What to eat at the home opener at Lansdowne Park
Laura Robin, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: July 16, 2014, Last Updated: July 16, 2014 2:45 PM EDT
The chefs from Levy Restaurants at TD Place, executive chef Cameron Bryce (left) and chef Jonathan Williams, show off some of their top picks for food offerings at the new stadium.
When Layne Belcher rolls his Urban Cowboy food truck into Lansdowne Park Friday and starts selling his trademark Belcher Burgers at the game, a particularly savoury morsel of Ottawa history will come full circle.
It was his Texan parents, Rough Riders star Val Belcher and his young wife, Terri, who introduced Ottawa to Tex Mex cuisine about 30 years ago. While Val warmed up on the field at Lansdowne, Terri served Belcher Burgers tailgate-style. The juicy burgers, made with smoked brisket and lots of barbecue sauce, nearly sold out even before the game began, and that taste for Tex and, later, Mex eventually grew into the Lone Star chain of restaurants.
Layne Belcher, son of Val and Terri Belcher, will bring back a tasty bit of Ottawa history at the RedBlacks home opener on Friday, July 18. He’ll be serving the original Belcher Burger in the parking lot at Lansdowne, just like his parents did nearly 40 years ago, when his dad was a football star. Those first tailgate burgers, made with Texas smoked beef brisket, were what eventually grew into the Lone Star franchise.
Layne, who was in utero when his mother was selling some of those burgers at Lansdowne, and who has 68, his father’s number, tattooed on his right calf, has his family’s secret recipe and will bring the historic burgers back on Friday. He says he was excited to be invited to be among the half dozen food trucks that will circle the Aberdeen Pavilion at opening night, promising great eats and a great tailgate party, complete with booze for adults and bouncy castles for kids, at the park’s rebirth.
“A lot of people who helped my parents say they want to come out and help and be a part of it on July 18,” says Belcher, who, with partner Matthew Hinds, has operated the Urban Cowboy food truck on Bank Street, just south of Lansdowne, since last summer. They offer everything from sustainable fish tacos to smoked sausage on a bun, but the Belcher Burgers outsell everything else two to one.
And while the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group has invested heavily in getting restaurant-quality cuisine in the stadium, they are happy to expand the menu to include food trucks, guest chefs and nearby restaurants.
“We want a visit to TD Place to be not just about the game. We want it to be about an overall great night out,” says chief operating officer Mark Goudie, who visited stadiums from Boston’s Fenway Park to Vancouver’s BC Place, but was most impressed by Portland, Oregon’s Providence Park, which, like TD Place, has a mix of old and new construction.
“Ottawa and the Redblacks have a lot of parallels with Portland and the Timbers. We both have competition from larger professional teams in our cities (the Senators and the Trailblazers) … We both have a bigger brother down the road (Toronto and Seattle).
“What I really liked about the Portland Timbers is that they embrace who they are and have created an authentic Portland experience in their stadium. A great example is how they take advantage of the Portland food truck and foodie scene by having favourite local food trucks take over concession stands and invite local chefs to create signature dishes at Providence Park.”
With shuttles arriving as much as three hours before the game, eating will likely be a big part of the pre-game experience for many who attend Friday’s home opener. Here are some of the best bets in the stands, on the site and in the neighbourhood nearby.
In the stands
The Ottawa group in charge of Lansdowne considered a lot companies before settling on Levy, a business that started with a family-run restaurant in Chicago and which now provides the food and drink at dozens of stadiums across North America.
“With Levy, what we’re trying to do is recreate the restaurant experience at concession stands,” says Cameron Bryce, the new executive chef for TD Place, who worked most recently at Ottawa’s Delta Hotel. Last Thursday, just two days after moving into his new kitchen in the bowels of the arena part of the stadium, Bryce was smoking brisket and ribs and marching his white-aproned-black-garbed staff across the field “to do a deep clean” of the concession stands.
While fare in the club seats and suites areas will tilt toward such higher-end dishes as beef tenderloin with blue cheese and Andouille mac ‘n’ cheese, even the 24 concession stands promise stadium food that’s a step up.
“We want to offer the most unexpected item in the most unexpected place,” says Jonathan Williams, Levy’s regional chef in charge of 25 facilities, including Lansdowne.
The menus in the concession stands, which have names such as Glebe Grill and Cattle Castle Deli, mainly feature burgers, dogs and fries, but they’re dishes with a difference, adding local ingredients and inspiration to the mix, such as the poutine that’s inspired by Gatineau’s La Pataterie Hulloise, a prime rib burger made with smoked ribs, and the Spiced Candied Bacon Grilled Cheese, which is made with St. Albert cheddar and spiced candied bacon. And you’ll be able to buy a Beau’s to wash it all down.
Best bet: We’re going with insiders’ recommendations here. Williams says he’s a big fan of the new Redblacks Dog ($8.50) they’ve developed, a hot dog that’s topped with luscious shavings of blackened Southern-style brisket that’s been smoked for 14 hours, and a roasted red pepper relish.
The Footlong REDBLACK Dog is one of the chefs’ top picks for food offerings from Levy Restaurants at TD Place on July 12, 2014.
Bryce nominates his signature Garlic Fries ($5.75), which helped him win the job: they’re topped with butter, garlic, shallots and parsley.
Chef Cameron Bryce’s Garlic Fries is one of the top picks for food offerings from Levy Restaurants at TD Place on July 12, 2014.
And Jean Sebastien Richer, the centre’s sommelier (yes, this stadium has a sommelier), recommends matching the RedBlacks dog with Ontario’s Creekside Cabernet Shiraz, which will be available at the two Firth’s Tavern concessions in the North Side stands (Firth’s Tavern, opened in 1819 in the area that is now LeBreton Flats, is believed to be the first tavern in the area.)
On the site:
The party starts at 4 p.m. and goes to midnight outside the stadium, all around the Aberdeen Pavilion, with a concert starting at 5 p.m. and a post-game DJ event that will feature visits from players and coaches. Gabriel’s Pizza, an Ottawa company that will be providing the pizza for the “Little Italy” stands inside the stadium, will also be set up outside, as will Lone Star restaurant, offering beer, wine and margaritas.
In a Portland-inspired move, five of Ottawa’s most popular food trucks have also been invited to the party: Red Roaster, with barbecued pulled pork in soft tortilla shells and roast chicken sandwiches; Urban Cowboy, with brisket sandwiches and fish tacos; Golden Fries & The Grilled Cheeserie, with gourmet grilled cheese and lobster bacon poutine; Fadi’s, with duck poutine with brie and chicken shawarma poutine; and Merry Dairy, with cones and cups of her famous frozen custard as well floats and ice-cream sandwiches.
Mark Goudie, chief operating officer for TD Place, says they are still working out exactly how to involve food trucks and area restaurants in the long term.
“In Portland, there are weekly fan contests where the winning food truck runs a concession stand with their offerings for the next game. Our start is to have them honour us with their creations at our pre- and post-game parties opening night.”
Best bet: The Belcher Burger ($9) is not only delicious, with shavings of slowly smoked brisket in a secret-recipe barbecue sauce loaded into a potato bun made in Osgoode, it’s steeped in Lansdowne Park football history.
The Belcher Burger.
While you’re at it, add in a side of Urban Cowboy’s crispy-on-the-outside-pillowy-on-the-inside Sweet Potato Fries ($6). Top it all off with a Merry Dairy cone with Dutch Chocolate sprinkles on top ($4).
On the streets
One of the ideas behind a reimagined Lansdowne Park was to integrate it into the surrounding neighbourhood and it’s a natural to take a stroll along Bank Street to dine at one of the area restaurants before a game. Citizen restaurant critic Peter Hum has recommended three recently:
Of Rosie’s Southern Kitchen and Raw Bar, at 895 Bank St., home of the original Mexicali Rosa’s, he wrote that “its best dishes were boldly flavoured and well executed.
“Tops with our table, but not by that much, was a lively seafood paella ($26), with plump shrimp, fine mussels, clams, squid and bits of chorizo.A half-order of baby back ribs was Flintstones-big and delicious, with tender, long-braised and then smoked meat slathered in an exuberant sauce that had significant heat, the sweetness of honey and peaches and the pop of mustard seeds going for it.”
Erling’s Variety, just off Bank, near the Queensway at 225 Strathcona Ave., was still known as Earl’s when he reviewed it in mid- March. But, under the same owners, he found fine food in a lovely space, saying the place seemed to be making everyone “happy with elegant small plates and comforting brunches, served in a bright, airy space built around an eye-catching open kitchen.”
The menu is much changed at Havana Cafe, in Old Ottawa South at 1200 Bank St., since Hum reviewed it last August, but at that time he found the two best dishes to be ropa vieja — a great Cuban comfort-food dish of braised, shredded beef, mixed with onions and peppers in a piquant, olive-studded tomato sauce — and cilantro chicken, with tender dark meat in a savoury sauce. Another advantage of going to Havana Cafe is the excuse to get a gelato at the award-winning Stella Luna, across the street at 1103 Bank St., on your walk back to Lansdowne.
Ice cream at Stella Luna.
Best bet: The ribs at Rosie’s. At the corner of Clarey, Rosie’s is the closest of these three restaurants to Lansdowne, and even though a half rack is now $20 (it was just $18 when Hum reviewed the restaurant in March), it’s still a succulent good deal, served with fries and jicama slaw.
Baby Back Ribs at Rosie’s Southern Kitchen and Raw Bar
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