barry takes a bite out of jasper.

last friday, a bud and i took off to the mountains for a day of hiking, kayaking, and cursing mosquitos. we not only conquered the alpine meadows hike at mt. edith cavell, but also managed to stay upright, despite massive blood loss thanks to the swarms. to celebrate we decided to head to the emerald lounge at the jasper park lodge for a quick drink.

its here that we met our server, jonas henriksson. i decided to take his advice and try jpl's signature martini. this turned out to be one of the best drinks i've had in a long while. of course, it probably helped that jonas actually invented the drink himself.

the infamous martini came into being 4 years ago when jonas first arrived in Alberta from his home in sweden. determined to try canadian ice wine, he began a mission to create the perfect hybrid of swedish and canadian spirits. what originally started out as a drink with equal parts inniskillin ice wine and straight-up vodka, morphed into ice wine and citron vodka, and finally as a mixture of absolut pear vodka and inniskillin, served in a sugar-rimmed martini glass. it goes for a cool $17, but it's worth the treat.

after our $17 drinks we decided to head into town to papa george's for supper. we chose this restaurant on my older sister's advice - she would not stop raving about their game burger, served with a side of potatoes fried in duck fat.

both of us opted to get this, but we started off with elk pot pie and pan seared scallops. we both felt that our appies missed the mark - great in concept, but not worth the price. my bud's elk was overcooked, and though my scallops were done perfectly, the faro patties that they were served with were over salted.

a mix of elk, venison and bison, the game burgers arrived promptly after our starters. we expected game burgers to have a stronger flavour. though these were cooked perfectly, they were bland for our tastes. the great service and beautiful ambience couldn't balance out our disappointment.

oh - and the potatoes fried in duck fat? superb.