Ottawa-Gatineau Restaurant News

[phil235]

According to the NCC Twitter, they are reopening with an upgraded patio “this summer”. Not sure when that means.

[SL123]

Chick-Fil-A is opening a second Ottawa location in the fall inside the Rideau Centre




https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/chick-fil-...fall-1.6927080

[DTcrawler]

Phew, I was worried I'd have to go visit Kanata for more than just Sens games!

[rocketphish]

Le Pied de Cochon, a 48-year-old bastion of French bistro fare, is to close June 29
"All the customers are crying. They're saying there's so much stories here."

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 22, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 7 minute read

Guy Mervellet reckons he hasn’t taken a vacation in six or seven years. He works six days a week at his restaurant, doing the kind of kitchen work that can be gruelling for chefs half his age. He’s 79 and ready for a well-earned rest.

Mervellet’s last day in the kitchen is finally coming. The French-born chef will retire after Le Pied de Cochon, his venerable bistro in Gatineau’s Hull sector, serves its last dinner on June 29.

“I love working, what I do, but it has become too difficult,” Mervellet says.

<more>

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...cochon-closing

[rocketphish]

Marc Lepine—one of Ottawa's star chefs—plans to open second restaurant
The chef-owner of Atelier, and two-time winner of the Canadian Culinary Championship, plans new venture called La Petite Sauterelle.

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 28, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 1 minute read

Marc Lepine, the acclaimed chef-owner of Atelier on Rochester Street and two-time winner of the Canadian Culinary Championship, plans to open a second restaurant this year on Somerset Street West.

Lepine’s new venture will be a 20-seat restaurant at 636 Somerset St. W. called La Petite Sauterelle — the little Grasshopper” in English. Its key feature, as announced on Lepine’s social media, will be a year-round, indoor garden.

In his social media posts, Lepine, who is renowned for his cutting-edge modernist cuisine, revealed an enthusiasm for esoteric produce that he grew at an indoor garden he began before the pandemic.

“We grew things like ice plant, Calendula flower, crystal apple cucumbers, dark galaxy tomatoes and cream of Saskatchewan watermelons,” says the post.

In an interview, Lepine said he just got the keys this week to La Petite Sauterelle and he has “whole restaurant to build.” He is aiming to open La Petite Sauterelle later this year.

“Our indoor garden gives us the freedom to grow all the unique foods we want — pungent herbs like papalo, epazote, and huacatay, enchanting flowers like primrose, honeysuckle, and pincushion, and of course warm, vibrant tomatoes that will never see the inside of a fridge,” Lepine said.

“Seasons will be eliminated, it will be constant summer and the menu will showcase that,” he added. The format of the menu and its prices have yet to be determined, he added.

At Atelier, which Lepine opened in the fall of 2008, the chef currently serves a tasting menu of more than 40 items. On this year’s Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list, Atelier ranked 43rd.

Lepine won the Canadian Culinary Championship in 2012 and 2016. He is the only Canadian chef to have won the national event twice. In 2018, Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants named him the country’s most innovative chef.

phum@postmedia.com

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...ite-sauterelle

[McDonald's Racoon]

New Tavern on the Island opening on Bates Island

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9c9em1PYMN/

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by McDonald's Racoon

New Tavern on the Island opening on Bates Island

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9c9em1PYMN/

Great idea!

[SL123]

Originally Posted by McDonald's Racoon

New Tavern on the Island opening on Bates Island

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9c9em1PYMN/

They're popping all over town this summer! they've reopened tavern on the Hill and are opening new locations at Lemay lake as well as Maison Charron-Wright in Jacque Cartier park and now Bates island. They already have Tavern on the Fall and Tavern at the Galleria.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by SL123

They're popping all over town this summer! they've reopened tavern on the Hill and are opening new locations at Lemay lake as well as Maison Charron-Wright in Jacque Cartier park and now Bates island. They already had Tavern on the Fall and Tavern at the Galleria.

If the market could justify it, Strathcona Park would be a nice location. Among many others.

[Harley613]

Bates Island is an epic spot with an epic view for the Tavern concept! I frequent the island, so this is very exciting.

[SL123]

Originally Posted by SL123

They're popping all over town this summer! they've reopened tavern on the Hill and are opening new locations at Lemay lake as well as Maison Charron-Wright in Jacque Cartier park and now Bates island. They already have Tavern on the Fall and Tavern at the Galleria.

The NCC also shared today on their instagram and tagged tavern on the hill to say something is coming at Hog's back soon

[huntclub]

Benny and co in Stittsville on Hazeldean is closing and is turning into a Chipotle. It says it’s opening in October on google.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by huntclub

Benny and co in Stittsville on Hazeldean is closing and is turning into a Chipotle. It says it’s opening in October on google.

The one in Orleans closed at some point maybe in the last year. I think it opened initially just before the pandemic. Their expansion to Ottawa didn't seem to have gone well.

Too think that's why they changed their name (one would assume).

[phil235]

Originally Posted by huntclub

Benny and co in Stittsville on Hazeldean is closing and is turning into a Chipotle. It says it’s opening in October on google.

If only this could have happened before Alex Debrincat left Ottawa due to lack of access to Chipotle.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by phil235

If only this could have happened before Alex Debrincat left Ottawa due to lack of access to Chipotle.

Who knew that's all we needed to attract top talent!

[rocketphish]

Moo Shu Ice Cream is moving to Stella Luna's old digs in Hintonburg
While owner Liz Mok is sad to leave Centretown, she says the business faced "a slow death" if it didn't.

Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Published Sep 13, 2024 • Last updated 32 minutes ago • 4 minute read

For Liz Mok, moving her popular Centretown business Moo Shu Ice Cream & Kitchen to a larger location has been many years coming.

“By our second year, we were outgrowing our space,” says Mok, whose store, which opened in 2016 on Bank Street near Flora Street, occupies just 700 square feet.

Mok says that she’s found bigger digs at last, at an address that some might chalk up as a case of ice-cream karma.
Article content

Mok has begun renovations at the 2,300-square-foot space in Hintonburg that was the home of a Stella Luna Gelato Café location until it suddenly closed in late December last year, a week after it laid off nearly its entire workforce.

Moo Shu is known as one of Ottawa’s most progressive downtown businesses, taking up stances such as the championing of living wages for its workers. Stella Luna, an award-winning Ottawa-based brand launched in 2011, saw its notoriety rise and popularity wane in recent years, most notably after its founder, Tammy Giuliani, made a $250 donation in support of the convoy occupation in Ottawa in the winter of 2022.

<more>

https://ottawacitizen.com/life/food/...eam-hintonburg

[J.OT13]

You will be able to 'dine-in-the-dark' at this new Ottawa restaurant

Josh Pringle, CTV News Ottawa
Sept. 18, 2024



Ottawa patrons will have a chance to eat in the dark at a new restaurant in the ByWard Market this fall.

Dark Fork has announced plans to open the city's first "dine-in-the-dark restaurant" on George Street, where patrons will eat in a dark dining room where cellphones and other sources of artificial light are forbidden.

"'Dark Fork' will open its doors this fall in the ByWard Market, allowing restaurant-goers a chance not only to sample the establishment's extensive menu but also to experience a taste—literally—of life as a visually impaired person," says a media release.

Moe Alameddine is the founder of the dark dining experience.

"Ottawa is a special city to my heart. Ottawa mon amour. This is why I'm here," Alameddine said.

Patrons will begin their experience at the restaurant in a lighted lounge where they can view the menu, but the restaurant "goes dark" as you are seated in the dining area.

"For individuals with typical vision, eating in the dark is a foreign concept, but for people who are blind, sitting down to meals in near or total darkness is an everyday routine," Dark Fork says. "The darkness of the restaurant transforms a prime dining experience into an unrivalled tactile and sensory adventure, allowing sighted people to experience life without vision, along with a correspondingly heightened sense of taste and touch."

Dark Fork says its wait staff will primarily be visually impaired.

"While patrons are unable to see the table or anything else around them, the servers use their lived experience of blindness to expertly wait on tables," the restaurant says. "A guide server explains where patrons can find everything on their table and access the lighted bathrooms—with the assistance of their visually impaired guide, of course."

There are more than 20 dark dining restaurants around the world, including in Paris, London, New York, Montreal and Tokyo.

Dark Fork will open Sept. 25, and will be open for dining Wednesdays to Sundays. The restaurant will be located in the former Mamma Grazzi's Kitchen.

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/you-will-b...rant-1.7042334

[le calmar]

I can already see this place closing down in a couple of years, or less, after the novelty factor wears off. Interesting to try once I am sure, but I don't see why people would go back after their initial experience. There's a reason those are usually located in large cities so that they never run out of fresh customers.