11 - Zac Hartley, Kate MacGregor

This episode kicks off with Zac Hartley of Burgundy Oak, to tell us about how wanting some ribs at the cabin led to a thriving Calgary business, and later we speak with architect and real estate developer Kate MacGregor about her firm, XYC Design, and her contribution to Calgary’s East Village. During the break we’re back with another Canfessional!

It all started when Zac attended the Penticton Rib Festival. Later at family cabin Zac wanted to recreate a great recipe he’d tried, so he picked up a used wine barrel, sliced off the top, and built his own smoker at the cabin. Wanting to share his project he posted a few photos online, and soon after they were contacted by CTV news. What took place afterwards they hadn’t expected: people wanted to get wine barrel smokers of their own. Zac and his partner Nick made a trip out to the Okanagan where they put $1500 worth of barrels on their credit cards so they could fulfill their first order, which was built in mom’s garage. Today Burgundy Oak is well known for their wildly successful appearance on Dragon’s Den, and their hand made wine and whisky barrel furniture is now making an appearance in select Canadian Tire locations in Alberta. As Zac puts it: "I knew it was something special because I didn't set out trying to start a business.”

Canfessionals are back! This time we hear a story Josh calls “Happy birthday here’s my corpse”, a tale of having a little too much fun, something many of us have experienced ourselves. Write in your own confessionals to [email protected] and we’ll read them on air anonymously.

After the break we’re joined by XYC Design founder Kate MacGregor. After acquiring her Civil Engineering degree in Calgary and her Master’s of Architecture at Columbia Kate was off to NYC, a city she’d fallen in love with as a teenager when her father would bring her with him to New York for his business trips. Kate is able to point to a number of buildings in Brooklyn and say “I designed part of that building.” Now she’s back in Calgary designing the M2 site in Calgary’s East Village, which is now underway after breaking ground in May 2018. Jonathan gets a few laughs when he calls the East Village “Calgary’s Brooklyn,” but as our discussion reveals there is some truth to this statement. Of course an interview with an expert wouldn’t be complete without Josh’s hard hitting journalism, so he makes sure we get to the bottom of his burning question: “Just how do buildings stay up?!”

Join us at the Wild Rose Taproom for 20oz of your own


Have a question for Mama T? A story from the bottom of a beer can? Send it in to [email protected]

Burgundy Oak

XYC Design