A Calgary "institution" - Peters' Drive-In

As some of you may know, my boyfriend Ezra is here in Calgary visiting me for 10 days. We've both been pretty busy, and the past two days the weather hasn't exactly been our friend (how do you go from +22°C one day to -1°C with wet snow the next in late April? Oh, Calgary...) so even when we do go out, we usually find ourselves in a café with a laptop and/or a book in front of us.

Fortunately, we've still managed to hit a few foodie spots and hopefully will squeeze in a little more activity before he goes back home to Winnipeg.

Ezra arrived at around lunch time last Saturday, so I gave him two choices: sushi (at Misai) or burgers and shakes. He chose the latter.


The last time I went to Peters' Drive-In was probably in high school, as it was relatively close (a driveable distance, especially if you have a spare right before or after lunch). Simply put, Peters' is a Calgary institution - it survived the mad cow scare in 2003-2005, and didn't lose its steady stream of customers even when people got sick from E. Coli-contaminated marshmallow shakes in 2005. There's a rumour that Gus Pieters, the founder, has vowed never to expand Peters' beyond its one location because he wants it to be a unique experience.

The weather was nice, so we opted to park and grab a picnic table, which I'd never done before (I'd always just whipped through the drive-thru). We went up to the window to order and I couldn't help but notice that all the staff were wearing scrubs! We got just the basics - a cheeseburger for me, a double cheeseburger for him, and an order of small fries and a maple walnut milkshake to share.


The burgers were nice and meaty, but a lacked a bit of that charred taste you'd expect from a burger. It was loaded with condiments - onions, lettuce, relish, ketchup and mustard, which in turn made the bun a little soggy and the whole presentation a little sloppy.

The fries were definitely an afterthought - unseasoned (though the lady behind the counter did offer us salt) and not at all crispy. We forced ourselves through half the container and chucked the rest.

Fortunately, the milkshake was as good as I remembered them, though I hadn't had that particular flavour before (I'm usually a chocolate or mocha kinda girl.) It's so thick I needed to pull twice on the straw the first time around, and it was full of the yummy, artificial maple flavour you'd expect in a milkshake (this is not a cabane à sucre or anything.) The little bits of actual walnut gave a nice bit of texture without being a choking hazard.

The atmosphere was also awesome - there were lots of young families at the picnic tables around us, and apparently some sort of biker club likes to meet on sunny Saturdays.

If you are a Calgarian and you haven't been to Peters' yet, you should go (especially once it warms up again), if only for a milkshake.

Peters' Drive-In
219 16 Ave NE
Calgary AB
(403) 277-2747