Embracing one’s inner carnivore is not an unusual thing to do in a city nicknamed “Cowtown,” but this was not your usual steak. It was pig head mortadella, a signature dish at the restaurant Charcut Roast House in downtown Calgary. I usually avoid foods with the word “head” in them, but they are a magnet for my husband, and this one had arrived with a plate of other house-cured meats, winning me over. Charcut does, of course, serve a straight up prime rib — this is still Cowtown — but there are no sides of iceberg lettuce or creamed spinach. Instead, I had the crunchy duck-fat-fried brussels sprouts.

The growing sophistication that has given rise to restaurants like Charcut is part of a broader cultural evolution taking place in Calgary. Long treated as a pit stop en route to the Rockies, the city may be best known to outsiders for hosting a colossal cattle-centric bacchanal, the Calgary Stampede. But if some still think of the stretch from the Pacific to Toronto as flyover land, the smoke signals emanating from the city are inescapable. There must be a reason that Calgary kept landing on those best-cities lists; that it was growing at more than double the rate of Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver (by 10 percent from 2008 to 2013); and that ­people I met who lived or had lived in the city spoke of it with such affection.

There are many reasons, as I learned on a September trip during which I ate fine and original food, strolled the river paths, visited vibrant boutiques and art galleries, and talked to whatever locals I could corral, which was easy as they are a notably friendly lot. I found a city where a combination of petrodollars and enterprising locals are fueling a creative transformation.