EDMONTON - The owner of the oldest restaurant in Edmonton is offering a slap-up meal for four with wine to the person who can uncork a mystery.

“There is a tunnel below my restaurant and no one can tell me what purpose it served,” says Mike Bhatnagar, owner of the Hat Resto Pub at 10251 Jasper Ave.

“The tunnel once ran under Jasper Avenue but has been blocked off. I have wondered if it might date back to Prohibition days.

“It is still 11.5 metres in length and about one-metre wide. It would have been easy to roll a barrel through it.

“More recently, bricks have been used to define the tunnel and supports have been inserted to make it safe.”

The restaurant opened its doors in 1912 as the Golden Spike and soon became the Silk Hat.

“People have told us their parents said it was once the top dining spot in town,” says Bhatnagar.

“The building was constructed in 1908 and I believe the heaps of earth on the side of the tunnel date back to those early days.”

Bhatnagar says a city heritage building staffer has twice inspected the tunnel and said he can find no blueprints or records of it.

“Goodness knows how far the tunnel went at one time,” says the restaurateur. “But our best guess is that it was blocked off during LRT construction.”

The restaurant later became a casual diner and from the 1930s until recently was a place where people could discover their fortunes in a tea leaf reading.

The Hat is a couple of doors from the Paramount Theatre, which opened in 1951 and was once the largest movie theatre on the prairies.

Developers have plans for a tower on the block, but Bhatnagar says he bought the restaurant in 2013 and hopes nothing takes shape for many years.

Attracted by a shiny new hotel in his native New Delhi, Bhatnagar defied his parent’s ideas of him following a professional career and attended a culinary school.

He later worked as a chef in his native city and saw service in Nigeria, Malaysia, Singapore, California, Toronto and Calgary before coming to Edmonton.

Bhatnagar has made many renovations at the Hat and his menu reflects his experiences. Dishes run from panko-crusted goat cheese and perogy nachos to mussels in white wine and half-pound burgers.

They can be washed down with a craft beer or a growing collection of single malts and bourbons.

“My wife and I invested our life savings in the Hat,” says the restaurateur. “We’d be destroyed if we had to close in the next few years.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if it was discovered our tunnel was as ancient as some of Delhi’s old fort ramparts? But that’s just a dream. We’d settle for the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush.”

Picking up speed

Our bike ride to support adolescents with mental health concerns sprinted forward this week when Clark Builders president Paul Verhesen said his company would chip in $25,000.

“We are delighted our June 20-28 ride in the Kootenays will now be called the Clark Builders CASA Cycledelic 1,000,” says Nadine Samycia, executive director of CASA, providers of mental health services to children, adolescents and families with mental health issues.

“Paul has previously ridden with many in our group. He will join us and help set the pace.”