Citadella Restaurant’s new head chef BJ Currie poses in front of the counter with a collection of entrées the restaurant serves for dinner. Nick Allen photo.
Nicholas L. M. Allen
May 31, 2023
The Citadella Restaurant is now open where the Cozy Corner Café was in the Cos Hotel.
The Crowsnest Pass is home to a new restaurant in an iconic location, The Cosmopolitan Hotel, or as it’s better known, the Cos. With new owners, they have also taken to opening the Citadella Restaurant where the Cozy Corner Café used to be.
Taking over the position of head chef and managing the restaurant is BJ Currie, who has been in the Pass for several years. He has worked with the new general manager of the Cos before when she made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I’ve got a lot of people that used to come through [Country] Encounters that miss me, so it’ll be nice to have my name out there,” said Currie.
He said it has started out slower than he expected but business has started to pick up a bit more each day. There are sandwiches and burgers for the lunch menu and then the dinner menu is a little bit more complicated, Currie explained.
“We have a bunch of steak and other beef options, and a couple of fancier options including salmon and chicken. It’s all basically Western-style food,” said Currie.
For a special, he is thinking about doing a pasta night every now and then. He also said he is going to take a poll on Facebook to see if anybody would be interested in a salad bar on the weekends over the summer. He also mentioned that the bar has their own menu.
“There’s a lot of deep-fried stuff for the pub, pub grub, dumplings and pork bites and lots of sticks.... The lunch menu is available over there all day long as well,” he said
He also spoke about how great the opportunity was as the owners have a bunch of other properties that he might help to get back up and operational.
“It’s exciting knowing that it could turn into some other better opportunities down the road. I’m working with a bunch of really good friends and people as well,” said Currie.
They spoke about how the Cos is under new ownership, new management and new staff making it a new experience for anyone going there.
“We’re going to have a whole bunch of events going on over at the bar side, the bar is going to be hosting a jam night every Saturday featuring local talent. Anybody with any kind of musical skill or plays an instrument is always welcome to come and join and have some fun,” added Currie.
The Citadella Restaurant is located inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel at 3001 20 Avenue, Blairmore. The hours for the Citadella Restaurant are 12 to 10 p.m. from Monday to Saturday. On Sunday, the hours are 12 to 9 p.m.