The French Maid - Calgary.......................RIP

I went to have lunch here today and find this old joint is shuttered. Lease expired in November and was not renewed; the whole block is slated for redevelopment. If I could be called a regular at any one club this would have been the club, 5 min from my company's offices, 3 blocks from my favourite greasy spoon in Chinatown, and 3 blocks the other way from my favourite steakhouse and business bar.

Don't get me wrong - this was a lousy expensive club with lame lappers from agency dancers but I had cultivated a tame waitress and she helped me scoop up the occasional piece of tasty crumpet for a romp in the Westin which was barely a block away. One of those ladies brought some drama into my life for the greater part of a year. All done now, but in a perverse way I miss it.

I worry about the street hookers, the cabbies, the hot dog cart guys, the roving flower salesmen, and all the others who fed off the French Maid clientele. The damn place was a 30 year institution in downtown Calgary.