DAO AGGREGATES BRANDS IN TRENDY ASIAN BAKE SHOP
Eatery offers a fresh spin on croissants, cheesecakes and more, Peter Hum writes.
Followers of Daoism, the ancient Chinese philosophy, are familiar with its three basic virtues — kindness, simplicity and modesty.
On the other hand, fans of Dao Bake & Sip Café have embraced the one-month-old business on Merivale Road for three different hallmarks — tastiness, trendiness and cuteness.
That's no slight against Dao, which specializes in what it calls “Euro-Asian treats and beverages” on its social media.
Dao offers fresh spins on croissants, cheesecakes, macaroons and more, and has already reeled in plenty of customers. Naturally, they include young Asian expats. But also frequenting Dao are nonAsians who over the years have widened their tastes to include ramen, bubble tea or Chinese hot pot fare — all to be found as well on an increasingly culturally diverse Merivale Road — as well as the many snacks served in recent years at Ottawa's Asian Fests, which filled venues with night-market-loving crowds until the pandemic came along in 2020.
Dao's owner is Simon Huang, who owns Ottawa locations of Chatime, the bubble tea franchise, and was an Asian Fest organizer.
Vinh Trang, who does marketing for Dao, says the fledgling café is not unlike a night market in that it combines multiple brands under one roof.
The house brand is Dao, of course, which bakes croissants and other pastries in the kitchen behind the store's showcases and dispenses fancy coffee- and teabased beverages. I've tried a few of the savoury Dao croissants, which artfully included slices of beef or turkey. All were good, and the croissant with imitation crab and a truffled sauce was best.
Also featured at Dao are items from the Pablo Canada, Hattendo, Daan Go and Cho-Kwok-Lat brands, which are either Toronto-based or have migrated to Toronto and beyond from Japan. All of these companies should be on your radar if you have a sweet tooth.
At Dao, staff bake the cheesecakes and other items from Pablo Canada, which is an offshoot of a Japanese dessert chain that has made inroads in Canada in recent years, like its rival Uncle Tetsu.
While I didn't try one of the vaunted Pablo Japanese cheesecakes, I can report that the smaller Pablo Basque cheesecake was wonderfully light and airy, although when I've baked something similar it's been a touch sweeter and slightly lemony.
Dao also brings in goods from Hattendo Canada, which has five locations in Toronto spun off from an almost 100-year-old Hiroshima business that makes Japanese custard-stuffed cream buns. A bit bewildered by all the choices at Dao, and a bit tardy in doing my homework, I took home some Hattendo almond pudding and was rewarded with a light, smooth treat. Next time, I'll have to see what all the fuss is about the buns.
Daan Go Cake Lab is the Toronto business begun by pastry chef Christopher Siu, who won MasterChef Canada's seventh season in May. Daan Go supplies Dao with its cutest items, which are macaroons that feature creative flavours such as tiramisu and Hong Kong milk tea, and look like cartoon critters (bears, pigs, koalas, monkeys, dragons). Naturally, these eye-catching treats are in the showcase that greets visitors when they enter Dao.
Before I posted my photos to Instagram, I tried a few of these high-end cookies. They tasted great, but not perfect — their exteriors were less crisp than I would have liked. Maybe that had to do with the humidity in the café or with the cookies being baked in Toronto and sent to Ottawa. Trang said the café's goal is to bake as much as possible on site, including Daan Go and Hattendo items down the road if possible.
I also brought home a bar of Cho-Kwok-Lat's fig and seed dark chocolate. The Markham-based business's chef and owner Chris Kwok was selected to represent Canada at the 2017 World Chocolate Masters competition in France and the confection I tried was as good as Kwok's resume would lead you to expect. Kwok, it turns out, is also the consulting chef behind Dao's own pastries.
Trang said at peak times there have been lineups at Dao. While I never found it that busy, I could see it as an inviting place to spend time and not just a destination for grab-and-go sweetness. The ambience is sleek and modern, with small tables and a little bar for visitors.
For years, I've heard it lamented that Ottawa catches on to global culinary trends and fads — from tapas to ramen to cronuts and beyond — long after many other places. (I'm still waiting for a Northern Thai restaurant to open in Ottawa, if anyone is paying attention.)
Thankfully, that complaint is a little less true thanks to Dao, whose web address, daocanada. com, hints that the Merivale Road location might be envisioned as more than just a one-off.