The Local 522

This is a good down town sport to watch Champion’s League soccer matches over a late, and somewhat extended lunch.
The food is fine, and consistent most of the time. The same applies to the service.
Almost always packed with guys, as that is the business model, the review is based on food drinks, and service.

Came here for a lunch meeting and the place was packed. The prices were reasonable for food, and it came out hot. They lose a star for liqueur prices. Many downtown places have adjusted and it seems a little steep for drink prices… esp since I indulge… quite a bit.

Outstanding service. Richie lined me up with a beer while I waited for a table. The servers are friendly, attractive and attentive. And the vibe is great at lunch. They know what they are doing. Employees were all competent.

Place is great, didn’t eat today, only drinks.
As with most bars of this nature the service can be hit and miss. Girl was cute and all (if you’re into girls) but her service was down right shit. Refusal to make eye contact, walks away quickly, abrasive almost. No romancing or anything just one word responses ‘sure’ ‘okay’ etc. Like she was almost too good to stick around and talk to you, had to get back to her snap chat and Instagram I’m sure.
News flash — IF YOU HATE YOUR JOB THAN QUIT —
I don’t appreciate your shit attitude painted all over your face.

Worst service ever. Only a few people in here. But waited half an hour for first contact. And yet there were two managers swanning around with friends. BBQ chicken was, without any warning, so hot and spicy, it was virtually inedible. Fish tacos were so small, a more apt name would be Minnow tacos. Super expensive for awful service and food.

If you are in for a drink after work, you will never be disasppointed if you head to Local 522.

Loud and aloof… full on sausage party on the regular. Food options are ok however, not much available for vegan/​veggie people. Salads are often wilted. 50% of the time the service is crap.
We head here because it takes reservations and it’s walking distance from work.
Sadly, they cannot make Moscow Mules or Dark & Stormy’s which is true to most places in YYC.
Decent for lunch, and for getting molested by the eyes of all the plaid/​striped shirt, ill-​fitting pants wearing Calgarian men.

Except maybe for the pizza, great pub food. It tastes like it was made fresh, unlike about 90% of the pubs in this city.
Try the chili cheese fries — the chili is made with slow-​cooked brisket and has some unique spices. Also try the burger with a fried egg.
The décor is trendy, but the clientele is more of an after-​work office crowd. It closes early. Occasionally they have live music on Saturday, and I have seen a few great free shows — Dave Bidini, Kris Demeanor, Jay Crocker.

Went here for an afternoon with some friends after work for some wings. I know bad choice but there weren’t many places willing to accommodate the amount of people we had. Local 522 were able to reserve us a table for 22 people. It was really crowded which is what you would expect on an afternoon after work on a Thursday night. First of all, we waited forever to get our food ordered. When a waitress came, she asked if we wanted drinks and we asked if we could order food. She’s like, «no, this is drinks right now». So, we ordered our drinks then waited another 20 minutes to get our food ordered. Most people ordered wings. It was $ 7.50 for 1 lb. of wings with very limited number of flavours. I think there were only 6, if I recall correctly. The waitress then complained to us that they don’t have enough equipment to make these many wings then told us that it will come out a few at a time, each separated by 10 minutes.
The place is really loud so when the food came out, they were shouting the order of the wings out and one end of the table wouldn’t be able to hear and vice versa. There needs to be a better system with waitresses… for example, numbering people, writing names, whatever, to make it easier for people who serve the plate to know where it goes instead of shouting in a loud bar. Then the bill came out and it was completely disorganized because they refused to separate the bills. Okay, so maybe this part was our fault because some people didn’t include tip in their payment but we were short money. To prevent these things from happening, separate bills work good. A little extra work can make a customer happy. That’s why we would go back. I was so unimpressed with this place. There are PLENTY of other bars in Calgary that deserve 5 stars, not this one.

Amazing hipster bar! Lots of fun people to mingle with and the environment is so cool! Haven’t tried the food yet but the menu had a good variety. Awesome place to get hammy pants at haha

Great spot for lunch and post work drinks.

Review #29 of Unilocal’s 30 Day Challenge 2012
This pub is a popular after-​work hang out place. It’s almost always insanely crowded after 3pm, especially on Friday. I think that the servers have probably had enough of the crowds and therefore have resolved to just getting their job done, Tiffany said it pretty accurately with «scant and curt».
Food here is fairly average. It’s great for after-​work snacks, but I definitely recommend getting someone to hold a table for you if you want to go after work, it’s a zoo to get one otherwise. But if you have arrived late, I would just recommend finding somewhere else, it’s really not worth the wait.

This Nice sport bar has an excellent location in downtown to have lunch or have a drink after work!.. The ambience is really nice… And the pizza is delicious… In addition the service is very good…

Came here for the sole reason of catching some bands I wanted to see. I actually like the way this bar looks, but the crowd wasn’t really my style.
I hadn’t eaten supper and was hoping to get a bite here. Turns out they close the kitchen when they have shows on, just something to keep in mind.
Good sound, awesome dancing, and steam whistle tall cans. I forgot my scarf here and called about it, thye were super nice about it and said they had it for me to pick up. I could see myself coming back here for another show.

Local 522 played host to a long overdue reunion with a friend of mine (like 17 years long…), so it will forever hold a delicate place in my heart for that alone. We came on a Monday night, and not much was going on in here. Perfect for some catching up. Our waitress was pleasant though not very knowledgeable about their beers. I enquired about their dark beers and she said Guinness. Wanting to try something a little more local I asked about their brown ales and their level of hops (I don’t do hoppy). She said she didn’t really know but would bring me a couple samples. She brought me blonds. Oh well, we were drinking light beers then. Lots of great menu options for food. We were in the pizza mood, so we ordered the mushroom pizza which was really freaking delicious and the pizza margherita which was not as outstanding but alright. I could see making my way back here again.

Once again, a situation where I wish I could rate one member of the staff differently from the actual experience.
Granted, the ladies and I came here on an extremely busy pre-​St. Patrick’s Day Friday night, which meant it was a bologna forest in there. Loud, crowded, with the kind of attentiveness from waitstaff one would expect from a place that has their female servers wear daisy dukes.
Service was scant and curt, and at one point, one of the ladies with us had to go up to the bar and get her own drink. It was pretty much one-​star city until the adorable manager came to our rescue, got us our food and drinks and bought us apology shots. Another thing the Local 522 has going for it; a really good veggie burger. Well-​made, flavorful and not at all a beany hockeypuck. The sweet potato fries, not so much. The flavor was there, but they were thought-​provokingly flaccid. Whatever, I ate them anyway.
Good food and good company are what saved the day (don’t they always?), and I really enjoyed meeting some of the ladies at our table! I’d risk coming back here; on a much quieter evening.

My experience at this pub didn’t start out so well. They don’t take debit and the ATM machine wouldn’t dispense me money so I had to drive somewhere else to take out money and then come back. The parking lot only takes credit card and I had to call that in.
When I found the Unilocalers I was meeting for a drink it took so long for service that I just went and got my own drink up at the bar. The server was horrible the rest of the night with the exception of the manager of the bar bringing me my dinner and one round of drink orders. The server would come to the table and take the glasses while avoiding eye contact. Then she hurry off while you tried to make an order.
The one shinning light was that my food was really tasty considering it was pub food. The mushroom soup was full of mushrooms and very flavorful. The chicken burger was cooked to perfection. The chicken was moist and flavorful. I really liked the coleslaw on the side added to put on the burger.
The lighting is funky, dark and calming. The bar was full the entire time we were there and quite loud. The music was blaring and you could just barely hear each other if you screamed in each others faces. The people were a fun mix of business and trendy. It was easy to meet new people and I enjoyed a night of intellectual conversation mixed with drunken silliness.
Overall the food is good but the service just plain sucked. I’ve only been there once so I’d like to give it another try.
All and all it was an exceptional night. The company made the night enjoyable. More than that it allowed me the chance to meet some of the Unilocalers and know that Unilocal is filled with some really wonderful people.

Local 522 seems to be a good place for colleagues on a Friday afternoon for some BEERZ!
They have a good selection of bottled and draught beers and the service so far has been pretty great! They also have specials on their appies and drinks and if you follow them on Twitter, you can be allllll up in there like swimwear. @Local522
I am yet to have food at Local 522 due to my Friday afternoon liquid intake priority, BUT I hear the food is pretty good.
The servers and bartenders are mostly women, and are all gorgeous! When you go there, you’ll ask yourself «What’s with the sausage fest…» but you’ll soon realize. But these beer babes have their head in the game and get the job done (beer in hand, refills, accurate bills, etc)
Pop on down to Local, but if you’re coming with a large group, be sure to make a reso if you can. It can get pretty packed by 3:30 pm. There’s even a little patio for those awesome Spring and Summer days when being outside is just too irresistible!

Local 522 is a great little bar/​restaurant. I never even knew it existed before yesterday though I’ve been in the room before… weird, right? The reason is b/​c Local 522 is usually where you eat when you attend functions in the giant downtown tent during Stampede.
Anyway…the server staff is very friendly, the food is varied and tasty and the place is hopping. I think the prices are pretty good for downtown as well. Definitely a place to check out though if you want to go for lunch on Friday a reservation is DEFINITELY required.

Still stand by my previous review of Local 522. Nice atmosphere of cabin sheek. Average beer selection. Great after work place for a couple of pints with colleagues, very chill atmosphere. Average pub food, portions getting skimpier though stretched out to look larger. Perhaps this is the Mark Wahlberg of pubs, a speciman of strong physical features and OK substance.