Ottawa-Gatineau Restaurant News

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

New restaurant in blackburn Hamlet --110 Bearbrook at Innes.

It will soon be joined by an adjacent deli and takeout place.

Portuguese cuisine.

[rocketphish]

Chef Marysol Foucault is shutting her acclaimed restaurant Chez Edgar in mid-August
While Foucault kidded that she is retiring at 45, she said she hasn't ruled out cooking for customers again at some point.

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Jul 27, 2022 • 12 minutes ago • 3 minute read

Acclaimed Gatineau-based chef Marysol Foucault is hanging up her apron — at least temporarily.

Foucault announced on social media this week that her much-loved restaurant Edgar will close Aug. 15, prompting a flood of warm wishes from surprised peers and customers.

In an interview Wednesday, Foucault said she is putting her business and its building up for sale to spend more time with family, in particular with her four-year-old son and ailing mother.

“I still love food,” she said. “I just need a break. It will be a welcome break.”

While Edgar, which opened in 2010 in Gatineau’s Hull sector, serves just lunches and brunches, it garnered a tremendous following thanks to Foucault’s fine-dining sensibility and heartfelt cooking.

Despite the pandemic, Edgar has done well in recent years, Foucault said, pivoting to offer food and wine to-go exclusively before re-opening its dining room. On Wednesday morning, a queue of customers formed instantly as soon as Edgar opened at 11 a.m.

While Foucault, who grew up in Vanier and Hull, is a self-taught chef who started working in Hull restaurants as a teenager, she represented the Ottawa area at the 2014 Canadian Culinary Championships.

Edgar has been profiled on several Canadian culinary TV series and Foucault’s signature dish, a fluffy, deluxe “Dutch Baby” pancake topped with apples, aged cheddar, maple syrup and pork belly, has become famous beyond the Ottawa area.

As well, Foucault was among the roster of Canadian celebrity chefs featured on two seasons of the Food Network Canada TV show Wall of Chefs.

Foucault also briefly had a second small restaurant in Gatineau called Odile. But Foucault closed it in the summer of 2013, 15 months after it opened, because she was overworked and uncompromising about the quality of the food at both restaurants.

On Wednesday, she said she feels similarly now with Edgar about to close.

“I’m feeling overwhelmed,” she said. “I’m a perfectionist and I want to do things right.”

At one point on tripadvisor.com, Edgar was ranked first and Odile was ranked second among Gatineau’s 200-plus restaurants.

When Edgar opened, it seated just 13 and Foucault rented its space. After a dozen years, she had bought the property and enlarged Edgar to seat 35 indoors by taking over the neighbouring space. Last year she enlarged Edgar’s patio to seat 40, making for 75 seats total.

She said she hopes “something nice” will take Edgar’s place, for the good of its surrounding Val-Tétreau neighbourhood.

If Edgar’s successor wants to copy Foucault’s formula and even its dishes, that would be fine, she added. “Recipes are recipes, but it’s the person who cooks them who makes the difference,” she said.

Edgar employs more than 20 people, and Foucault said that after the idea to close first came to her a month ago, her biggest concern was the prospects of her staff. But Foucault, mindful of the ongoing labour shortage in the restaurant industry, said she’s already received emails from restaurants looking to hire her workers.

Among the food lovers with Dutch Baby-sized holes in their hearts is Ottawa restaurateur Steve Beckta, who responded on Instagram to Foucault’s news: “This is so sad, yet so inspiring…taking the time and space you need for yourself right now. You have been such a force in our industry Marysol, and Edgar and Odile have such a huge place in so many hearts.”

Also among the scores of well-wishers was Dominique Dufour, chef-owner of Gray Jay Hospitality in Ottawa, who wrote: “Such bittersweet news. We are happy for you but there is now a big hole in the culinary scene of Ottawa/Gatineau. You are a legend, thank you for inspiring.”

While Foucault kidded that she is retiring at 45, she said she hasn’t ruled out cooking for customers again at some point, perhaps at pop-up events that until now she has been too busy to do.

She also noted that she has been approached over the years to write a cookbook and that she enjoyed being on TV.

She said her boyfriend has told her: “Who are you kidding? You will not be able to stay home and do nothing.”

“But he will lock the door,” Foucault said.

Edgar is not the only highly regarded Ottawa-area restaurant closing this summer.

The Somerset Street West dim sum restaurant Hung Sum closed last weekend, after five years at that location. In Riverside South, Zizis Kitchen, a Mediterranean restaurant opened more than eight years ago by chef Ferdi Ozkul, is to close Aug. 21.

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/chef-mary...imed-restaurant-chez-edgar-in-mid-august

[originalmuffins]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Chef Marysol Foucault is shutting her acclaimed restaurant Chez Edgar in mid-August
While Foucault kidded that she is retiring at 45, she said she hasn't ruled out cooking for customers again at some point.

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Jul 27, 2022 • 12 minutes ago • 3 minute read

Acclaimed Gatineau-based chef Marysol Foucault is hanging up her apron — at least temporarily.

Foucault announced on social media this week that her much-loved restaurant Edgar will close Aug. 15, prompting a flood of warm wishes from surprised peers and customers.

In an interview Wednesday, Foucault said she is putting her business and its building up for sale to spend more time with family, in particular with her four-year-old son and ailing mother.

“I still love food,” she said. “I just need a break. It will be a welcome break.”

While Edgar, which opened in 2010 in Gatineau’s Hull sector, serves just lunches and brunches, it garnered a tremendous following thanks to Foucault’s fine-dining sensibility and heartfelt cooking.

Despite the pandemic, Edgar has done well in recent years, Foucault said, pivoting to offer food and wine to-go exclusively before re-opening its dining room. On Wednesday morning, a queue of customers formed instantly as soon as Edgar opened at 11 a.m.

While Foucault, who grew up in Vanier and Hull, is a self-taught chef who started working in Hull restaurants as a teenager, she represented the Ottawa area at the 2014 Canadian Culinary Championships.

Edgar has been profiled on several Canadian culinary TV series and Foucault’s signature dish, a fluffy, deluxe “Dutch Baby” pancake topped with apples, aged cheddar, maple syrup and pork belly, has become famous beyond the Ottawa area.

As well, Foucault was among the roster of Canadian celebrity chefs featured on two seasons of the Food Network Canada TV show Wall of Chefs.

Foucault also briefly had a second small restaurant in Gatineau called Odile. But Foucault closed it in the summer of 2013, 15 months after it opened, because she was overworked and uncompromising about the quality of the food at both restaurants.

On Wednesday, she said she feels similarly now with Edgar about to close.

“I’m feeling overwhelmed,” she said. “I’m a perfectionist and I want to do things right.”

At one point on tripadvisor.com, Edgar was ranked first and Odile was ranked second among Gatineau’s 200-plus restaurants.

When Edgar opened, it seated just 13 and Foucault rented its space. After a dozen years, she had bought the property and enlarged Edgar to seat 35 indoors by taking over the neighbouring space. Last year she enlarged Edgar’s patio to seat 40, making for 75 seats total.

She said she hopes “something nice” will take Edgar’s place, for the good of its surrounding Val-Tétreau neighbourhood.

If Edgar’s successor wants to copy Foucault’s formula and even its dishes, that would be fine, she added. “Recipes are recipes, but it’s the person who cooks them who makes the difference,” she said.

Edgar employs more than 20 people, and Foucault said that after the idea to close first came to her a month ago, her biggest concern was the prospects of her staff. But Foucault, mindful of the ongoing labour shortage in the restaurant industry, said she’s already received emails from restaurants looking to hire her workers.

Among the food lovers with Dutch Baby-sized holes in their hearts is Ottawa restaurateur Steve Beckta, who responded on Instagram to Foucault’s news: “This is so sad, yet so inspiring…taking the time and space you need for yourself right now. You have been such a force in our industry Marysol, and Edgar and Odile have such a huge place in so many hearts.”

Also among the scores of well-wishers was Dominique Dufour, chef-owner of Gray Jay Hospitality in Ottawa, who wrote: “Such bittersweet news. We are happy for you but there is now a big hole in the culinary scene of Ottawa/Gatineau. You are a legend, thank you for inspiring.”

While Foucault kidded that she is retiring at 45, she said she hasn’t ruled out cooking for customers again at some point, perhaps at pop-up events that until now she has been too busy to do.

She also noted that she has been approached over the years to write a cookbook and that she enjoyed being on TV.

She said her boyfriend has told her: “Who are you kidding? You will not be able to stay home and do nothing.”

“But he will lock the door,” Foucault said.

Edgar is not the only highly regarded Ottawa-area restaurant closing this summer.

The Somerset Street West dim sum restaurant Hung Sum closed last weekend, after five years at that location. In Riverside South, Zizis Kitchen, a Mediterranean restaurant opened more than eight years ago by chef Ferdi Ozkul, is to close Aug. 21.

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/chef-mary...imed-restaurant-chez-edgar-in-mid-august

That sucks, it was a really popular destination to eat for many locals and tourists alike.

[phil235]

Anthony's on Bank in the Glebe closing as well. Cite the pandemic as the reason.

[rocketphish]

Chef Yannick LaSalle to leave Les Fougères to cook for the Supreme Court of Canada's judges
Yannick LaSalle, who has worked at Les Fougères for more than a decade and became its chef five years ago, said his new job will give him a lot more family time.

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Aug 03, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 3 minute read



The Supreme Court of Canada has hired an acclaimed chef who flourishes when his food is judged.

Yannick LaSalle, winner of the 2019 Canadian Culinary Championships, will leave Restaurant Les Fougères in Chelsea at the end of August. Starting in September as the court’s new executive chef, LaSalle will cook lunches for its nine judges, as well as food for dinners and receptions with extra outside help.

“There is no team — it’s a one-man show,” LaSalle, 35, said in an interview this week.

“It’s nothing I was thinking of doing in my career. My dream is to open up a restaurant (of my own),” he added.

But LaSalle, who has worked at Les Fougères for more than a decade and became its chef five years ago, said his new job will give him a lot more family time. The father of an 11-month-old noted that he works 16-hour days at Les Fougères.

According to its job posting, his new 40-hour-a-week position will pay up to $38.57 an hour and give LaSalle July and August off each year. The new position also comes with a pension, LaSalle added.

LaSalle said cooking for the Supreme Court came onto his radar when Oliver Bartsch, the court’s current chef and previously the chef for then-prime minister Stephen Harper at 24 Sussex Drive, took part last year in an event at Les Fougères and told LaSalle he might retire soon.

LaSalle said more than 20 people applied for the position. To win it, he had to write a 2,500-word cover letter, go through written and oral exams, and finally cook for the judges and for Bartsch.

For his new position, LaSalle says he will create new menus daily and shop for his own ingredients for soups and salads, fish, meat and vegetarian main courses, and light desserts. “I heard the judges like to eat healthy. That’s a great thing,” he said.

LaSalle said he will miss cooking for guests at Les Fougères, which this year ranked 77th on the Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list.

“That’s a little bit why I cook, to bring love around the table,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to find that in this new chapter, but I’m ready for the challenge. I want to see what it’s all about. We’ll take it day by day.”

LaSalle grew up in the Pontiac region and worked in restaurants in the Outaouais before joining the team at Les Fougères. He has also done internships at Michelin-starred restaurants in France and the U.S. In the fall of 2018, LaSalle won the Ottawa edition of the Canada’s Great Kitchen Party competition, qualifying for the national championships.

Charles Part, who opened Les Fougères with his wife, Jennifer, in the early 1990s, said he hasn’t yet found a replacement for LaSalle.

Part said he’s interviewed some strong candidates, including chefs who “might have a different approach to the food” at Les Fougères, a champion for seasonal, farm-to-table cooking since Part was its original chef. “We’re going to see what the strengths of those people are,” Part said.

Part said that LaSalle’s dedication and character were “exemplary.” Part and his wife have been through a “grieving process” since they learned LaSalle would be leaving, he said.

“He’s one of our greatest friends,” added Part, who himself won Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates competition in 2008. When LaSalle became chef, Part devoted more energy to the restaurant’s large boutique filled with take-home food and its wholesale operations.

LaSalle said he couldn’t ask for better mentors than Part and his wife. “They’ve been so so nice to me, so generous,” he said.

He said it was very important to leave the kitchen at Les Fougères in good hands.

“The new chef coming in, he’ll bring his own flare to the business, which is good. It’s not a bad thing. Good things could happen,” LaSalle said.

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/chef-yann...-for-the-supreme-court-of-canadas-judges

[harls]

I visited Les Fougères a few years ago, and felt like Don Draper.. sipping Canadian Club with the old boys.

It was magnificent.

[rocketphish]

Look who's back in business: Coconut Lagoon
Popular restaurant on St. Laurent Boulevard reopens 27 months after major fire damages original building

By: Caroline Phillips, OBJ
Aug 28, 2022 8:33pm EDT



More than two years after watching his business go up in smoke, award-winning Ottawa chef Joe Thottungal was celebrating the grand reopening of Coconut Lagoon over the weekend.

He invited guests to check out his brand new digs and to taste his popular South Indian dishes, inspired by his native Keralan cuisine.

“Wow,” United Way East Ontario president and CEO Michael Allen was heard saying after first stepping into the new restaurant at 853 St. Laurent Blvd, near McArthur Avenue. “What a difference.”

Thottungal was feeling happy and relaxed as he greeted dozens of customers Saturday in what would be the first of two celebrations. The restaurant officially reopens Wednesday.

The businessman told OBJ.social he was sorry he couldn't invite even more people for some drinks and bites but that he plans to make it up to them. “When they come in, I will take care of them, no problem.”

The new Coconut Lagoon has a few new features, including a wine room and fully accessible washroom. It now spans two floors, allowing it to accommodate some 90 customers. "Everything is a little bit bigger, nicer," he said.

Working hard behind the scenes was his team of cooks, including right-hand man Rajesh Gopi, who's been with him since Coconut Lagoon's humble beginnings in 2004.

Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King told OBJ.social how pleased he was to see Coconut Lagoon back in action.

“We need these types of investments in Rideau-Rockcliffe, as far as I’m concerned,” said Rawlson. “Small businesses really are the engine of our economy.”

He also praised Thottungal for his philanthropy. At the height of the pandemic lockdowns, Thottungal helped to create a community kitchen, Food for Thought Ottawa. It’s been working with its partner organizations to serve hundreds of thousands of hot and healthy meals to families, seniors and individuals living in low-income neighbourhoods.

“He is a gift to our community,” Mona Fortier, president of the Treasury Board and MP for Ottawa-Vanier, said of Thottungal.

Fortier had been dropping into Thottungal’s other restaurant, Thali, located downtown on O’Connor Street, while Coconut Lagoon was out of commission.

Guests also included Vinod Rajasekaran, publisher and CEO of Future of Good. He’s just finished collaborating with Thottungal to run an inaugural summer cooking camp for kids, called Junior Foodie Kitchen.

Rajasekaran got the idea after being unable to find any such camps to enroll his own daughter in. Registration filled up right away, he noted.

Ottawa Centre Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi attended. So did Innes Ward Coun. Laura Dudas, who successfully co-nominated Thottungal for the Order of Ottawa with David Gourlay, vice-president of philanthropy at Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation.

Dudas happens to live in the same east-end neighbourhood as Thottungal and his wife and children. She considers him to be an inspiration and role model on how to treat others.

“He’s such a good person,” said Dudas of Thottungal and his family. “They never stop. They’re constantly doing things for the community.”

Also seen at the reopening were Altaf Sovani, former academic chair of the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Algonquin College; Ottawa psychiatrist Dr. Reghuvaran Kunjukrishnan, Neal Kushwaha, chair of the National Security Centre of Excellence (Canada), marketing consultant Tahera Mufti, and Victoria Henry, former longtime director of the Canada Council Art Bank.

What led to the new and improved Coconut Lagoon started as a nightmare situation for Thottungal. A fire broke out in the original building that housed his restaurant in May 2020, leading to extensive damage.

Thottungal rebuilt his restaurant from scratch, working with architect Ryan Koolwine of Project One Studio and its senior interior designer, Wendy Brown, and interior designer, Kiera Lamont. TSH Custom Homes did the build.

“Working with Joe was just fantastic,” Koolwine told OBJ.social in the orchid-filled restaurant. “There’s nobody who’s more salt to the earth and a more genuine person. It really was our privilege to be able to work with Joe, somebody who’s so ambitious and forward thinking.”

Not to mention patient. The restaurant completion faced numerous delays due to significant supply chain disruptions and other issues that arose along the way. “It was really tough,” said Thottungal, who was at the site “pretty much” every day.

The challenge of rebuilding after a fire is all behind him now, though.

Thottungal told OBJ.social that it was important to him that he bring Coconut Lagoon back to life. The restaurant may have toiled in obscurity in the beginning, but it quickly grew to be very successful once word got out about its menu. He can count among his customers Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“This is my baby,” Thottungal said of the business that he tended to every day for 16 years. “Without Coconut Lagoon, I am zero.

“This is very dear to me.”

– [email protected]

https://www.obj.ca/article/social/look-whos-back-business-coconut-lagoon

[rocketphish]

Two years after a devastating fire, Coconut Lagoon returns with more refined food in a brighter, airier space
The reopened restaurant will do away with lunch service, takeout food and buffets to focus on a more refined, constantly changing dinner menu

Peter Hum
Aug 30, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 3 minute read

When Coconut Lagoon officially reopens Wednesday, one of Ottawa’s most celebrated Indian restaurants, which is finally welcoming customers again after a devastating May 2020 fire, will show off much more than cosmetic renovations.

Chef-owner Joe Thottungal, who finished second in the 2017 Canadian Culinary Championships, says his flagship restaurant on St. Laurent Boulevard will strive to serve even more refined food as it operates according to post-pandemic, sustainable practices.

“When the fire happened, it put an opportunity in front of me,” Thottungal said in an interview. “When I get a new slate, a blank paper, I should draw nicely. Now, I think I can do it.”

The new Coconut Lagoon is brighter and airier, with white, black, grey and blue banquettes replacing the dark wood walls and tables that came with its extensive pre-fire renovation in 2017.

Thottungal, who owns the building that was previously a convenience store and then a humble sports bar, did away with two second-storey apartments during the most recent, year-long renovation. There are now high ceilings and two upper-level rooms, named Cinnamon and Cardamom, respectively, for private dining.

Since Thottungal first opened Coconut Lagoon in 2004, Thottungal has been a culinary trailblazer in Ottawa, popularizing the vibrant food and flavours of Kerala, his home state on India’s southwestern Malabar Coast.

He said that the reopened restaurant will do away with lunch service, takeout food and buffets to focus on a more refined, constantly changing dinner menu that will offer more small plates and use locally sourced ingredients. A six-course tasting menu for $80 per person will also be available.

“I am sure now Ottawa is ready to have elevated Kerala cuisine,” said Thottungal.

“Butter chicken has come off the menu,” he noted.

Coconut Lagoon’s website spells out two reasons for the demise of the lunch buffet, which Thottungal admitted was popular. For one, COVID-19 has made restaurants and customers warier of the potential health risks posed by buffets. The website also says buffets produce “untold food loss.

“In a world (and in this city) where there is so much food insecurity, eliminating as much waste as possible became a top priority for us,” the website states. The restaurant will also require reservations “to ensure we buy and cook only enough for the day’s needs,” the website adds.

Thottungal has played a crucial role in the Food For Thought non-profit organization that launched in 2019 to combat food insecurity and provide meals for Ottawans in need.

The reopening of Coconut Lagoon is the latest big accomplishment of one of Ottawa’s leading culinary achievers.

A frequent participant in fundraisers and cooking events, Thottungal won Ottawa’s 2016 Gold Medal Plates competition, qualifying for the 2017 Canadian Culinary Championships where he finished second in a field of 11 chefs.

Thottungal’s 2019 cookbook, naturally called Coconut Lagoon, won a gold medal in 2020 at the Taste Canada Awards. That year, Thottungal also received the Order of Ottawa.

At the same time, Thottungal has been outspoken about the hardships that restaurateurs in Ottawa have faced in recent years. While he pivoted after the fire to focus on his second restaurant, Thali, that business, which Thottungal opened in December 2018, has had its own challenges.

That O’Connor Street restaurant had to deal with the prolonged abandonment of downtown by teleworking employees, as well as the occupation of downtown streets in February by the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protest.

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-refined-food-in-a-brighter-airier-space

[rocketphish]

Many Ottawa restaurants struggled in 2022. Next year could be worse.
Several high-profile local restaurants shut down amid waves of COVID-19, ongoing staffing shortages and skyrocketing food costs. 'It just felt like we couldn't fight it anymore.'

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Published Dec 31, 2022 • 6 minute read

For Ottawa chef and restaurateur Justin Champagne-Lagarde, 2022 could scarcely have ended better.

In early November, his tiny upscale restaurant Perch landed in fourth place on enRoute magazine’s annual list of Canada’s 10 best new restaurants. An avalanche of bookings ensued.

Practically overnight, his wee, narrow dining room on Preston Street was filled for the rest of the year.

“We got a lot of guests that hadn’t heard of us prior to the list,” said Champagne-Lagarde. “And a lot of guests that were maybe a little hesitant to do a tasting menu ended up deciding to try it.”

If only things were as unabashedly rosy for the entirety of Ottawa’s restaurant scene in 2022.

When the year began, a pandemic lockdown was in force, banning indoor dining. While those restrictions began to lift in late January, the “Freedom Convoy” occupation of Ottawa then blockaded restaurants in the downtown “red zone,” which were unable to welcome guests in their dining rooms.

Even after the last truck pulled out, the restaurant industry was buffeted for the rest of the year with waves of COVID-19, ongoing staffing shortages, skyrocketing food costs and inflation. And the pandemic-related government subsidies that previously mitigated the woes of restaurants had wound down in the fall of 2021.

Though restaurants did not shut down in droves across the city, there were multiple notable and dispiriting closures in 2022. They joined the nearly 5,000 Canadian restaurants lost, according to Restaurants Canada, to post-pandemic debt and inflationary pressures.

Ferdi Ozkul, the chef-owner Zizi’s Kitchen, shut his Barrhaven restaurant in August, choosing to retire at 67 after running seven restaurants in Ottawa since the mid-1980s.

“I think 2023 is going to be a very tough year, again, especially for non-owner-run restaurants,” said Ozkul, adding that as already tiny profit margins shrink, restaurants will be forced to increase their prices in order to survive.

“The product and the service really have to be top-notch,” he said. “[Some] places will survive, if not excel. But it’s going to be really hard for the others, especially downtown ones.”

Meanwhile, two of the Ottawa area’s most prominent female chef-restaurateurs wound down their businesses in 2022.

Marysol Foucault, owner of the acclaimed brunch spot Edgar in Gatineau’s Hull sector, shut her 12-year-old eatery in mid-August, putting her business and its building up for sale to spend more time with family. “I still love food,” she said this summer. “I just need a break. It will be a welcome break.”

Then there’s Dominique Dufour, chef and co-owner of Gray Jay Hospitality, which champions Canadian ingredients and sustainable kitchen practices. Earlier this year, this newspaper raved about Gray Jay’s new Old Ottawa East location, exclaiming if Dufour doesn’t get some love on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list in 2023, it will be a sad omission. Now, she won’t get the chance to make that list, as Dufour was to close her establishment after serving New Year’s Eve revellers Saturday night.

“We are so very sad to be turning the page on this very exciting adventure,” Dufour and her business and life partner Devon Bionda wrote in a message to this newspaper. “Our closure is due to a perfect storm of circumstances.”

The couple said last winter’s Omicron-related closure depleted their savings. More recently, silent partners in the restaurant had to cash out their assets. Finally, customer access to Gray Jay will be severely hindered for a prolonged time when construction of a nearby access bridge to the Queensway begins, they wrote.

“It just felt like we couldn’t fight it anymore and we had to close this chapter,” the couple wrote of their four-year-old restaurant.

Champagne-Lagarde was sad to see the two restaurants go. “But at the same time, I’m really excited to see what comes from them. Dominique and Marysol are two of the best chefs in the city,” he said. “You can’t keep people with that kind of talent quiet for long. They’re too creative and hungry.”

Other veteran restaurants that closed in 2022 include Das Lokal in Lowertown, which shut days before Christmas after 10 years of serving modern Eastern European-inspired dishes. Long-time Hintonburg favourites the Table and the Foolish Chicken both closed in the spring.

“We didn’t have the staff and we kind of burned ourselves out,” Rick Boland, co-owner of the Foolish Chicken, said of his 15-year-old restaurant.

Simon Saab, owner of the Table, said had it not been for COVID-19, he might have kept his 22-year-old vegetarian eatery open for another 15 years. But the pandemic basically deprived the Table of 60 per cent of its customer base — Tunney’s Pasture workers who went for lunch and Great Canadian Theatre Company patrons who went for an early dinner.

Saab said he asked himself if we wanted to spend another year to five years building the business back to what it was, or are there other things to do? His answer: “I really had no desire left to continue.”

As difficult as things were in 2022, restaurant watchers worry that the first few months of 2023 will be even more challenging.

“With inflation driving the costs of doing business up, being able to run a profitable food service establishment has gone from tough to nearly impossible,” said Tianna Goguen, public relations manager for Restaurants Canada, which represents the country’s food service industry. She pointed to a six-per-cent rise in utility costs, increases of up to 13 per cent for various meats, plus a 40-per-cent hike in the cost of cooking oil.

Candace Sutcliffe, co-owner of the restaurant supply store Chef’s Paradise, predicts a rough winter since this holiday season’s boom for restaurants, which can usually help provide a buffer for lean months ahead, was smaller than recent years. “We’re seeing fewer large parties,” she said. “People are still cautious of gathering in large groups.”

But as some establishments closed, new operators took over vacated restaurants. The Emperor Shawarma moved into the Table’s old digs. A second location of Punjab Canteen took over the space that was Zizi’s Kitchen. Bibi’s, a Middle Eastern eatery in New Edinburgh, opened a second location in Hintonburg after Chop Shop closed in mid-2022 after a year and a half in business.

In past years, restaurant watchers usually knew by December about intriguing restaurants planning to open the following year. But now, there are barely any blips on the radar, except for Alora, which is to open in early 2023 at 34 Clarence Street.

Co-owner Arash Zadeh said Alora will be a supper club with many shareable dishes, a big-city vibe and live music. He added its chef will be Adam Deline.

Perhaps the brightest spot for Ottawa’s restaurant scene in early 2023 will be the staging of the Canadian Culinary Championship in February at Algonquin College and the Shaw Centre. Nine chefs from across Canada will compete, including Briana Kim, chef-owner of Alice, the cutting-edge vegetable-focused restaurant on Adeline Street in Little Italy.

Kim earned her spot at the national competition by winning the Ottawa qualifier in September, where she fed judges and almost 170 attendees a radically creative dish of onion tuile, smoked potatoes, rhubarb jerky, maitake mushrooms, pickled onion, dill sour cream, lacto-fermented green tomato and koji broth. The judges unanimously ranked Kim’s dish as the best of the pack, and it also won the evening’s people’s choice award.

The Canadian Culinary Championship previously took place in Ottawa in early 2020. Then it went on a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. Next February’s event could scarcely come at a more opportune time for an industry in desperate need of better days ahead.

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/life/food/many...ruggled-in-2022-next-year-could-be-worse

[wingman]

I just noticed today that the old Pizza Hut in Gatineau (on Greber) has been split, and there is a new Starbucks going in on the east half of the building.

No signs for the west side, but renovations were underway.

If another Starbucks opened in Gatineau I thought it would be where the now closed Second Cup was at Greber and Paiement. That one still sits empty.

[J.OT13]

'NEVER WAVERED': Ottawa chef Briana Kim on winning the Canadian Culinary Championship


Peter Hum, Ottawa Sun
February 6, 2023

The self-taught chef, whose restaurant Alice was ranked 50th on last year's list of Canada's 100 best restaurants, talks about her win, her food, and what lies ahead.

Ottawa chef Briana Kim has taken a unique journey to become the winner of last weekend’s Canadian Culinary Championship.

The chef-owner of the acclaimed restaurant Alice is in her late 30s, studied political science at the University of Ottawa, and worked at Health Canada before becoming a culinary entrepreneur. In 2009, she opened Café My House, a low-key Bank Street restaurant that was unabashedly vegan, in keeping with Kim’s own eating preferences.

Since then, the self-taught chef’s ambitions and achievements have only ascended, in a stepwise but unbounded fashion. Café My House moved to Hintonburg, and its food became more elevated. In 2019, after Kim closed Café My House and opened Alice, her plant-based menus became still more sophisticated. That’s as you would expect, given Kim’s interest in the cutting edge of elite fine dining, which in recent years prompted her to visit and learn at world-class restaurants Eleven Madison Park in New York and Noma in Copenhagen.

Kim demonstrated the calibre of her cooking when she won Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates competition in the fall of 2017, qualifying to compete months later at the Canadian Culinary Championship in Kelowna, B.C. Kim did not make it onto the podium that year. The event subsequently moved to Ottawa, enabling Kim to be crowned Saturday night before a hometown crowd at the Shaw Centre.

Below, Kim, whose restaurant was ranked 50th on last year’s list of Canada’s 100 best restaurants, offers concise answers about her win, her food, and what lies ahead.

Q: Going into the competition, what did you think were your chances to win or do well?

A: I tried not to think about my chances too much. Instead, I leaned into my own experience from 2018 and used the lessons I learned to prepare for the competition meticulously.

Q: How significant, from a competitive point of view, was it that you made the only plant-based dish in the competition? What do you think were the pros and cons of not making an animal-protein-based dish?

A: I think our win helps (people) to understand that any ingredients can become interesting and satisfying if the right techniques and layers of flavours are applied. I’d say creating complexity and umami with plant-based ingredients can be more challenging than with animal protein.

Q: Of all the dishes you’ve made at Alice, what makes your Canadian Culinary Championship dish special?

A: We get the comments about the complexity and uniqueness of flavours most often. It is the application of ferments such as green tomato brine, koji, preserved rhubarb and cured maitake mushrooms that makes the dish special. The national judge James Chatto described it as deeply savoury and magical.

Q: Is your winning dish on Alice’s menu now?

A: It is currently part of our Forest Menu for a few more weeks until we launch the Cellar Menu in April. Some components may come back on the menu, but we don’t keep anything on the menu for too long.

Q: You’re a self-taught chef and you’ve been resolutely plant-based for years, quite apart from more conventional and carnivorous chefs. Do you feel validated by this weekend’s win?

A: Yes. Not everyone understood the commitment and intentions behind a project like Alice at first. But we saw a path and never wavered. When you’re doing something different, you’re often faced with skepticism. But we learned to use it as a motivation.

Q: Do you think or hope you will influence other chefs?

A: I hope it is inspiring and encouraging for chefs who are paving their own paths.

Q: You’re now one of three national culinary champions from the Ottawa area, joining Yannick LaSalle and Marc Lepine. Is there something about Ottawa’s culinary scene that helps champions develop?

A: I think Ottawa welcomes creativity and unique experiences. This allows us to push the boundaries more and see what’s possible.

Q: You and Marc Lepine, whose restaurant Atelier is around the corner from Alice, share some common interests with respect to innovating in the kitchen. How would you describe his influence?

A: I think chef Marc has inspired a lot of chefs across the country, including myself, to be curious and innovative. It is inspiring to us to see the constant innovation from Atelier every menu.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: We hope to build a fermentation lab in the near future, and are planning on a fermented juice collaboration with a company in Copenhagen.

https://ottawasun.com/life/food/we-saw-a...wcm/d4c3f542-c68c-405d-8807-d954578be3fc

[rocketphish]

City considering making patio rules relaxed during pandemic permanent
A proposed bylaw scheduled for a vote by the transportation committee would also expand the type of entertainment allowed on patios.

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Mar 16, 2023 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 2 minute read

Ottawa’s pandemic patios may soon become permanent.

During the worst days of the COVID-19 lockdown, the city loosened its patio rules to allow for outdoor dining and to give a needed boost to struggling restaurants. That change, adopted in 2020, was so successful that the city now wants to make it permanent.

The bylaw, which will be voted on next week by the transportation committee, would make it easier for restaurants to establish patios and make for a common 2 a.m. closing time throughout the city. It will also streamline the process of reviewing businesses’ applications for patios and for approval of tents and awnings. The proposed bylaw would also eliminate the cap on the number of seats and tables for each patio.

A pedestrian right of way of at least two metres would have to be maintained.

“It’s a real boost to the ByWard Market,” said Dave Mangano, co-owner of The Grand Pizzeria. “Anywhere you have a patio, provided that the people who own the patio do a nice job decorating it, it really adds a nice decor to the exterior and to the city and the sidewalk.

“It’s a real benefit to the restaurant — and to the community.”

The bylaw is especially good for restaurants that hadn’t been allowed to have patios before, Mangano said.

“It adds a little competition, but it spruces up the whole Market. The easement for patios is really nothing new. Putting patios on the street or in parking places has been going on for years all over the world. Ottawa is really kind of slow to the game, to tell you the truth.”

The proposed bylaw would also expand the type of entertainment allowed on patios to include things like theatre, dance, DJs, magic acts and karaoke. City noise bylaws would remain in effect, however, prohibiting music after 11 p.m. whether it’s live, on loudspeakers or just emitting from inside the restaurant.

Patio fees will be half-price in 2023, then move back to full cost in 2024.

The authority delegated from city council to staff to approve street closures will be extended to another three years under the proposal.

A similar lockdown-driven allowance to permit stores to sell goods on the sidewalk won’t be made permanent as there wasn’t enough interest from shop owners, the city said.

The transportation committee meets on March 23.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-rules-relaxed-during-pandemic-permanent

[rocketphish]

Tempest in a coffee cup: Sharpfle Waffle to close in Hintonburg, casualty of spat between Stella Luna Gelato and landlord
The April 13, 2022 application made by Stella Luna says its lease "clearly provides ... exclusivity in respect to operating a restaurant" in the Tamarack Wellington Plaza building.

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Published Apr 17, 2023 • 3 minute read

Sharpfle Waffle, a tiny waffle and coffee business in Hintonburg, will close its doors April 30 after its neighbour, the Wellington Street West location of Stella Luna Gelato Café, insisted that the exclusivity clause in its own lease with landlord Taggart Realty Management be enforced.

The announcement Saturday on social media by Sharple Waffle prompted commenters to condemn Stella Luna, a business that came under intense fire in early 2022 after reports that its owner at the time, Tammy Giuliani, made a donation in support of the convoy occupation.

“It’s absolutely awful to have your business neighbour bullying you out of your lease,” said a comment from the Instagram account of Supply and Demand, an acclaimed restaurant about a kilometre west of Stella Luna and Sharpfle Waffle.

James Choi, a former federal public servant who opened Sharpfle Waffle in December 2021, says he learned of Stella Luna’s objections when he received legal papers last spring that named his business as a respondent in the application that Stella Luna launched against Taggart.

The April 13, 2022 application made by Stella Luna says its lease “clearly provides … exclusivity in respect to operating a restaurant” in the Tamarack Wellington Plaza building, which has had retail tenants as well as Stella Luna and Sharpfle Waffle.

“Stella Luna is currently suffering irreparable harm … and there is a real risk that the business will not prosper or even survive in the presence of direct competition,” says the application.

“I think this is quite ridiculous,” said Choi, whose business seats about eight people and employs two. Stella Luna, he contended, makes more money “in an hour than I do in a day or week.”

Stella Luna, which opened in 2011 and has won international awards for its gelato, has four locations in the Ottawa area and reportedly employs about 50 people.

Choi’s business serves sweet and savoury Korean crossant-waffles, also known as croffles, as well as coffee. It roasts beans for coffee and has held coffee-tasting seminars. “We were growing on both the food and beverage sides,” he says.

Choi said when he inquired about renting his space, he was told that he could not open a coffee shop. But he said the landlord approved his business plan. “Our idea was to be a waffle place that serves coffee,” he said.

Choi said lawyers for himself, Taggart and Stella Luna have met, and the result was a proposition that would allow Sharpfle Waffle to continue, as long as it agreed to sell only takeout waffles.

But Choi said the proposed use clause “restricts our business to a point where it’s not very feasible to stay.”

He said he hopes to reopen at a new location as soon as possible, hopefully in or close to Hintonburg.

Zachary Giuliani, Stella Luna’s owner, declined to answer this newspaper’s questions, but sent a statement on the subject by email.

The statement says Stella Luna “was never consulted or provided notice by our landlord that a competing unit had been allowed to rent a unit in the plaza.”

“We want it to be clear that Stella Luna has no ill intent towards Sharpfle Waffle,” says the statement. “As small business owners ourselves, we sympathize with its predicament as a result of what we perceive to be a breach of our lease agreement by our landlord.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement with our landlord and as such, were left without any other options but to turn to legal action to enforce our contractual rights against our landlord,” says the statement.

Taggart did not respond Monday afternoon to emails and a voice message seeking comment.

In mid-February 2022, Stella Luna was forced to close after receiving threats when owner Tammy Giuliani’s name appeared on a hacked list of donors to the convoy occupation.

Her son, Zachary, recently took over as Stella Luna’s owner. He told Ottawa Business Journal last month that he wanted the ice cream business to be “apolitical” and inclusive.

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-between-stella-luna-gelato-and-landlord

[OTownandDown]

Looks like I'll be taking a special trip to try a delicious sounding croissant waffle, get it for takeout, and eat it directly in front of Stella Luna's front door for as long as possible.

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Tempest in a coffee cup: Sharpfle Waffle to close in Hintonburg, casualty of spat between Stella Luna Gelato and landlord
The April 13, 2022 application made by Stella Luna says its lease "clearly provides ... exclusivity in respect to operating a restaurant" in the Tamarack Wellington Plaza building.

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Published Apr 17, 2023 • 3 minute read

Sharpfle Waffle, a tiny waffle and coffee business in Hintonburg, will close its doors April 30 after its neighbour, the Wellington Street West location of Stella Luna Gelato Café, insisted that the exclusivity clause in its own lease with landlord Taggart Realty Management be enforced.

The announcement Saturday on social media by Sharple Waffle prompted commenters to condemn Stella Luna, a business that came under intense fire in early 2022 after reports that its owner at the time, Tammy Giuliani, made a donation in support of the convoy occupation.

“It’s absolutely awful to have your business neighbour bullying you out of your lease,” said a comment from the Instagram account of Supply and Demand, an acclaimed restaurant about a kilometre west of Stella Luna and Sharpfle Waffle.

James Choi, a former federal public servant who opened Sharpfle Waffle in December 2021, says he learned of Stella Luna’s objections when he received legal papers last spring that named his business as a respondent in the application that Stella Luna launched against Taggart.

The April 13, 2022 application made by Stella Luna says its lease “clearly provides … exclusivity in respect to operating a restaurant” in the Tamarack Wellington Plaza building, which has had retail tenants as well as Stella Luna and Sharpfle Waffle.

“Stella Luna is currently suffering irreparable harm … and there is a real risk that the business will not prosper or even survive in the presence of direct competition,” says the application.

“I think this is quite ridiculous,” said Choi, whose business seats about eight people and employs two. Stella Luna, he contended, makes more money “in an hour than I do in a day or week.”

Stella Luna, which opened in 2011 and has won international awards for its gelato, has four locations in the Ottawa area and reportedly employs about 50 people.

Choi’s business serves sweet and savoury Korean crossant-waffles, also known as croffles, as well as coffee. It roasts beans for coffee and has held coffee-tasting seminars. “We were growing on both the food and beverage sides,” he says.

Choi said when he inquired about renting his space, he was told that he could not open a coffee shop. But he said the landlord approved his business plan. “Our idea was to be a waffle place that serves coffee,” he said.

Choi said lawyers for himself, Taggart and Stella Luna have met, and the result was a proposition that would allow Sharpfle Waffle to continue, as long as it agreed to sell only takeout waffles.

But Choi said the proposed use clause “restricts our business to a point where it’s not very feasible to stay.”

He said he hopes to reopen at a new location as soon as possible, hopefully in or close to Hintonburg.

Zachary Giuliani, Stella Luna’s owner, declined to answer this newspaper’s questions, but sent a statement on the subject by email.

The statement says Stella Luna “was never consulted or provided notice by our landlord that a competing unit had been allowed to rent a unit in the plaza.”

“We want it to be clear that Stella Luna has no ill intent towards Sharpfle Waffle,” says the statement. “As small business owners ourselves, we sympathize with its predicament as a result of what we perceive to be a breach of our lease agreement by our landlord.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement with our landlord and as such, were left without any other options but to turn to legal action to enforce our contractual rights against our landlord,” says the statement.

Taggart did not respond Monday afternoon to emails and a voice message seeking comment.

In mid-February 2022, Stella Luna was forced to close after receiving threats when owner Tammy Giuliani’s name appeared on a hacked list of donors to the convoy occupation.

Her son, Zachary, recently took over as Stella Luna’s owner. He told Ottawa Business Journal last month that he wanted the ice cream business to be “apolitical” and inclusive.

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-between-stella-luna-gelato-and-landlord

[OTSkyline]

Unfortunate story and I do hope they can figure something out. A bit of a tricky one though...

I do think it was a bit of a stretch though for them being told they could not operate a coffee shop but opening a croffle place that serves coffee - they were playing with fire. Something that Taggart should've flagged when reviewing the business plan.

I don't necessarily believe the claim that Stella Luna will go out of business if someone sells coffee next door BUT if there was an exclusivity clause in their lease, it should be respected.

[OTownandDown]

The exclusivity clause in itself is problematic.

As can be seen on the awful Sparks Street food truck ban, restricting adjacent vendors does not mean you'll get more customers simply because you forced the competition to go away. Quite the opposite. Encouraging an ecosystem encourages additional foot traffic. Precisely why customers regularly travel to wellington street from outside the neighbourhood, because of the variety of offerings.

If this were a street with ONLY Stella Luna on it, I'd probably not head there to have a nice evening stroll, and I'd probably not have dropped in for a quick gelato either.

Instead of stirring the pot and forcing an eviction for a vendor who could potentially move directly across the street, rendering this entire thing moot, and outwardly being a d*ck about this whole thing, considering there's a line up out the door every day for $10 scoops of ice cream, Stella Luna should have reached out to discuss how they could support eachother. (Gelato on waffles, anyone?) Stella Luna DOES sell waffles but I've never seen anyone buy one. James could have become the waffle supplier across all four of SL locations, and James could have offered SL gelato as a topping on his waffles. Instead, there's bad juju. Eventually SL's luck will run out and their delicious delicious gelato won't be enough of a draw to overcome the seemlingly tone-deafness of the owners. To loosely quote Andy from Toyota 'do good things and the customers will follow'.

Its friggin' wellington street for christssake. There are dozens of restaurants and cafes, all within walking distance. To say that having one place selling waffles in the same building will affect business is bullsh*t. Its like having one restaurant in a mall food court. Nobody's gonna go.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

The exclusivity clause in itself is problematic.

As can be seen on the awful Sparks Street food truck ban, restricting adjacent vendors does not mean you'll get more customers simply because you forced the competition to go away. Quite the opposite. Encouraging an ecosystem encourages additional foot traffic. Precisely why customers regularly travel to wellington street from outside the neighbourhood, because of the variety of offerings.

If this were a street with ONLY Stella Luna on it, I'd probably not head there to have a nice evening stroll, and I'd probably not have dropped in for a quick gelato either.

Instead of stirring the pot and forcing an eviction for a vendor who could potentially move directly across the street, rendering this entire thing moot, and outwardly being a d*ck about this whole thing, considering there's a line up out the door every day for $10 scoops of ice cream, Stella Luna should have reached out to discuss how they could support eachother. (Gelato on waffles, anyone?) Stella Luna DOES sell waffles but I've never seen anyone buy one. James could have become the waffle supplier across all four of SL locations, and James could have offered SL gelato as a topping on his waffles. Instead, there's bad juju. Eventually SL's luck will run out and their delicious delicious gelato won't be enough of a draw to overcome the seemlingly tone-deafness of the owners. To loosely quote Andy from Toyota 'do good things and the customers will follow'.

Its friggin' wellington street for christssake. There are dozens of restaurants and cafes, all within walking distance. To say that having one place selling waffles in the same building will affect business is bullsh*t. Its like having one restaurant in a mall food court. Nobody's gonna go.

They sell coffee. They probably lose not only Coffee business but add on business as well to the Waffles. Regardless it's their business and was part of the contract so this is on Taggart not them.

[OTownandDown]

The cheapest solution, likely, for Taggert, is to carve out a space for them in another building and pay for fitup, at least that's what I would do if I were them, to avoid any significant legal costs.

I wonder if there's space next to Uppliva or the Resurrection Church in the old Salvation Army building? It's next door, so not 'the same building'. Although laughably more close to Stella Luna than current.

Otherwise there's always some spaces on the blocks east of Carruthers. Also laughably 100m away. OOOooOOOooo such a boost for Stella Luna. Although there's a bakery just east, and a brand new bakery just west of Stella Luna. So, I guess keep those lawyers on speed-dial, just in case.

Honestly, I hope James can find a larger space with the little boost in publicity this month, and offer more dessert options, and move as close as possible to their current location to keep their loyal customers. It could turn out better for them in the long run anyways.

[ponyboycurtis]

Originally Posted by Kelnoz

Our entire coast lines are viewspots, and I can't think of a single example of a restaurant impeding on a view. Even the Tavern on the Falls has very large public areas on both sides from where you get great views of the water.

Seems like a non existent problem, people just want to have things to do along our waterways.

Tavern on the Falls is an awesome spot. Yeah it used to be an open square but like you said the area as a whole is still quite accessible. I'm more annoyed that you can't go down to the water and fish for carp like I used to when I was a kid with my dad.

If anyone hasn't been to Tavern on the Falls I suggest you try it out. Simple menu... tacos and gourmet hotdogs... kind of weird but really tasty. The seats along the wall are like.. lounge areas with big comfy loveseats and for colder nights the center of your table turns into a fireplace. Super chill spot. Excellent first date place!

[SidetrackedSue]

Originally Posted by ponyboycurtis

If anyone hasn't been to Tavern on the Falls I suggest you try it out. Simple menu... tacos and gourmet hotdogs... kind of weird but really tasty. The seats along the wall are like.. lounge areas with big comfy loveseats and for colder nights the center of your table turns into a fireplace. Super chill spot. Excellent first date place!

Not interested in a first date place (we did the arithmetic and this year is our 39th anniversary) but I've never been to the Tavern on the Falls, nor was I aware it existed. Thanks for the recommendation!