Halifax hipsters find home over harbour
Once-gritty downtown Dartmouth is starting to become one of the country’s coolest neighbourhoods
DARTMOUTH, N.S. — It’s 3:30 on a Friday afternoon after a busy lunch rush that filled a 60-seat restaurant in downtown Dartmouth.
Standing behind The Canteen’s bar, chef and co-owner Renee Lavallee fills her glass with something from a local selection of craft beer and cider on tap.
“There were a few sleepless nights after we decided to open a restaurant here,” says Canteen co-owner Doug Townsend, Lavallee’s husband, as he sidles up to the bar.
“The reality is this block of Portland Street for years was sort of a no-go zone at certain times of day for the average person.”
Not anymore. The Canteen is among an explosion of retail and restaurant startups that have transformed downtown Dartmouth into something akin to Halifax’s Brooklyn: some of the hottest eateries, trendiest shops and coolest hipster hangouts emerge on the gritty streets across the harbour from downtown Halifax.
Dartmouth has become a food lovers’ and craft-beer-drinkers’ paradise, with the Portland Street Creperie, Yeah Yeahs Pizza and Battery Park Beer Bar & Eatery.
Local rock star Joel Plaskett opened the New Scotland Yard Emporium two years ago, a barbershop, record shop and café attached to his recording studio.
And King’s Wharf, a large retail and residential development at the former Dartmouth marine slips, is home to Il Trullo Ristorante and a new cocktail and wine bar, The Watch that Ends the Night, and an influx of residents in search of upscale condos.
Now, passengers on cruise ships docked in Halifax dole out $2.50 to take the pleasant 12-minute ferry ride to Dartmouth.
“You can use the big G-word. It’s gentrifying,” says Arthur Gaudreau, who writes about the city’s retail and restaurant scene. “In the last few years, one of the things I’ve really noticed is a lot of young families are moving to downtown Dartmouth.”
For years, Dartmouth stood in the shadows of Nova Scotia’s capital, its nickname The Darkside.
“We still have a little bit of that oh-don’t-go-down-that-dark-alley atmosphere, but now we also have good food and new restaurants and shops,” says Katy Jean, a local resident and poet who writes whimsical haiku about Dartmouth.
“About a decade ago, taking a bus down Portland Street to catch the ferry to Halifax was a ghost town. I can’t recall anything other than tattoo and pizza shops,” she says. “Now you can get anything from cordon bleu fine dining to gourmet coffee.”
The renaissance was kick-started eight years ago with the opening of Two If By Sea, a fiercely proud Dartmouth café on Ochterloney Street that serves croissants big enough to sink a small ship.
“TIBS was a catalyst,” says Gaudreau, a self-proclaimed “Dartmouth boy,” referring to the café by its acronym. “Then a few years ago, there was a quick little bang of awesomeness.”
A number of independently owned businesses cropped up in the downtown. For those in search of an authentic flavour, the mainstays of Portland Street remain, such as Whiskey’s Lounge, Revana Pizza, Staggers Pub and Grub and Best Kept Secret Bar and Entertainment.
“When I was a teenager, Portland Street was known for strip clubs and bars,” says Neil Cook, owner of the Portland Street Creperie. “There is still a little bit of an edge, but it’s a good thing.”