With countless art galleries, niche boutiques and a vibrant restaurant and bar scene, Northeast Alberta St. has long attracted people seeking creativity, conversation and community. Experience the party for yourself the last Thursday of every month for the aptly titled ‘Last Thursday’ street fair. During this event, 15 blocks of the street — from 15th to 30th — are closed to traffic from 6-9 p.m. for art vendors, street performers and merry-makers to get their party on.
Can’t make it Thursday nights? Don’t worry, the street has something going on every day of the week.
Passenger Seat Records
Travel around the world at the drop of a needle at Passenger Seat Records.
This boutique record store offers music lovers a chance to browse a curated selection of world music, disco, jazz, soul, funk and house in a tropical, relaxed environment.
“I remember hanging with a friend who had a really, really big collection of records and they had a lot of African records,” said owner Drew Brown, who opened the shop two years ago.
“I was like, whoa, this is so funky and so vibrant…hearing it made me really happy.”
Now Brown has his own store full of records that make him happy.
“I grew up playing the guitar, and I studied music in college,” Brown said. “I studied jazz and that got me into African music and bossa nova and samba and then from there, I was always wanting to discover new sounds and genres of music.
“It was really just about being really curious all the time.”
He set up an online shop during the COVID-19 pandemic which included a mix of current artists, reissues, collaborations and hard-to-find titles.
“I started going through my records, and it kind of dawned on me that it would be cool to have this curated kind of selection of records from different labels and hone in on certain genres or styles,” Brown said.
In addition to selling records, Brown hosts DJs and events in the space.
“Usually on the weekends there's people DJing throughout the day and I do a thing that I call open decks, which is, you know, like open mic,” he says. “You can play whatever type of style.”
Brown said he gets a wide variety of people coming into the shop and loves seeing people browse and discover new sounds in real time.
“There’s a good amount of people that are kind of somewhat tired of the streaming, the algorithm, and enjoy the physicality of the record and the ritual of kind of putting it on and looking at it,” Brown said.
He said record collecting opens you up to finding a lot of material you might not find from streaming.
“You can look at it like you’re in the passenger seat as the listener and the music is the driver taking you somewhere. It opens up a whole new world,” he said.
Address: 4922 NE 20th Ave. Website: passengerseatrecords.com Instagram: @passengerseatrecords Don’t miss: Passenger Seat is celebrating its second birthday this month. Follow on Instagram to keep up-to-date on party details.
Cherries and Figs Wine Shop
An Alberta Street wine merchant wants everyone to have access to good vino.
“You can get a $15 bottle of wine and take it to the park or if you just won the lottery and want to impress your friends, you can buy the $2,000 bottle and see what it does for you,” says Norman Medina, the owner of Cherries and Figs Wine Shop. “I like to think I'm passionate about the $15 bottle, just like I am about the $2,000 bottle.
“I try to make wine approachable to everyone.”
Medina first discovered his passion for wine in his early 20s and has been in the wine business now more than 25 years.
“I've been blessed enough where I've tasted a lot of wines throughout my life, and I knew in the back of my mind from years ago that I wanted to open up a wine shop,” Media said.”
That dream became a reality nearly four years ago when he and his wife decided to open the Alberta shop.
Medina says his speciality is “overachieving good, solid, delicious wines.”
“Everything gets a write up. I want to tell you what's in the wine, whether it's a single varietal, I want to tell you the blend of the wine, maybe a quirky, funny story about where it came from, the winemaker, the family that owns the wine or anything like that, or just could be why it blew my socks off,” Medina said.
Such personal touches have endeared people to the shop and have them coming back.
“The wines can be from anywhere,” Medina said. “I've had wines here from unpredictable parts of the world like Bosnia, Israel and Lebanon. I've had wines from Armenia and the Republic of Georgia…”
He said his main priorities are to showcase fun, unique bottles and to make sure the customer feels comfortable to browse and ask questions.
“I laid out the store to make it look somewhat like an art gallery,” he said. “I want a nice presentation of the wines, but I also want people to not feel intimidated.”
He said he and his wife love tasting bottles before they hit the shelves.
“My wife and I will take it home and test drive it,” he says. “We can take our time with it — taste it without food, taste it with food, and sometimes taste it with one of my wife's dinners.
“It’s a definite perk.”
Address: 1607 NE Alberta Street Website:cherriesandfigs.com Instagram: @cherriesandfigswineshop Don’t miss: Medina makes it a point to have new bottles in the shop weekly so you never know what you might find.
Midslumber Media
Good luck getting a good night's sleep after visiting Midslumber Media, a new horror specialty shop on Alberta that celebrates all things spooky, strange, and slightly nostalgic.
Owner Michaela Granger has been a horror fan for as long as she can remember and wanted to create a space where people could share their passion for the macabre together.
“I think people have this preconceived notion of what ‘type’ of people watch horror, but if anyone is qualified to tell you what type of person is consuming horror, it's me,” Granger said. “Yes, a lot of horror buffs are self-proclaimed weirdos, me included, but we're not the only ones watching or reading horror by a long shot.”
She said she’s not surprised people of all ages, backgrounds, professions and sexualities find their way into her store because horror has something for everyone.
Visitors to the shop can browse a wide range of horror books and movies in addition to what she calls ‘horror adjacent’ titles.
“I stock anything that is spooky, dark or utilizes horror themes,” Granger said. “With that wide net I get what some people call 'Weird Girl Literary Fiction,’ gothic literature, sci-fi movies, spooky family friendly movies and so much more.”
She also carries dark romance, paranormal romance and dark romantasy.
Granger credits her horror buff mom for getting her into the genre at an early age.
“I don't even remember the first horror film I watched but I remember going out of my way to find more horror to consume wherever I could my entire childhood. I've always been drawn to the macabre and strange,” she said.
While her own personal taste tends to lean toward folk, psychological, body and erotic horror, Granger is here to help people find titles that excite them.
“Horror is a massive genre and not every corner of it is going to speak to everyone,” she said. “I try my best to get people started in a spot that they'll be comfortable with and that will speak to them.”
She said there are lots of reasons someone might gravitate toward horror, including confronting fear in a safe and controlled environment.
“Interestingly, I've had a lot of people come into the store recently and say that they've been reaching towards horror more because nothing seems to be as scary as real life right now,” she said
Address: 1609 NE Alberta Street Website: midslumbermedia.com Instagram: @midslumbermedia Don’t miss: Granger recently launched the ‘Spine Breakers Horror Bookclub.’ Keep an eye out on Instagram for details on their first book selection and meet-up. She also plans to host monthly ‘Movie Night-Mare’ events where they project a horror classic in the store.
