Bar","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-73280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-city","8":"category-life"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/873"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73280"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73435,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73280\/revisions\/73435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}