WildRoots Bistro feels like a restaurant that understands exactly what people want from brunch. Opened in October 2024 by Tony and Chelsea Tipping, this 34-seat St. Albert spot balances comfort and creativity, offering a menu that’s familiar enough to draw a crowd, but different and well-executed enough to keep people coming back.
WildRoots doesn’t take reservations, but the online waitlist option is very convenient. One late Sunday morning, I joined that waitlist from my home in Edmonton, then jumped in my car. By the time I arrived 25 minutes later, my table was ready. Inside, the room hums but never overwhelms: a calm, open space anchored by an open kitchen where chef Tony and his team move with quiet focus.
Concentrating on brunch was a deliberate choice, Chelsea explains, “We really love St. Albert, and wanted to be here, and there were not very many brunch or breakfast restaurants in the city.” The format also suits their lives as parents of a young child — daytime service allows for a balance that the typical dinner-heavy model does not. It also creates space for creativity: evenings are reserved for pop-ups, private dinners and collaborations where Tony can stretch beyond the already expansive menu.
That menu is extensive because almost every dish becomes a customer favourite. “It’s difficult to take things off the menu, so we’ve kind of just kept adding dishes,” Tony says. Items will change depending on seasonality, but favourites reappear. One dish, the Cassoulet, is an industry favourite, but Tony admits it doesn’t sell as often as he thinks it should. A rich French stew, he says it deserves more attention.
My group of brunch buddies took his advice and ordered it, and we can confirm this dish is a standout. Tony’s version is warm and deeply satisfying, with tender white beans, smoky paprika and crisped chicken skin that adds texture without drying out the chicken. It comes with housemade focaccia for good measure, to sop up every last drop.
“We created a menu filled with dishes that we just wanted to eat ourselves,” Tony says. “We opened a restaurant we’d want to go to.” The result is a lineup that ranges from five variations of eggs benedict to toasts, salads and lunch-forward plates, with a throughline of bold, layered flavours.
You taste that immediately. The hollandaise — bright, lemony, and intentionally more acidic than most — cuts cleanly through rich dishes like the pork belly benedict that somehow still reads as fresh rather than heavy. The benedicts arrive with neatly stacked potato pavé: crisp-edged, silky layers of finely sliced potatoes that replace the standard hash browns with something more refined.
Then there are the surprises. The Rick Pizzwich folds a homemade pizza dough over smoky pork, thick-cut bacon, caramelized onions and herb aioli that balances sweetness, acidity and richness without tipping too far in any direction. My brunch companion declared it his favourite brunch dish ever.
In summer, the nearby farmers market and regional producers shape the menu more directly. The couple grows much of their own produce at home and on Chelsea’s parents’ acreage: herbs, tomatoes, berries, even asparagus. They also forage and work with small suppliers. The Good Mushroom, a supplier located just north of St. Albert, provides mushroom varieties used in dishes like the popular mushroom toast. The majority of the ingredients the Tippings use for special events and pop-up dinners is foraged by Chelsea, Tony and their friends and collaborators.
If WildRoots reflects anything about St. Albert’s food scene, it’s a growing appetite for places that feel grounded but not predictable. This is not a minimalist brunch menu built for speed and turnover, and in fact the menu changes often. What remains consistent is its ambitious curiosity.
The drink menu features espresso-based beverages alongside breakfast cocktails, mocktails and a short list of beers. If you want to grab an espresso-based drink to go, you can do that too. There’s Wi-Fi if you need to settle in with a laptop, but the room encourages conversation: easy, unhurried and just lively enough. In the spring and summer months, WildRoots opens its front and rooftop patios, adding an additional 35 seats.
For Tony and Chelsea, the goal was never to chase trends. It was to build something that fit their lives and their community. The fact that it also happens to be one of the more distinctive brunch experiences in the area feels less like a strategy and more like a natural outcome, a home away from home for staff and guests alike.
This article appears in the September 2026 issue of Edify
