CITY BITES INSIDER
Notable restaurant and food happenings
Fresh Start
The enduring popularity of Café My House dispelled any lingering skepticism that vegan food could appeal to a wider audience. Chef/owner Briana Kim then took her skills to the national level, winning the Ottawa edition of Gold Medal
Plates in 2017 and wowing a national panel of judges with her performance at the Canadian
Culinary Championships. Now Kim has set a new bar for herself with the launch of Alice (40 Adeline St.). The whimsically named restaurant will offer up a vegetable-inspired eight-course tasting menu each night, paired with natural wines, modern cocktails, and fermented beverages. Alice, says Kim, will be all about “taking humble ingredients and transforming them into something unexpected.” The results are bound to be cool, crave-worthy, and beautifully composed. Kim says she’ll also be experimenting more with fermentation, using it to add umami and depth to vegetable dishes and drinks. The launch of Alice provides Kim with the opportunity to design her own kitchen space and fill the yard with what will undoubtedly be a jam-packed greenhouse.
Brews News
Kichesippi Beer Co. (2265 Robertson Rd.) recently celebrated its ninth anniversary and opened the doors to a new Bells Corners location. The 10,000-square-foot brewery and taproom can seat 70 and boasts a large beer garden. Kichesippi owner Paul Meeks says he sees the bright space (the site of a former car dealership, the building features 20-foot windows) welcoming a wide range of ages for a beer or soft drink and snacks. “If this becomes the community meeting spot we envision, we will have done our jobs,” he said. The endeavour has a true community flavour — Nat’s Bread Co. is providing custom pretzels poached in 1855 beer, Carp
Custom Creamery will set up a trailer in the beer garden selling milkshakes and ice cream, and Meeks credits friends at Big Rig Brewery and Cheshire Cat for sharing their knowledge and helping to brainstorm ideas for the new space. This summer marks the first phase of an ongoing project. “We want to get open, get a few snacks going — fresh pretzels and sandwiches and pizzas — and then get a feel for the community and what they want going forward.” The brewery is located at the edge of the Trans Canada Trail, so hikers and cyclists can now make Kichesippi part of their routine. In other beer news, the busy team at Beyond
the Pale (250 City Centre Ave.) are doubling the size of their taproom to 40 seats at the bar and 50 restaurant-style seats. They’ve also partnered with
The SmoQue Shack crew, who will run the food side of the business. The collaboration, known as
BTP SmoQuehouse, heralds a more sophisticated approach to the BTP drink-and-food experience. And road-tripping beer fans should find their way to the pretty summer-cottage town of Westport, which now has its own craft brewery. Westport
Brewing Company (41-B Main St.) is getting rave reviews for its lagers and blonde and brown ales.
Gray Jay Swoops In
After cooking her way across England, Spain, and Canada for a decade, Dominique Dufour arrived in Ottawa from Montreal amid much fanfare a little over a year ago to launch Norca, the restaurant in Le Germain Hotel. She is already branching out, announcing plans for a June opening of her own restaurant in partnership with fiancé and fellow chef Devon Bionda, as well as a silent investor. Their vision for the 40-seat Gray
Jay (300 Preston St.) is something new to Ottawa — a form of chef’s table that allows diners the chance to chat with the person who cooks their food. “It’s the whole principle of breaking bread with others,” according to Dufour. Each chef will have a station in the main dining area of the restaurant, interacting directly with guests. “I think we will be forced to be more creative, in tighter spaces with people watching. It will be the chefs’ responsibility to thrill and interact with customers,” she told Ottawa Magazine food writer Hattie Klotz in a conversation ahead of the launch. Dufour promises a menu of Canadian and strongly seasonal ingredients, with bread and charcuterie made in-house. An extensive cheese list and a strong emphasis on wine are also part of the plan.
Top-notch Scotch
Oat Couture owner Brian Montgomery is an ideas guy. He works in the investment business but says owning a café offers a creative outlet. His latest venture is Montgomery Scotch Lounge (1154 Bank St.), a restaurant within a restaurant that involves the complete transformation of Oat Couture every Thursday through Sunday night. Like the magic that takes place on a theatre stage between sets, the makeover sees staff scurrying around the café, removing and adding signage, tables, seating, and mood lighting to create a new vibe in just one hour. Paul Saucier, a mixologist, Scotch lover, bartender, and consultant, trained Montgomery Scotch Lounge staff and crafted traditional and contemporary cocktails to add to the on-the-rocks repertoire of the lounge (non-Scotch offerings are also available). Meanwhile, chef Ben Baird has developed a new
late-night menu — think fine charcuterie and cheese, as well as homemade oat cakes accompanied by Blue Ermite and poached-pearand-fig compote or toasts topped with wild mushrooms, herbed goat cheese, and toasted pumpkin seeds.
QUICK BITES
• Ottawa is catching on to Quebec’s penchant for soft-serve. Last year saw the Chocolats Favoris chain open new dipped-cone locations in Barrhaven and Kanata. Now La Diperie (429
Richmond Rd.), another Montreal chain that deals in decadent dips, has opened in Westboro.
• It’s a pasta shuffle. Westboro-based Pietro’s Corner (106 Preston St.), best known for its fresh pastas and sauces, has opened a second location in Little Italy, beside Luciano’s. It replaces Home of Fresh Pasta, also known for its pasta and sauces, which has moved from Little Italy to Hintonburg at 1063 Wellington St. W.
• Watch for Coconut Lagoon: Recipes From a South Indian Kitchen, set for a May publication. Its 80 easy-to-make recipes celebrate the bounty of chef Joe Thottungal’s home state of Kerala.
• B.C.-based franchise Browns Socialhouse, which operates upwards of 50 “neighbourhood pubs” out West, has opened a location at Place Bell (160 Elgin St.).
• You no longer have to road-trip to sample the ultimate chocolate sea salt caramels from Merrickville-based Pickle & Myrrh. Thyme and Again has them on its shelves.
• Those lamenting the loss of Uji Cafe and Boko Bakery might find joy at Uncle Tetsu (280 Elgin St.) with its similar lineup of Japanese cheesecakes and cheese tarts.
• The perfect charcuterie platter is now close at hand for Barrhaven-based gourmands. House of Cheese & Deli has opened at 4335 Strandherd Dr.
• Grabbing the cheque is a whole lot quicker now that App8 has started popping up at city eateries. The locally designed app lets you use your phone to pay and leave at your convenience. The Clocktower Brew Pubs are early adopters.
• Congratulations to Marc Lepine and his colleagues at Atelier. He joins a select group of just five Canadian restaurants to crack the top 100 in the influential Opinionated About Dining survey of top North American restaurants (fellow top 100 list makers were Raymond’s Restaurant in St. John’s; Alo, Hashimoto, and Actinolite from Toronto; and Hawksworth from Vancouver). In other ratings news, Atelier, Le Baccara, Beckta,
Eighteen, and Wilfrid’s recently received the CAA/AAA Four Diamond for 2019.