A late birthday dinner with Trevor seemed like a good reason to revisit The Proper.
Trevor is a decade my senior and someone I genuinely enjoy spending time with. He is a conversationalist and a critical thinker, and neither of us is particularly interested in spending an evening staring at our phones. We can sit across from each other, move from one subject to another, challenge each other's opinions and talk things through without immediately reaching for Google.
It makes for good company.
He also picked up dinner, which made the occasion even better.
I started with a Smoked Old Fashioned, garnished with a dehydrated orange slice. It was perfectly reasonable. Not exceptional, but certainly not disappointing. The presentation was good, and it was a pleasant drink to start the evening, although it lacked the depth and balance that would have made it memorable.
For dinner, I ordered the 10 oz prime rib with mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, onions and mushrooms.
The portion was generous, and the prime rib was very good. Tender, flavourful and easily the strongest part of the plate.
The onions, carrots and mushrooms were all cooked perfectly. The onions and carrots, however, needed more seasoning. The execution was there, but the flavour could have been brought forward with a little more attention to seasoning.
The mashed potatoes were excellent. The consistency was fantastic, and so was the taste. They were exactly what I want from mashed potatoes.
The meal itself was good, but the bill did make me stop and consider how much The Proper has changed.
Two 10 oz prime ribs and four drinks brought the total to just over $165 including tip.
That's not unreasonable for two people having dinner and four drinks, particularly given the cost of running a restaurant today. Still, it is noticeably different from what The Proper was historically known for.
This was a restaurant that built part of its reputation on reasonably priced meals and spectacular service. It was somewhere you could have a good meal, enjoy a few drinks and still feel like you'd gotten good value for your money.
That distinction is worth noting because it ties into the larger change I noticed during this visit.
The Proper was always about more than the dining room.
The lounge was a staple for tradesmen after work. It was the place to go when the day was finished, grab a drink, sit around with the guys and bullshit for a while. Talk about work, talk about life, complain about the day and eventually make your way home.
That was part of what made The Proper feel like The Proper.
That role has changed.
The lounge side now allows children, the VLTs are gone, and the atmosphere feels noticeably different. It was considerably louder during my visit, and I found it somewhat overstimulating.
The hours have changed as well. The Proper is now closed Sundays and Mondays. From Tuesday through Thursday, the restaurant is open from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm and the lounge from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant is open from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm and the lounge from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm.
If you're planning a lunch date, you'll have to find somewhere else.
None of these changes are inherently negative. They simply represent a different direction.
Taken together with the higher price point, shorter operating week and changed lounge atmosphere, they leave me with the impression that The Proper is moving toward a more polished and elevated dining experience, one that feels considerably closer to fine dining than the casual restaurant and lounge I remember.
There is certainly reason to believe the business is moving in a positive direction.
But moving into a more elevated dining experience changes more than the food on the plate. It changes the expectations around the entire experience, from the moment you arrive until the moment you leave.
The parking situation is another part of the experience that becomes harder to ignore when you consider where The Proper seems to be heading.
The parking lot sucks.
It's too small for the business, and getting in and out of it can be a bitch. This isn't simply a matter of showing up on a busy night and having trouble finding a spot. The physical size of the lot just doesn't seem adequate for the restaurant.
For a casual restaurant and lounge, that's an inconvenience. If you're moving toward a more elevated, destination-style dining experience, I think it becomes a much bigger consideration.
The experience starts when you arrive, and fighting your way into and out of a cramped parking lot isn't exactly the first impression I'd want for a restaurant positioning itself at a higher price point.
Unfortunately, I don't think the current venue or surrounding area gives The Proper much room to fix it. The parking situation is a limitation of the location itself.
That's why I'd genuinely like to see what The Proper could accomplish in a more accessible location, with a parking lot appropriately sized for the business. I think it could make a substantial difference.
Not because the current location makes The Proper a bad restaurant, but because the location may be holding back the restaurant they're trying to become.
That same evolution can be seen in the lounge.
The after-work tradesman crowd that once made The Proper such a familiar part of Lloydminster's social landscape has shifted elsewhere. Cheers has become more of that destination.
That is simply part of how the local dining scene has changed. The Proper does not necessarily need to reclaim that role, but it is worth acknowledging that it was once an important part of the restaurant's identity.
After dinner, Trevor and I both ordered White Russians.
Naturally, the conversation eventually turned to The Big Lebowski.
What was that movie actually about?
What was the point?
We went back and forth on it for a while, doing what we had done all evening. Two people sitting across from each other, throwing ideas around and trying to make sense of something that probably wasn't designed to make much sense in the first place.
Then we took a couple of sips of our White Russians.
And that's when the conversation became considerably more relevant to the drinks in front of us.
A White Russian should have a rich, creamy character and a balanced sweetness that makes it feel indulgent. This one didn't quite get there. The balance was off, and it lacked the creamy richness I was expecting.
Whatever was in the glass, it wasn't quite coming together.
The Dude did not abide.
And if you've seen The Big Lebowski, you already know the appropriate response:
"Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man."
Fair enough.
It is my opinion.
But after a good prime rib, excellent mashed potatoes and a perfectly reasonable Old Fashioned, the White Russian was the one part of the evening that genuinely fell short.
I left The Proper having enjoyed myself.
The food was good. The prime rib was very good. The portions were generous. The vegetables were cooked properly, even if the onions and carrots needed more seasoning. The mashed potatoes were excellent.
The drinks were more mixed.
More importantly, I left thinking about how much The Proper has changed.
The restaurant I remember was reasonably priced, known for excellent service and anchored by a lounge that served as a gathering place for tradesmen after work.
The restaurant I experienced feels more polished, more expensive and more interested in becoming a destination for a different kind of dining experience.
I don't think The Proper needs to go back to what it was.
I think it needs to decide what it wants to be next, and then make sure every part of the experience supports that decision.
The food is already good. The business is clearly capable of earning provincial recognition. There is a foundation here.
I would simply like to see the location, parking, atmosphere, hours and overall experience catch up with the ambition.
And yes, that's just like, uh, my opinion, man.