Jamaican meat patties
Folded and baked. The crust does the talking.
Le Continent · Calgary
Africa and the islands, poured daily.
Food, coffee and groceries on Macleod Trail.
Deep, earthy, and never watered down.
Patties folded this morning. Empanadas right beside them.
Come sit down.
Dine in or take it away. Seven days a week at 1002 Macleod Trail SE.
1002 Macleod Trail SE · Calgary
Africa and the islands, poured daily.
Afro-Caribbean food, coffee and groceries. Dine in or take it away, seven days a week.
The idea
One room. A whole continent.
Le Continent is a food shop, a coffee bar and a boutique stacked into one narrow building on Macleod Trail. Downstairs is where you eat and where the shelves are. Upstairs is the rail.
You can do the whole thing in twenty minutes or stay for the afternoon. Most people stay.
The counter
Made here, eaten here, or carried out the door.
Empanadas
Same counter, different island. Get one of each and decide later.
Matcha mocha latte
Matcha and chocolate in the same cup. It should not work. It works.
Coffee
Deep and earthy. We are not trying to make it taste like something else.
Jollof rice with chicken
Ready to take home. Parboiled rice, tomato, chicken, spice.
To go drinks
Lemonade, iced tea, iced coffee. Off the board by the counter.
Go on
Press and hold the button to open the patty and reveal three lines of text, which are also listed below.
Hold to break it open.
That is the whole pitch.
The shelves and the rail
The things you have been driving across the city for.
Folere, egusi, garri, kankan, crushed ginger, plantain and cassava flour, red palm oil, condensed milk, organic honey, malt. The shelves carry what the big stores do not, and the people behind the counter know what each one is for.
Climb the stairs and there is a rail of print shirts and vintage, picked one piece at a time. It is a narrow room with a pressed tin ceiling and a brick wall. That is rather the point.
4.3 on Google
What people come back for.
The patties
The item people name by name when they tell somebody else about this place.
The coffee
Deep and earthy rather than roasted flat. The matcha mocha is the one people come back for.
The shelves
Ingredients that are genuinely hard to find in Calgary, in one narrow room.
The welcome
A small shop where somebody actually talks to you. That is most of why people return.
Come by
1002 Macleod Trail SE, Calgary.
- Monday to Wednesday
- 10:00am – 6:30pm
- Thursday
- 11:00am – 6:30pm
- Friday to Sunday
- 10:00am – 6:30pm
Dine inTakeoutDelivery
Wheelchair accessible parking lot and wheelchair accessible entrance. Look for the red brick corner building. The sign on it still reads Massimo Convenience.
The corner of Macleod Trail, just after opening light
Straight answers
Questions people actually ask.
Is the food actually authentic?
The patties are folded and baked in the building, and the shelves are stocked with what people cook at home. Come try one and judge it yourself. That is the only test that counts.
Do you deliver?
No. Dine in or takeout only. Everything is made here and it travels best in your own hands.
Is there parking?
Yes, and the lot is wheelchair accessible, along with the entrance.
Is it a restaurant or a shop?
Both. Sit down with a coffee and a patty, then take groceries home on your way out.
What is the matcha mocha everyone mentions?
Matcha and chocolate in one cup. It is the drink people come back for and it is easier to try than to explain.
Is there anything upstairs?
A rail of African print shirts and vintage, picked one piece at a time. Worth the stairs.
Open seven days
The continent is a fifteen minute drive.
Bring somebody.