Shamrock Hotel-Sidetrack Stage & Grill

The Sidetrack Stage and Grill in the historic Shamrock Hotel is Calgary's oldest and coolest venue. Hosting a variety of classic & contemporary live music.

There is a bit of controversy over the exact date The Shamrock Hotel was built. Some peg it at 1918. Others 1922 and, the earliest at 1914. Research performed by the Ramsey Neighborhood Association has it dated as being built in 1914 by the Burns Meat Company. It was built to serve the workers at The Burns Meat plant and The Canadian Pacific Railway.
While the neighborhood certainly was dominated by Irish families working in the area, the hotel wasn't named in reference to the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood but, rather, was named The Shamrock Hotel after the Burns Meat Companies consumer meat products that were marketed as “The Shamrock Brand. ”
Over the years the hotel has been renowned for great food, service and hospitality and featured modern, clean and comfortable lodgings. In the late 60’s The Shamrock Hotel featured live country music mostly, making it Calgary’s oldest live music venue. In the 70’s and 80’s “The Rock” rocked and featured all of the mainstream touring cover bands of the day.
The 90’s and 2000’s featured many of the best rock bands and recording acts of the day including: Powder Blues Band, Doug and The Slugs, Helix, Headpins, Darby Mills, Prism, Harlequin, Nick Gilder, Sweeney Todd and many, many others….
During those years the hotel also hosted some of the best blues band around and served as the temporary home of the blues in deference to the now defunct King Eddy Hotel. The Saturday Afternoon Jam at The Shamrock is still referred to as The King Eddy Jam and hosted by the same host of their Saturday Jam “Bill Dowey and the Blues Devils”
While a fire in late August of 2013 caused fairly extensive damage to two of the hotel rooms, there was relatively minor damage to most of the hotel and the tavern (Sidetrack Stage and Grill). At that time management thought it would be a great time to renovate. So here we are. The Shamrock Hotel and The Sidetrack Stage and Grill freshly renovated and ready to go another 100 years…. Eat, stay and enjoy!