About Gems
A destination for fine dining, welcoming guests from across Woodlands, Barrhead, Westlock, Athabasca Counties and beyond.
Good food, good company,
and time to enjoy it all.
We opened Gems Café & Bistro in Fort Assiniboine in 2023, in a building that felt right the moment we saw it. We built it as a gathering place that celebrates the people who make this area what it is. Our menu is shaped by local farmers and producers, our walls are hung with work by local artists, and our tables are open to everyone who wants to slow down and share a good meal.
Meet Adrian & Christina
Adrian's career began in Toronto's fine-dining scene, where he won a black-box competition for a place at the CN Tower's 360 Restaurant. He trained under Brad Long, Marc Thuet and David Lee, then worked banquets at the Westin Harbour Castle, cooking for hundreds of guests a night.
Christina has spent her life thinking about how food nourishes. Trained in Five Element nutrition, she taught cooking and wellness courses for years, and brings that sense of season and balance to our menus and to every table.
Cooking With the Seasons
Our goal is to cook mainly with what this land gives us, and to follow it through the whole year.
We want to preserve and ferment each season’s harvest, so summer can return to your plate in January as something new, and every visit tastes a little different from the last. We’re not there yet. Our network of growers keeps evolving, and our preservation and fermentation kitchen is still being built. But that’s where we’re headed: when people travel to our corner of Alberta, we want them to taste it in all its glory.
Local farms first
Organic produce wherever we can
As little waste as we can manage
Every plate made from scratch, to order
Mainly ingredients born of this land
A kitchen that preserves and ferments
Each season, expressed many ways
A true taste of northern Alberta
What We Cook
French technique, Italian instinct, and the seasons of northern Alberta.
Two Kitchens
One side of our kitchen is honest, generous cooking: soups made from scratch, steaks, pasta, slow braises and fresh salads. The kind of food you come back for.
The other is our laboratory, where we get to know every ingredient we source and create dishes and tasting menus that are entirely our own.
Behind the Plate
Our Gold Medal steak is dry-brined overnight, cooked sous vide, seared to order and basted with grass-fed butter and fresh herbs.
Our braises build flavour in layers, before, during and after a slow cook, starting with how the meat itself is prepared.
Our sauces begin with stocks we treat as an art form, slowly built and patiently reduced. We love them enough to teach classes on them.
Ways to Dine
Lunch and dinner Wednesday to Saturday, with a regular menu and a three-course option that changes every week.
Upgrade to our seven-course Chef's Tasting, a chance to share our cuisine as it evolves.
On Fridays, upgrade to a meat or seafood platter. Or simply begin your evening with an amuse-bouche or a glass of sparkling wine when you arrive.
Live music on Friday nights, and hands-on workshops through the year.
An Evening at Gems
