2025 Canadian Culinary Awards

THE OTTAWAN went to the 2025 Canadian Culinary Awards last Saturday. In our opinion, Chef Lizardo Becerra of Raphaël Peruvian Cuisine should have been awarded gold but he was not even chosen to place. Our tail to snout report is here.

Peter Hum in the Ottawa Citizen has his rankings here.

Apartment 613 points out that Becerra did win the ‘People’s Choice’ award.

▪️ Road Trip: In the impossibly attractive town of Merrickville, Gather Brewery & Glassworks will be holding a four-course dining event three varieties of game sausages, Bison Sliders, Braised Beef Brisket, and a Chocolate Pot au Crème. Wild Chefs + Gather Dinner and Beer Pairing costs $105 per person. Saturday February 22.

▪️ Congratulations to the local craft breweries that brought home awards from the recent Ontario Brewing Awards: Spark Beer, Flora Hall Brewing, Broken Stick Brewing, Lost Villages Brewery, Brauwerk Hoffman, and Brew Revolution

▪️Before EveryPerson Café opened on Bank Street, it crowd sourced suggestions from Ottawa Reddit about what people want. They received hundreds of replies. 

▪️Open Table recognized three restos in the Capital on its 100 Top Romantic Restaurants in Canada list. They are: Riviera, North + Navy, and Gatineau’s Arôme - Casino du Lac Leamy.

▪️In this week’s sugar high, Peter Hum visits Union Street Kitchen Caféwhere millions of dollars and years of research by top baking scientists have created what no one thought possible: the Nanaimo Bar cookie. 

▪️Hum has also found, he says, ‘Ottawa’s best shawarma’ which is surely fighting words in the Capital of Shawarma. Jasmine Bakeryspecializes in Syrian treats and says its olive-walnut pocket is the only one to be found in Ottawa.

▪️At Eat the Street, Ameya Charnalia has found a hat trick: sports bar / breakfast joint / Punjabi cuisine. The Blue Diamond Bar & Grill in Richmond mixes and matches its menu, offering zucchini sticks and chicken fingers with tandoori chicken wings and butter chicken mac & cheese. The standout, however, was the sarson ka saag. ‘[I]t was everything I hoped for: spicy, creamy, and full of depth. The mustard greens were cooked to perfection, delivering a mustardy, slightly tangy kick, and paired beautifully with tandoori roti’.

▪️Thanks to Laura Byrne Paquet’s Ottawa Road Trips newsletter, we find that there is a new craft brewery in Kemptville. The taproom of Kemptville Brewing Co. is open Tuesday - Sunday 11:00 am to 10:00 pm with eight taps and full food menu.

▪️Not only has the Rideau Canal Skateway remained open this season, it has added three new food choices: Dumpling Soup (pork buns, potstickers, and soup dumplings), Super Crunch Tanghulu (‘Think candy apples but with grapes, strawberries or orange segments’), and Spring Chips (chips, natch).

▪️Zachary Resnick in Apartment 613 interviews Saint-André-Avellin cattle farmer Paul Slomp about his organic and anti-antibiotic protocols. Grazing Days has ‘blue’ and ‘green’ streams for its animals: The Green Stream is for beef that has never had antibiotics, the Blue Stream is beef that is otherwise organic but the cattle has had antibiotics for its own health and welfare. Grazing Days’ beef, chicken, and pork can be ordered by subscription or from its website.

Super Bowl Snacks At Home

▪️Around the Block Butcher has your Super Bowl Sunday covered with packages of sausage rolls, wings, baby back ribs, and charcuterie boxes. Order by Friday. 

▪️The Piggy Market’s Super Bowl Slider Kit includes pulled chicken, pulled pork, and shaved beef brisket so you can put together the slider of your dreams. There is a limited number available; order now for pick up on February 8 or 9. 

▪️Gitanes Burger has Game Day Platters in a range of sizes, for pickup only. 

▪️Stofa’s Super Bowl Party Meal for Four (or more) has everything from chips and dip to Apple Pecan Crumble. 

▪️Smoked wings, pulled pork sliders, ribs, nachos, pretzel bites. They’re all in the Meatings Super Bowl Snack Pack 

▪️Meal Prep Ottawa’s Super Bowl Feast will feed 4-5 people, and it’s on sale now for $94.49. 

Valentine’s 

▪️ Go straight to their heart with the Meatings’ Beer & BBQ, Baby: a dream of a Valentine’s Day treat with 3 spice rubs, one beef jerky, a $50 gift card, six beers, and one sauce. Also available: 24 Candied Bacon Roses (we’re quite serious). 

▪️ The Bottega Nicastro heat-and-eat meal to go for two is six courses including always-romantic Baci Chocolates to finish. 

▪️ 3 Tarts’ Valentine cookies are stunning little pieces of sweet and sticky goodness, but don’t stop there. How about a classic Opera Cake, mini pies, or Chocolate Almond Fudge Cake? 

The new annual fee for AirBnB operators in Chelsea, due March 1. The previous fee was $85. The municipality allows only 65 short-term rental properties within its borders.

Wein has launched a new non-profit society, the BrainSTRONG Network, that will help people understand invisible brain injuries. 

Wein was the most severely injured of the Kanata 5: in 2009, a driver who fell asleep at the wheel plowed into a group of cyclists in their bike lane. Wein was placed in a medically induced coma for three weeks and spent six months in rehab.

– Ottawa Police Service chief Eric Stubbs who says he hears only one consistent reason that people do not renew their drivers licence: money. Ottawa Police say that Automated Licence Plate Recognition systems installed in police cars are resulting in more people being fined for driving without a licence, a hit of $325.

Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee
Thursday, February 6 at 10 am

▪️The Federal government is back in court appealing its loss in court against the use of the Emergency Act. Last year, a Federal court judge ruled that the occupation of downtown Ottawa by the Convoy and the dereliction of duty by Ottawa Police and the abandonment of citizens by the City of Ottawa was not a ‘national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act’. Several groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, had sued the Federal government over it.

The Federal government’s appeal relies on the statement that the judge said he made his decision based on facts after the event, not the facts evident to the Federal government at the time of the Convoy occupation.

▪️Liberals promise to proceed with Stage 3 of the O Train, the Progressive Conservatives kind of hint at it, and the NDP wants the City and Province to share costs 50/50. Stage 3 of O Train would extend Line 2 from Baseline station to Barrhaven and Line 1 from Moodie Station to Kanata and Stittsville. Both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals promised that the Province would take over maintenance and oversight of the O Train if elected but the Liberals outright promised to complete Stage 3. The Progressive Conservatives hinted at it, saying the idea was sound as Stage 2 finishes and the ‘Stage 3 expansion’ begins.

▪️In an emergency vote, City Hall staff have been directed to ‘prepare a plan that would ensure the city is able to buy local, Canadian goods and services’. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has been empowered to convene a meeting of local business leaders and work withe the Gatineau mayor, Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, on buy local initiatives. City staff said that around 92 per cent of the City’s goods and services purchases are local.

Andrew Duffy in the Ottawa Citizen

▪️ Elevator Theatre Company’s production of Late Company opens tonight for a two week run at the Gladstone Theatre. The play, which is set in an Ottawa suburb, examines the effect of a tragedy on a pair of grieving families. 

🆓 DJ Geoff Paquet presents Trivia Night at Bicycle Craft Brewery. 

🆓 It’s a Bad Night at the Movies at OPL Main Branch. Catch the newly completed New York Ninja (started in 1984, finished in 2021 by Vinegar Syndrome Pictures) at 6:30 pm. 

🆓 The noon Doors Open for Music at Southminster concert at 15 Aylmer Ave, Conversations, features Virtuoso pianist Philippe Prud’homme and flutist Pascale Margely, who will mine the expressive potential of the flute and piano pairing, playing sonatas by Hindemith, Poulenc, and Desmarais. In person and live-streamed. 

▪️ ByTowne Cinema: The Brutalist, Hard Truths, The Substance 

▪️ Mayfair Theatre: The Room Next door, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, Bram Stoker’s Dracula 

Gigs

▪️ Trivia Night: O’Grady’s Outpost (25 Tapiola Cres)

▪️ Jazz Nite with Crop Circle Catalysts. Queen St Fare

▪️ Chayce Beckham. Bronson Centre

▪️ Prime Rib Big Band. Irene’s Pub

▪️ Valentine’s is A Drag. LIVE on Elgin

▪️ Havana Nights. Pure Havana Dance Studio (MacLaren and Elgin)

▪️ undercurrents, Ottawa Fringe Festival’s annual winter series of original, contemporary theatre and art, fills the Arts Court’s spaces through February 15. 

🆓 Art House Café’s Anniversary Weekend starts in just a few days, and tonight’s Vernissage of the Special Exhibition makes a great launch event. 

▪️ Anina’s Café in Vanier is screening the Big Lebowski for an affordable $5. There will be snacks for purchase. 

🆓 Curious about infectious diseases? The Top Ten Diseases of All Time: Author Talk with Stacey Smith? (intentional question mark) will delve into “how humanity has faced the deadliest diseases throughout history and their profound societal impact.” 

▪️ Mickey Mouse, Belle, Moana, and Tinker Bell are but a few of the characters you’ll see on the ice at Disney On Ice: Mickey’s Search Party. Until Sunday February 9 at Canadian Tire Centre. 

▪️ ByTowne Cinema: Hard Truths, The Brutalist, Anora 

▪️ Mayfair Theatre: Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, The Substance 

Gigs

▪️ Switched on Synths: Nick Schofield. House of TARG

▪️ Al Tambay. Irene’s

▪️ Lady Grey and the Phantoms. LIVE on Elgin

▪️ Meredith Moon. Red Bird

▪️ Chords and Conversations. The Rainbow Bistro

▪️ Sink into the immersive experience at Art House Café with Jazz in the Dark. The lights will be lower, and you have an option to wear a blindfold as you listen to music by ELK Trio. 

🆓 Sing a Sea Shanty returns to Beyond the Pale Brewing 250 City Centre location. No cover, and lots of delicious beer for sale. 

▪️ Check out one of the undercurrents shows at Arts Court. 

▪️ Queer-owned businesses, skating drag stars, and other performers grab the spotlight in Winter Pride in ByWard Market. 

▪️ The home teams face off at the Capital Hoops Classic between U of O Gee-Gees and Carleton Ravens. The Arena at TD Place. 

▪️ Girls Nite Out brings the best Canadian female comedians to the Shenkman Arts Centre stage. 

▪️ The Mayfair Theatre’s David Lynch Tribute Film Festival kicks off with Eraserhead, with additional screenings on February 11 and 13. 

▪️ Despite the frigid temperatures, Divertimento Orchestra is calling for Echoes of Joy and Spring at Woodroffe United Church. 

▪️ ByTowne Cinema: The Last Showgirl, I’m Still Here, Universal Language, Detour: Ganja & Hess 

▪️ Mayfair Theatre: Hard Truths, Sing Sing, Eraserhead 

Gigs

▪️ Kasador, The New Hires, Dart Trees. Rainbow Bistro

▪️ The Beatdown, The Divetones, Taco Bandits. Dominion Tavern

▪️ Factory x Solstice featuring ATROXX, Syvyl, Switches & Stitches. City at Night

▪️ The Ed Lister Group. Night Oat

▪️ Still Water Acoustic. O’Brien’s Roadhouse

▪️ Slo’ Tom & The Handsome Devils. Stray Dog Brewing

▪️ The Bookendz. Beau’s Brewing

▪️ Jann Arden brings her Mixed Tape tour to the National Arts Centre June 3 and 4. Tickets go on sale Friday.

▪️ Bring the squad to Côté Fleurs this Saturday (February 8) for the Galentine’s Day Workshop, at which you’ll create gorgeous bouquets. Book soon - the 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm time slots are filling up fast. 

▪️ Another fine reason to pull the team together: The Ash Posy Solid Perfume/Herbal Salve Workshop on Thursday February 13. You’ll leave the event with your own personal 25ml glass amber jar of your salve, and a 145ml aluminum jar of your hand made solid perfume. The workshop is happening at Modern Fable in Almonte. 

Two interesting jobs have come up: Executive Assistant, Curatorial, at the National Gallery of Canada. $70,606 - $91,639 per year. 

Across the river in Wakefield, Atelier Nick Barna is seeking a woodworker/cabinet maker. ‘Come work in our beautiful shop making awesome custom furniture and cabinets’, they say.