Bridgehead to start serving liquor in September
Marie-Danielle Smith, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: June 2, 2014, Last Updated: June 2, 2014 7:05 PM EDT
Soon, when you order a brew at Bridgehead, you’ll have to decide between coffee and beer.
Big things are happening for Ottawa’s well-known chain of coffee shops, including a shiny new liquor license and a possible expansion outside of the city.
The roastery at Preston and Anderson streets will serve beer, wine and creative, coffee-inspired cocktails after 4 p.m. starting this September, owner Tracey Clark told the Citizen on Monday.
“There’s no beer available first thing in the morning,” she said with a laugh.
If successful, the new bar-coffee shop hybrid will expand to neighbourhood shops. The pilot shops will be the Golden Avenue and Richmond Road location in Westboro, and the Beechwood Avenue store to the east of downtown.
“Some customers will go, ‘Huh? You’re out of category!’ But others are saying, ‘Oh my god, you’re going to give me another reason to come?’” said Clark.
“We’ve been stepping the game up,” said Randy Hogg, a master barista and the brains behind many of Bridgehead’s new products.
“Customers have come to expect good things when we do something new,” he said.
Local craft beers from Beau’s Brewery and Beyond the Pale Brewery, which have both partnered with Bridgehead to create coffee-infused craft beer, will be offered.
Another new development is Cold Brew, a quirky, non-alcoholic coffee drink that Bridgehead launches on Tuesday. The carbonated, slightly sweetened coffee drink is available in bottles at all 15 locations and will be offered on tap at the roastery.
“It’s an 18-hour cold steep. The idea behind it is, you’re not extracting any tannins or bitters, so very low acid and lots of flavour,” said Hogg, who engineered the drink.
It’s a quicker caffeine hit, too, because of the carbonation.
“I’ve been nicknaming it Bridgehead’s Redbull,” said Clark.
Cocktails featuring Cold Brew mixed with spirits, such as one with bourbon and malt orange, will be on the menu in September, Hogg said.
New food items are also being developed: warm and cold sharing plates that incorporate fermented foods, lots of vegetables and breads.
Bridgehead is also expanding its bakery with a new oven at the roastery, where it will produce new breads, including an all-rye sourdough and a gluten-free, yeast-free loaf.
Starting in September. it will offer communal baking days: the oven will be opened up to the public on one Sunday morning each month.
“That’s what the old village breadmakers used to do,” said Clark. “They would stoke the oven one more time and people from the village would come with their loaves and the baker would bake them.”
“We won’t be inviting home roasters to bring their coffee in on Sundays,” added Hogg.
Clark also addressed rumours that Bridgehead might expand to another city sometime soon.
“We would love to replicate ourselves in another market,” she said.
She said keeping the local-first philosophy means there would have to be a regional centre, with a local kitchen and roasting presence.
“It’s not just, ‘Hey, let’s ship this,’” she said.
Clark said Bridgehead is in the planning stages now, and she wouldn’t say which market it planned to expand to.
“We always had an interest in doing that, but the timing was never right and the financing was never right. We’re coming to that stage now.”
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/bridgehead-to-start-serving-liquor-in-september
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