Taken from My Favourite Restaurants in Calgary & Banff, 5th Edition
By John Gilchrist, CBC Radio Restaurant Critic
Escurial Incorporated
Page 21

Cafe Divine
Market-Fresh Cuisine

Okotoks is one big, booming burg these days. Anyone who hasn't visited the charming town south of Calgary for a few years is in for a surprise. Housing Developments are everywhere, and shops of all sorts have popped up. And in the middle of all the activity, some restaurants are doing great business.

One of these is Cafe Divine, a Victorian manor near the east and of downtown. But don't let its sweeping veranda and charming decor deceive you. The building is only a few years old and was built to house a restaurant. Inside it seats about forty-five, and outside the veranda and patio seat about the same. The interior has the wood and knick-knack tone of a tea house; tables are well spaced and sunlight spills in the windows.

The first impression is that this might be a nice place for a cup of tea and a sweet dessert. But Cafe Divine is so much more than that. It has a menu that ranges from falafel sandwiches and pan-seared salmon at lunch to buffalo short ribs and braised lamb shank at dinner. And these folks can cook.

Chef-owner Darren Nixon and co-chef Adrienne Penny focus on Contemporary cuisine that combines ingredients such as angel hair pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, and artichokes with skewered seafood. And tops pizza with capicollo, goat cheese, caramelized onions, and Mission figs. It's forceful, lively, food that fills the plate, excites the palate, and satisfies any hunger walking through the door.

l had a bowl of fresh vegetable soup that perhaps had the best broth of any soup in this book, aside from that at Chez Francois. A few of the vegetables were overcooked, but the intense, natural flavour was superb. And the house-made burger with Gorgonzola, in a Vienna roll from the Black Diamond Bakery, was superb. Good ground sirloin, excellent cheese, and a great bun.

l didn't have room for dessert, but did take home a piece of their deep-dish apple-berry pie for later. It was a little soggy by then, but this signature dessert was well executed, with lots of fruit and decent pastry and without too much sugar, And it was a gigantic portion.Cafe Divine also has some of the most cheerful and proficient service I’ve seen lately. The staff genuinely seem to enjoy their work. And they hustle. This one busy place.

Just like the rest of Okotoks around them.