Sidewalk Citizen Bakery

Love love love this bakery!
Friendly and knowledgable staff and amazing bread!
They also participate in leftovers YYC so I never hesitate to support this local business!

This place is great for a quick bite to eat! The downtown location in the Simmons building definitely is bigger and has more options on their menu, while the one in Kensington doesn’t have as much for hot food, but their bakery selection is almost the same as the one downtown.
If you like sourdough, go here. Period. I dare to say that I (GASP) am not really a fan of sourdough, but I’ve had it here being used as a sandwich and omg yum. In the Kensington location, they have a sandwich of the day, 1 vegetarian and 1 meat option, same goes with pizza. It can be sometimes a hit or miss, depending on what you’re looking for that day. I haven’t come here often to know whether their cold salads go out in rotation, but I have a feeling they do. The duck noodle one is superb though.
The Simmons building has more options and the backdrop for the this location is super rustic-​industrial type setting. If you’ve been to the Simmons you’ll know what I’m talking about. They have many more sandwiches to offer as well as a stew and soup of the day. Their baked goods section is also slightly bigger filled with both sweet and savoury desserts. With almost every meal that you order, you get a slice of their famous sourdough bread. And, with a little bit of butter, it really goes with almost everything you order (I even got one offered to me when I ordered a sandwich). I had their albacore tuna sandwich with a side soup (carrot & butternut squash) and it was a definitely a big lunch that got save some of it for part 2 at a later time.
Above all, TRY THEIR CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS! One of the best in the city, in my opinion.

Best coffee shop and bakery in Calgary for interesting people watching, deeeelicious baked savoury and sweet treats and an amazing hipster-​industrial backdrop! The old brick façade Simmons has been converted in to a mutilplex that house Charbar, Citizens Bakery and Phil & Sebastian’s coffee.
M-​F during the day, you’ll see a lot of tech-​startup-​type folk working on their computers sipping on americanos. I often see kids in daycare being led through the bakery to choose a treat. (Amazing daycare program!!!) On the weekends, it’s a mixed crowd with families, tourists, friends and lovers there to enjoy a casual brunch or coffee break.
If you’ve never been, you MUST go.

Situated on a renovated building in the east side of Calgary, this bakery is a wonderful little place. The décor is absolutely beautiful– a modern, industrial style that is lovely in its simplicity. I especially appreciate the fact that they have a small dining area for people to sit, eat, and converse.
As for the food, their pastries and bread are fresh, delicious, and vibrant. There is true love and quality that is out behind their baking– and it really shows!
I love coming here from time-​to-​time to enjoy the food, however, I am only giving it four stars because of their pricing. $ 10 for yogurt and granola? I don’t think that’s acceptable.
If you do end up coming here, treat yourself lightly because their prices are quite steep!

We came here on a recommendation from one of the staff at the Farm cheese shop. The staff were friendly and patient while we chose from the wide variety of scrumptious looking baked goods. Everything in the showcase looked amazing! We took our treats to go, but we will be back for more!

The baked goods are so good I have to limit myself with how often I go in for a browse. Their stuff is a bit expensive, but it’s definitely worth it for the quality.

This is one of the places I always hit up for a quick lunch as its close to work. Parking is super hard to find near the area though. If I’m lucky I can usually score a spot on the street. Prices here are high. But the quality I feel like it’s almost worth it. As this is location in connected to the Sunnyside Natural Market, I always take a stroll into the market side… I stare at their frozen treats section while I wait for my sandwiches to heat up. Always so tempting!
I ever know what to expect when I come here. But if I have a veggie sandwich in mind I tend to come here. I love their pizza here as well, I’m not usually a crust eater but their pizza is to die for even if it’s their vegetable pizza.
I’m not in love with their soups, they always seem to have funky flavours like the sesame miso based one I got the other day… my taste buds weren’t too fond of it, but I was happy to have the big slice of bread that accompanied it though.
With each visit, I always get a few cold salads to go. I could eat them everyday; if not for the cost of them. The premium vegetable salad rings up to 27.5/kg. so getting even a little bit seems to cost me a fortune. Gotta pay the cost to eat healthy outside of the home I guess. There are times when my kale salads appear to be drenched in oil. But I think that’s how it’s supposed to be…
Love their pastries here. Whether I’m looking for something sweet or savoury. A visit here always hits the spot.
For today’s wonderful adventure I got a pear and white chocolate scone with rosemary. So decadent. I don’t think I would find those flavours any where else in this area. The scones here are so yummy. The middle is spongy and the outside has crusted sugar. I ate it by itself as an afternoon snack and I didn’t choke to death (usually scones are really dry to me…). I now have a car that smells of rosemary and sweet sugar.

Travelled from Edmonton to Calgary just for this. Trip was totally worth it! Will certainly come back for more

I like this place. The brownies are great, the danishes are so perfectly cooked. Deli items like sandwiches and salads are all very tasty.
Only downfall is that the service is lacking. I feel as though I’m just another customer in a place that seemingly has a community vibe. I’ve been looked over in favour of people that are obviously friends of those that work there numerous times. It’s irritating to say the least. As though my time and money are not as valuable.
I hope this place turns around.

This is MY FAVOURITE PLACE to eat in the city. Seriously. Their sandwiches and salads are top notch, their baked goods are divine. You will likely never have a better sandwich, I’ve been to revered sandwich places all over the world and they don’t quite meet the amazing-​ness of these sandwiches. My favourites are the ones with duck breast, portabello mushrooms, or ham hocks. The ones with roast beef can sometimes be a bit lacklustre but the bread, sauces and cheeses are always good.
Whether it be the local, in season, and excellent ingredients in the sandwiches and salads, the flavourful sauces (the red harissa is my fave) or the bacon jam, I keep coming back for more. The grain salads are always a good bet, and their soups are unique and filling. Deffo go for the savoury danishes they have – generally sticky, salty, cheesy and bacon filled, they hit the spot. Their plain sourdough croissants are solid too. They also always have a bunch of different testers you can try too, which is always a bonus! I sometimes wish their pizza was a bit more saucy but that is my own preference.
Their bread also makes great toast and paninis, even excellent breadcrumbs when it gets stale.
Their prices for salads and sandwiches can be a bit steep (I usually mix two salads to get about 200 grams for around $ 6 – 7, and one sandwich can be around $ 9), but you can’t get anything like it anywhere else. Would I rather pay $ 9 for this than $ 5 for a subway sandwich? Absolutely.
The only downside is if it is busy their service can be a bit slow. Also, this is just a service counter where you buy your sandwiches and go. There are a couple of stools at the window but nothing really legit.

Best bakery in Calgary!!!
Everything I’ve had from here has been really delicious! Fresh sourdough bread, baguettes, made from scratch dips, vegan chocolate cookies.

I want to give this more stars!
Everything I’ve had from this place has been absolutely delicious! The chocolate croissants are divine!
Now here is why I just can’t top up their star rating: the service. I can’t go in! I make my poor coworker go because I’m tired of feeling like a piece of crap after I leave. It generally takes at least 3 – 4 minutes of chilling at the counter waiting for someone to acknowledge that I am there and that I indeed would like to purchase something. When I finally do get to order, they don’t entertain questions like «So how’s your day?» or «Has it been busy?» and they are sassy and short with me! Am I not hip enough?! Am I too ‘corporate’? Can they tell I don’t eat mostly organic?
I am a ball of insecurity after leaving this place. One day I will be cool enough. One day.

Okay, pardon my rage-​filled rant, but just because it says organic and local doesn’t mean it automatically qualifies for a 100% premium. I agree with everybody’s assessment of the quality of the food (it is very high), that isn’t in question. But I’m getting worn out by the ever-​escalating organic premium. This would be a 5-​star review if the owners reduced the prices by 25%.
$ 6 for a loaf of bread (of which an equally good replacement would be found at Sunterra for $ 4 — or maybe I’m not fully versed in the «art of bread»)? $ 4.50 for a slice of french toast? $ 8 for a pre-​assembled pork shoulder sandwich where the pork shoulder makes an appearance on alternating bites? I don’t understand this pretentious yuppy hipster I-love-being-overcharged-because-it’s-indicative-of-my-quality-as-a-human-being approach to food consumption. And of course retailers are more than eager to exploit this.

Wow, best bakery I’ve been to in Calgary. I ate my fair share of bread and pastry in France, and this definitely stacks up. De-​effin-​licious, best $ 3.50 Danish I’ve ever eaten.
If you can tolerate the hipster quotient, and the smell of the organic food store, then you will be blown away by the deliciousness.
Definitely try it, try everything, I plan on it.

Recently Sidewalk Citzen Bakery relocated back to Kensington (where they started) and into the renovated Sunnyside Natural Market, and started serving up delicious delicious treats.
Gourmet pizza? Scones with insanely good and unique flavour combinations that you’ll dream about? They’ve got those, plus breads and luscious looking desserts. It’s worth mentioning that they’ve branched out a fair bit — becoming a bit of a deli — there’s a lot of salads and lunch sandwiches, and not quiet as many bread products as I’d ideally like.
My only complaints? The prices are really high, and Aviv (the owner) tweets too many damn photos of the products. SCB is making it very hard to stay on a budget and a diet!

Chinook Mall brought out us to this area on a Saturday and since we were here I knew we had to seek out this little bakery for a snack. We stopped in right after lunch and some of the supply was getting low. BUT we managed to get us some ciabatta bread, sticky buns and ham/​cheese croissants. OMG YUM. Yup it was all amazing.
We fought over the sticky buns, the croissants were buttery/​flaky/​fabulous and the ciabatta… well 3 of us sat around the island eating it later that day completely in heaven. We didn’t eat it all and a couple days later I found what was left and quickly made it into croutons. (waste nothing)
They have a small but delicious variety of items to choose from in the bakery and I look forward to dropping by again soon to partake in more yummy goodness.

Five stars without question.
Fantastic, breads with incredibly developed flavors. Some of the best scones in the city in inventive flavor combinations. A passionate baker (Aviv) and staff. Besides the incredible products, this is a place that considers a triple bottom line (economic, social, environmental). An incredible reminder of what can happen when people actually care and try to make the best possible products they can.

Amazing to have this kind of artisan bakery in our city. Pick up their wares at Phil & Sebastian and many other places or visit the bakery on a Saturday and hang out with the bakers.

I love the idea of delivering bread on bike, but for someone who doesn’t live downtown (yet) and doesn’t work downtown, it was inconvenient for me to get my hands on these gourmet baked goods until the cargo bike store opened up on Stephen Ave. I made a trip this morning to get scones for my office meeting. Peach and Chocolate, and some sort of savory feta scone. So, how were they? I’ll tell you as succinctly as I can:
THE BEST SCONES EVER.
Cute bakery boy too. He was kind of a skinny hipster meets Fabio.

Aviv of Sidewalk Citizen Bakery has been delivering bread to downtown Calgary customers for years. Recently he opened a bakery locations for those of us that aren’t lucky enough to live or work downtown. The bakery is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10am until 3 but go early for the best selection. The bread is often gone by 1. Check out his website for the list of baked goods available at the store. Last time I was there it included bread, scones (savoury & sweet), croissants and danishes.