In Today’s Edition → OCDSB has made final its major changes for September 2026 →Writers' Festival celebrates the rom-com novel tomorrow →Deals of the Day: An Ottawa Little Theatre + Albion Rooms dinner, tulip bouquets, 5 AAA Angus Ribeye steaks for $99, and womenswear summer separates → ⛅ High 25° Low 15° and partly cloudy ☀️ 5:34 am 🌛 8:26 pm |
WEDNESDAY DINING + DRINKING UPDATE |
🌽 Corazón de Maíz is expanding its operations in the ByWard Market. In addition to the beloved restaurant, there will soon be a new grocery concept just across the street, offering fresh ingredients and specialty food. Opening soon. ⛴️ There's a new farmer's market destination for weekend adventures. The Ferme des Petites Victoires (1766 QC-148, Luskville) is launching its brand new Farm Store on Friday May 16. The location will be open Fridays 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Saturdays 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, and Sundays 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Take the Portage Bridge if you're getting there from most of Ottawa, but for those in the west, the scenic route is via the Quyon Ferry. 🥩 Barrhaven Ribfest and Poutine ticks all the BBQ boxes at Clarke Fields, 93 Houlihan St., Friday through Monday. 🍔 The Piggy Market's Backyard Burger Kit will start your Victoria Day Weekend off right. 🎵 Zola's welcomes the vocal jazz quartet Cuppa Joe to the restaurant tonight for live music, food, and drink. 🇮🇹 It's time to fill your calendar with events from Ottawa Italian Week. May we suggest the Masterclass: Dishes From Northern to Central Italy (June 10) to start, followed by Masterclass: Dishes from Southern to Central Italy (June 11), and perhaps an order of Masterclass: Stuffed Pasta Class. 🍖 At Eat the Strip, Danielle Jeffery found that the beef tikka kabob at Laziz Broast & Mix Grill in Gloucester was the ‘the kind of dish that quietly raises the bar’. ⚜️ If you believe the only true poutine is the kind that is served from a shack in Québec, Poutine du Paradis opened in Shawville last weekend just for you. 🥪 In Apartment 613’s Best Bites column, Kiersten Vuorimaki ate at District Deli (‘[L]et me tell you. Wow.’), Moo Shu Ice Cream (‘The surprise star of the picnic was the Garlic Tofu shaobing wrap, with tofu, homemade sweet koji sauce and garlic chili sauce, pickled shallots, cucumber, cilantro, and scallions.’), and Roberto’s Corner (‘For only $8.99 this has got to be one of the most affordable and filling meals in town.’). ✈️ According to the Ottawa International Airport’s annual report, YOW will get a Starbucks later this year, Darcy McGee’s will be replaced with Zak’s Diner, and something called Urban Crave will open at the US gates. 🥗 Montréal chain Mandy’s Gourmet Salads will open this summer at the corner of Bank and Pretoria. ☕The Ottawa Road Trips newsletter tips us off to a Friends-themed coffee shop that demands a visit solely by virtue of being named Central Perth.
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Dom Ferland Ferland is the City new Wildlife Resources Coördinator, hired last January after working for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the National Capital Commission. The Coördinator’s job is to implement the City’s official Wildlife Strategy. Animals that he is responsible for: coyotes, birds (and birds crashing into windows), and beavers Animals that he is not responsible for: bear, deer, moose, squirrels, raccoons or skunks
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QUOTE - “
It should be a proud symbol of unity — restored for walking, biking or even future light rail. Instead, it’s facing demolition, its fate lost in bureaucratic limbo. Municipal salt trucks destroyed it, and no one stepped in to stop it. - – Hairstylist and community advocate Josiah Frith on the how the Alexandra Bridge was neglected because Ottawa and Gatineau are governed as two competing regions.
- – ‘Ottawa-Gatineau should be governed as one national capital’
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SPORTS - 🏒 PWHL Ottawa Charge 1 – Montréal Victoire 0 last night
(Game 3/5) - ⚾ FRONTIER Ottawa Titans 2 – Washington Wild Things 3 last night
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WHAT’S GOING ON AT CITY HALL |
Joint Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services and Public Works and Infrastructure Committee
Thursday, May 15 at 9:30 am - Review of Special Event By-laws
- Feasibility Assessment - Vulnerable Social Infrastructure By-law
Agenda |
WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT |
🏫 The Ottawa Carleton District School Board has made final its major changes for September 2026. - Almost all schools will have English and French immersion streams. Five schools remain English-only.
- Alternative programmes will be slowly phased out but special classes for kids with complex needs will continue
- Bilingual kindergarten kids will either graduate into the English stream, or enter the French stream in Grades 1, 2, or 3. Starting French immersion in Grade 4 is out.
– Kate Porter at CBC ↪ Director of education Pino Buffone says that the ‘tenets of alternative education may have been innovative decades ago, but they are now commonplace across the district’. Transportation costs for running dedicated alternative schools costs $1.2 million per year. – Joanne Laucius in the Ottawa Citizen 🔍 CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries TV show will be filming in Ottawa this July and Ottawa Tourism is running a draw to give your out-of-town families a chance to win a free trip here. (That’s our take, not theirs. You, dear reader, probably don’t need to win airfare to visit downtown.) The winner and a guest will receive: - Four nights at the Lord Elgin hotel for up to two people
- Round-trip transportation (air or train)
- Two 3-day Visit Ottawa Passes
- Two VIP tickets to Murdoch Mysteries in Concert with the NAC Orchestra
- A VIP experience including: a walk-on background role in an episode of Murdoch Mysteries, lunch on set and the chance to meet the Murdoch Mysteries cast. The winner and their guest will get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to immerse themselves in the show, dressed in 1911-era costume.
– Ottawa Tourism
📸 If you are a business owner in Barrhaven, the local Business Improvement Area is giving out free security cameras to monitor crime and vandalism. Businesses that take part in the programme will have the cameras installed facing into the street and are expected to enroll in the Ottawa Police Service’s CAMSafe programme. CAMSafe doesn’t give video to the Service automatically, but police can request it if they believe it is relevant. – Mia Jensen in the Ottawa Business Journal
🎙️ Carleton University’s community radio station, CKCU 93.1 is looking for 10 to 14 year-olds passionate about music, media, or storytelling to come to its summer Radio Camp. Over five days, kids will create a radio ad, write & perform a radio play, interview a special guest, and host a live radio show. – CKCU Radio Camp |
The Poll Last time, we asked ‘Will you be turning on your air conditioner this week?’ 17% Yes, although I think it is far too early 26% Yes, I can’t bear the heat 45% No, I’ll tolerate the heat 6% No, it will be too expensive 6% No, I don’t have air conditioning. What do you think, I live in a Holiday Inn Express?
The results of yesterday’s poll seems to ask another question: Do most OTTAWAN readers have air conditioning? That’s rhetorical, not a poll question. Today’s poll: |
Do you believe the Charge can go all the way now? |
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THE ROLLING THREE DAY CALENDAR |
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✳️ Means change from previous edition WEDNESDAY Week Two of Ottawa Writers Festival starts with a conversation with Nita Prose, who will talk about her latest release The Scene of the Crime with Uzma Jalaluddin and Jennifer Whiteford. The NAC Orchestra will be departing soon on a tour of Korea and Japan, but before they go you can grab a ticket to the preview concerts here in Ottawa. Korean pianist Yeol Eum performs Ravel, Strauss, and Kelly-Marie Murphy. Tonight and tomorrow evening. You don't need to register for the Out at Camp Group Bike Ride. It's a leisurely 25k cycle along the Ottawa river to Britannia Beach. Place your bid in the Walrus online auction and support fact-checked journalism in Canada. The auction ends at 10:00 pm tonight. ByTowne Cinema: An Unfinished Film, German Language Film Festival of Ottawa: Gina, Drawn In: Vampire Hunter D Mayfair Theatre: The Ballad of Wallis Island, Flow, The Shrouds Gigs Fire Manic, Neurotypes, Computer, Worrywart. House of TARG Jazz Night with Roger Radio. Bar Robo Why Not (Vibrations Running Deep). 27 Club Open Mic. EveryPerson Café
THURSDAY ✳️ Elevator Theatre Company’s production of the Broadway musical Next to Normal runs until May 24 at the Gladstone Theatre. ✳️ Saunders Farm launches its new Square Dances tonight. No experience necessary; bring comfy shoes and your cards to this cashless venue. If you can't make it tonight mark June 19, July 17, and August 21 on your calendar. 🆓 Experience the results of the DARC's CrossCulture Jam for Ontario and Francophone musicians, which happened back on April 27. The Hintonburg Night Market by Urban Art Collective is back with the coolest vendors, food from Out of the Burbs, drinks by the Booj, and the Vernissage of a new show in the Gallery. It all runs 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Comic Katherine Ryan visits the Bronson Centre. After receiving wide acclaim at the Shaw Festival and London's Barbican Theatre, Why Not Theatre's production of the epic Mahabharata: Karma (Part 1) and (Part 2) will play short runs at the NAC. Among other things, Writers' Festival celebrates the rom-com novel. 🆓 Take a dance lesson outside the NAC each month this summer. Tonight: learn K-Pop dance moves care of the Synaptik Dance Crew. 7:00 pm. Better bring your A game to the Bridge Public House at RSC's Sitcom Showdown: Trivia Night. The Canadian Museum of History presents a biweekly screening of Canadian films. The line-up begins tonight with Rustic Oracle. If you want to raise your grilling to the next level this summer, take the Meatings X BBQwithDrew workshop about All Things Brisket. 🆓 Vancouver Film School drops by The Westin Ottawa for an info session. 🆓 Be among the first to experience new theatre with GCTC's rehearsed reading of Ron Davie's new play Last Known Well. Although it's free to attend you must book your ticket in advance. There's another Art Battle on the horizon at Overflow Brewing. The NAC Orchestra will be departing soon on a tour of Korea and Japan, but before they go you can grab a ticket to the preview concerts here in Ottawa. Korean pianist Yeol Eum performs Ravel, Strauss, and Kelly-Marie Murphy. ByTowne Cinema: Bonjour Tristesse, An Unfinished Film, Possession Mayfair Theatre: Bob Trevino Likes It, The Ballad of Wallis Island, The Shrouds Gigs Wine Lips, Chinese Medicine, Alley Beers. The 27 Club Teens in Trouble, Batboy, DealBreaker, Sugar Bomb. House of TARG Comedy Night. Pour Boy The 20th Century Boys. Rainbow Bistro Rory Taillon with Malia Rogers. Art House
FRIDAY At the Writers Festival Spring Edition tonight: 52 Ways to Reconcile: How to Walk with Indigenous Peoples on the Path to Healing with author David A. Robertson. Learn classic moves at the Friday Dance Soirée at DQ Ballroom & Latin Dance Studio. Everything's in full bloom at the Canadian Tulip Festival. Cheer the Ottawa Charge on as Montréal Victoire returns to the arena at TD Place tonight. The Charge leads the series 2-1. Drunken Cinema hosts a screening of The Mummy Returns at the ByTowne. Expect games, silliness, and an impossibly good looking 2001-era Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Make new connections at the Ottawa Social Mixer. Get creative with Art Haven Kanata's Water-colour Workshop: Monogram Letter. Meet other young professionals at the Network and Elevate Night. Dead Media Maniacs is for collectors of VHS, Beta, vinyl, CDs, and other classic media methods. 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm at House of TARG. Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts throws open its doors for a "Weekend at Brigid's", a two-evening celebration in a stunning heritage building. Book a ticket for The Manhattans (Friday May 16), ELK Trio (Saturday May 17) or get yourself a weekend pass. Elevator Theatre Company’s production of the Broadway musical Next to Normal continues at the Gladstone Theatre. ByTowne Cinema: Vingt Dieux (Holy Cow), That They May Face The Rising Sun, Black Bag, Drunken Cinema: The Mummy Returns Mayfair Theatre: The Ballad of Wallis Island, Bonjour Tristesse, A Nice Indian Boy Gigs The Low Profiles. Night Oat Groove Society. Poa Tiki Bar 80s Dance Party. House of TARG Green'd Eh. Overflow Brewing Queers and Beers. Lowertown Brewery Jody Wisternoff. Gridwrks The Underground (New Wave Dance Party. The Prescott Kasador, Lazzy Lung, The Sugar Pills. Rainbow Bistro
JUST ANNOUNCED/ NOW BOOKING You and your pup can learn to overcome unwanted behaviours with the Behaving Buddies Workshops from Ottawa Humane Society. Catch appearances by Complicit, Alanna Sterling, Tech Twelve, Rapahel WEinroth-Browne, and other Ottawa musicians at the 2025 Capital Music Awards next Thursday May 22.
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MADE IN CANADA DEALS OF THE DAY |
The Toronto Guardian – no, we’ve never heard of them either – has taken a page from our friends at NarCity Ottawa and made a list of something that we had not thought of before: Top 7 Hidden Gems for Glamping Near Ottawa. Book your dream yurt now. |
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THE OTTAWAN is written and edited every working weekday by Martha and Darren. Is there something that Ottawa should know about? Email to us at hello@theottawan.com. We read every single comment. |
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