Staff at Edmonton’s south Hanjan restaurant were star struck and excited to have Canadian actor Simu Liu accept their invitation for dinner.
“So my friend (Jola Besana), she made the sign saying that one table is reserved for Simu Liu and then she made a video and posted it on Instagram on our page and then he commented saying that he was down to come,” Hallie Trono, a server at Hanjan said.
The Marvel superstar arrived at the restaurant near 37 Avenue and 99 Street just before last call, at 11 p.m. Friday.
“I think all the customers kind of quieted down. I’m pretty sure everyone was like staring at him,” Trono said. “I tried to be as normal as possible.”
All the staff took turns serving Liu, who came right from the airport.
“He actually asked for quite a few recommendations. They ordered a lot. They ordered some seafood pancakes, some of our popular dishes, like corn cheese, cheese buldak,” Trono said.
“We were just super honoured that he actually came and we were his first meal here in Edmonton.”
Liu was in Edmonton to host the Juno Awards at Rogers Place Monday night. He’s one of many artists adding to the buzz in the city all week.
The amount of people volunteering for all the Juno events blew organizers away.
“We had an overwhelming response for volunteers. We had 700 applicants, which is absolutely incredible and we had 220 volunteers accepted to support the Junos and all the events leading up to Juno week,” Renee Williams, co-chair for the Junos Host Committee said.
From airport greeters, to shuttle drivers and ticket takers,everyone wants in on the action around town — any way they can help.
“I mean, this is who Edmonton is — the volunteers come out. Young, old, we’ve got families that are volunteering, people from out of town that have come in to volunteer,” Williams said.
The Juno events are projected to have a $12 million dollar economic impact in Edmonton.