Councillor wants Ottawa to be billed as Canada's capital of shawarma

A city forgotten by fun, but awash in onions and garlic sauce.

Now, city council wants to make it official by proclaiming Ottawa the “Shawarma Capital of Canada.”

“Our city is home to almost 200 shawarma restaurants. It's the great unifier. Everybody loves it,” said Orléans West-innes Coun. Laura Dudas, who brought the notice of motion before council on Wednesday, as Mayor Mark Sutcliffe noted, “just in time for lunch.”

Among the “whereas” clauses that Dudas listed in support of her motion, she claimed:

Shawarma is a multicultural symbol of one of Canada's most diverse cities;

Shawarma is a civic institution and objectively delicious;

Shawarma is a major employer and economic driver, and;

Shawarma leftovers are “perfectly acceptable for breakfast, and lunch, and likely also another dinner.”

“We have enough room in our hearts to have space for poutine and Beavertails,” Dudas told reporters after the meeting. “What I'm asking my colleagues to do is to join me in proclaiming Ottawa as the Shawarma Capital of Canada.”

Most of Ottawa's shawarma restaurants are small businesses run by families that contribute greatly to their communities, she said.

“Shawarma is something that's prominent across our city. You can find it in the rural communities.

You can find it in the downtown core. The east, the west … it's everywhere and there's so many of these families, locally owned restaurants,” she said. “It's a great opportunity to highlight such an amazing food. And it's so tasty!”

Unilaterally proclaiming the capital of Canada as the capital of shawarma is not without risk, of course. What if another city also lays claim to the shawarma title, as Glendon, Alta., does for perogies, Montreal for bagels and Halifax for donairs?

Bring it on, Dudas says.

“If there is any competition, we'll take them out. Because, frankly, I can't imagine another city that has such amazing shawarma restaurants.”

When it comes to shawarma, Sutcliffe says he's all in.

“Ottawa is a hotbed for shawarma. It's clearly part of our culture in Ottawa and something that's special in our city,” Sutcliffe said, though he diplomatically refused to name his favourite shawarma haunt.

The reign of Ottawa's shawarma royalty — the kings, princes and palaces, etc. — is nothing new to this newspaper. A search of its online database reveals 215 mentions of shawarma in the past 10 years. In comparison, a search for “Beavertails” yielded just 28 stories.

In fact, the motion by Dudas comes more than a decade after the Ottawa Citizen laid claim to the title. In 2012, the Citizen proclaimed the city the Shawarma capital of — not just the country — but, indeed, the world.