‘I Went in for a Shift’: Premier Smith Washes Dishes at Family Restaurant on Weekend

Former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith shown taking her dogs, Caine (L) and Turk, for a walk while making a campaign stop in Calgary, Alta., on March 31, 2012. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Newly reelected Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is spending some of her downtime working at the Dining Car restaurant she owns with her husband David Moretta.

“Fun fact: my husband and I still own a restaurant. This weekend the dishwasher broke down, so I went in for a shift,” the premier said on her social media on June 11. The photograph shows a smiling Smith, wearing dark grey cargo pants, a red t-shirt, and gold flat sandals, standing at the stainless steel kitchen sink in the restaurant with what looks like a coffee pot.

This is not the first time the public has seen a relaxed premier taking part in everyday activities.

On June 1, just days after Smith’s United Conservative Party (UCP) captured a majority government with 49 out of 87 seats in the Alberta legislature, the new premier posted a thank you message, with a photograph of her outside doing some gardening.

“Some personal time yesterday with my husband to refresh and recharge was just what I needed,” she said.

The picture shows a smiling Smith with little to no makeup, hair windswept in a ponytail, gloves tucked under her arm, pulling weeds out of an abundance of tomato plants. Looking closely, some of her security staff can be seen just outside the fence with the black SUVs that transport the premier.

The planters are beside The Dining Car at High River Station, a 10-table restaurant that was built in a renovated railcar in downtown High River, Alberta.

The restaurant is located right beside a historic railway station that is now the Museum of the Highwood. The restaurant has been owned by Smith and Moretta since 2018, and boasts “homestyle cooking using fresh local ingredients and our own herb and vegetable garden.” The restaurant’s Facebook page notes the restaurant bakes its own bread, and has a small number of photos of the premier smiling and hard at work in the daily service and operations.

It has an upgraded and expanded commercial kitchen, 1960s-style interior decor, and a platform patio deck for outdoor dining. The railcar has Canadian Pacific painted on one side, and has had a name change from its former moniker, The Whistle Stop.

“For the last four years Danielle and I have been restoring, rebuilding and relaunching that business and I’m really optimistic and really happy about doing business in downtown High River,” Moretta, former managing editor with Global News Calgary, told Okotoks Online on Oct. 14, 2021.

“We’ve just had the busiest summer that we’ve ever had at the train and I see as a business owner downtown there’s a huge amount of potential down there and this is the absolute right moment to be able to take advantage of that,” said Moretta at the time.