See the 8 day forecast at the ottawan weather

HELLO OTTAWA

Best places for a Christmas cocktail
 

🍸 You’ll need a booking for the kitschy good times at Miracle on Elgin Street (at Elgin Beer Project). Need a last minute gift? You can also take home fun merch like Santa shot glasses and other glassware.

🍸 Enjoy a grownup seasonal tipple in the wildly Christmas-themed surroundings of Elf’s Pub Holiday Pop-up at the Chateau Laurier. You can’t make a reservation, so pop by between 5:00 pm and 10:00 pm from now until December 31.

🍸 Tiki all the way to The Standard Luxury Tavern, where palms replace pines but the festive spirit is just as strong at Sippin’ Santa.

🍸 It’s hard to believe but Nan’s Parlour has upped its legendary cozy factor even further with tinsel, fairy lights, and elves hanging from the rafters. It’s open every day this month, and although they take reservations Thursday through Sunday, you can walk in if you go early enough.

🍸 Get cozy in your own living room, with a Ready to Drink cocktail by Dunrobin Distillery. Just add ice.

– Martha and Darren

🎄the ottawan Christmas pages

•  10 Gifts Under $20
•  10 Local Experiential Gifts for Hard-to-Buy-For Loved Ones
•  Our constantly revised Christmas Markets, Festivals, and Parades page 
•  2023 Canadian-made advent calendar list
•  10 Made in Canada Christmas Gifts.
•  9 Locally Made Christmas Gifts. Please send your nominations for a locally made item to 'giftguide@theottawan.com'.

TODAY’S LINE UP

•  Food + Drink Update
•  Ottawa Stats
•  City Hall Agenda
•  What Ottawa is Talking About
•  Events
•  Deals of the Day

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FOOD + DRINK UPDATE

•   The Embassy of Belgium has made a chocolate replica of the Peace Tower. At 1.8m tall, it was made with 35 kgs of chocolate by renowned chocolate master Philippe Vancayseele. It is on display in the Parliamentary Dining Room, currently operating in the West Block. (h/t Ottawa Playbook)
•  The number of Ottawa restaurants with poor inspection ratings by Ottawa Public Health has increased 30.5 per cent since 2021-2022.

•  A link to the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum in the latest Ottawa Road Trips newsletter intrigued us. It led to a recipe for Grand-maman’s Ginger Snaps, which made us wonder what other treats the Experimental Farm has hidden on its website. It turns out there are a lot.
  
  But for Christmas, we’ll highlight:
  
  🧤 Winter Sweater Cookies
  
  🧤 Bunny Chocolate Sugar Cookies
  
  🧤 Glazed Eggnog Cookies
  
  🧤 Quick Cinnamon Rolls
  
  🧤 Holiday Bruschetta
  
  🐦 and for your feathered friends, a hanging bird seed feeder.

•  New Menu Alert: The latest menu at 1 Elgin focuses on delicious comfort food with mains like Smoke & Braised Boneless Short Rib and Mushrooms Pappardelle

•  Bring this one to your next holiday party: Beau’s Crème Brew-Lée Dessert Stout has been awarded Gold in the Winter Seasonal Beer category at the Ontario Brewing Awards. Congratulations to the entire Beau’s team.

•  Happy 10th to Bowman’s Bar and Grill on Carling. The family run joint has a comprehensive menu of locally brewed craft beer as well as fine pub grub. Congrats to all at Bowman’s.

•  Ameya Charnalia in Eat the Strip was tipped off by a reader about a Chinese restaurant in a south-end industrial park. What he found was a proper Sichuan restaurant in the form of Noodle’s Invitation. Says Charnalia, ‘these noodles provided me with unbridled joy’.

•  Jane Staples in Ottawa Life has four south of France wine recommendations for under $20. They are: Philippe De Rothschild Sauvignon Blanc Pays d'Oc, Laurent Miquel Pere Et Fils Chardonnay d'Oc, Le Fat Bastard Shiraz Pays D'Oc, and Paul Mas Cabernet Sauvignon.

•  Kiersten Vuorimaki and Amanda Armstrong at Apartment 613 have published their bi-weekly food report.
  
  Armstrong, in a bid to eat less meat, for some reason went to Shawarma Prince. However, she was delighted by the veggie sharwarma, finding it the size of a Nerf football.
  
  At Thr33’s Co. Snack Bar, the the Peanut Butter Habanero Chicken Drumsticks haunts Vuorimaki. Quote – ‘Holy moly!' – Unquote.
  
  Vuorimaki also preaches the cause of Honey Cups pizza at Crust & Crate. ‘The pizza is smothered with tiny pepperoni that curl up into cups in the heat of the oven, creating the ideal vessels for the generous dousing in hot honey that gives the pizza its name.’

OTTAWA STATS

Sports

• 🏒 NHL Ottawa Senators 1 – Carolina Hurricanes 4 last night

CITY HALL AGENDA

What’s going on at City Hall
 

No meetings tomorrow.

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

🏢 World Ski Cross

•  A sister and brother both won gold at the ski cross World Cup races yesterday. Hannah Schmidt won the women’s final after the three other competitors crashed into one another. Those three all received silver. Jared Schmidt came first in the men’s final. (CBC)

🖊️ Federal Public Employees

•  A former clerk and a former assistant secretary of the Privy Council have written about six things wrong with the Federal public service. 
  
  1️⃣ Realize that government has become too complex to manage effectively, with 22 regular departments, more than 80 departmental agencies and corporations plus 34 Crown corporations, the RCMP, and the military.
  
  2️⃣ There are too many public employees to operate effectively. At 360,000 civil servants, it has increased headcount by 95,000, or 36 per cent, over the last decade. 
  
  3️⃣ There are too many oversight bodies. Treasury Board, the Privy Council Office, the Public Service Commission, the Auditor General, departmental audit and evaluation committees, parliamentary agents, and Parliament itself all oversee different aspects with no coördination.
  
  4️⃣ There is no clear accountability.
  
  5️⃣ Nobody is measuring or managing public sector productivity.
  
  6️⃣ The management culture is too hesitant to change things.
  
  Kevin Lynch was the Clerk of the Privy Council and Jim Mitchell was a former Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet in the Privy Council Office, both under Paul Martin. (Ottawa Citizen)
  
  ➕ Related Global Affairs Canada says that it may reverse ferret and reinstate two key staff foreign language training programmes that it had cut, assuming that money could be found in another department.

💸 Horizon Ottawa

•  Campaigner Horizon Ottawa has dropped its appeal of an election compliance audit after the City said it would come for costs if Horizon lost. Former Taggart developments executive Ted Phillips asked the City to audit Horizon because it promoted a festival, HorizonFest, before it was registered as a third-party advertising in the most recent civic election. As the free music festival featured local politicians, the City’s election compliance audit committee agreed. Horizon says its annual budget is $60,000 per year and in the event of a losing judgement, the City’s lawyers would ask for tens of thousands of dollars. (Joanne Laucius)

✉️ Post Deadlines

•  CTV has done all the work for last minute Christmas shipping deadlines. Note that deadlines for Canada Post parcels regionally and internationally are pretty much all tomorrow. Last chance for Christmas cards to the coast is Friday. (Peter Szperling at CTV)

   

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MORE FROM THE OTTAWAN

• 🍺 Our Ottawa-Gatineau Craft Brewery Map

•  

• 🏆 The Best Of Ottawa Awards 2023

•  

• 🎧 Best Podcasts from Ottawa

EVENTS

Is there an event we should know about?
Please use our easy event submission form

Today

Find Ottawa’s most comprehensive – and ever-expanding – list of Christmas Markets, Festivals, and Parades on our website.

•  🕎 Day seven of Hanukkah. You can donate to the 5th Annual Rabbi Bulka Chanukah Toy Drive here. 
•   Tickets are now on sale for Ashley MacIsaac shows at Red Bird on January 13 and January 14 2024.

•  Groove to the jazzy seasonal tunes from A Charlie Brown Christmas as they’re played live by the Rousso Quarter. This candlelight show is at the Gladstone Theatre.

•  Enjoy an evening of board games at the Prescott.
  
  
  Gigs

•  Jazz Nite with SH-BOOM. Queen St Fare

•  Tarot Night. Nan’s Parlour

•  Spark Trivia with Geoff Paquet. Spark Beer

•  Left to Suffer, Chamber, Tracheotomy, Mouth Breather. Rainbow Bistro

•  Rare Groove Wednesdays. Atomic Rooster

•  Spark Trivia with DJ Geoff Paquet. Spark Beer

•  Pretty Good, Maybury, Talia Aoude, Corduroy Moon, Franki. House of TARG

•  Eden Moore’s Slay Bells. LIVE on Elgin

•  Holly Cole: A Swinging Chrismas with the NAC Orchestra. NAC South Hall

•  Tyler Keeley’s Urban Campfire (December Edition). Red Bird Live

•  The Follow Ups, the Valveenus, Audio Visceral. Avant-Garde Bar

•  Climate Pub(lics). Irene’s Pub & Restaurant

•  Trivia Night. Pour Boy

Tomorrow

•  Camp Fortune is open daily as of today.

•  Kichesippi Beer hosts the Kichesippi Euchre Tournament starting at 6:30 pm. If you don’t know anything about the game show up early and learn how to play.

•  I Love Turtles: Take a break from the distractions of the festive season today and attend an informative webinar about the turtles of Ottawa. Malcolm Fenech of the Petrie Island Turtle Project will explain how he spent last summer collecting turtle eggs from Petrie Island, incubating them at River House, and releasing them back into the wild after they hatched.
  
  
  Gigs

•  Django Libre. Spark Beer

•  Irene’s Blues Sessions with Guest host Marc Seguin. Irone’s Pub & Restaurant

•  21st Annual 20th Century Boys Fundraiser. Rainbow Bistro

•  Comedy Night. Brew Revolution

•  Comedy Night. Pour Boy

•  The Glorious Sons. The Arena at TD Place

•  JW-Jones and Friends. Meridien Theatres @ Centrepointe
   

Friday

•  Take a road trip to Smiths Falls today (3:00 pm to 7:00 pm) or tomorrow (10:00 am to 4:00 pm) for the Christmas Market at Artisan Village.

•  Juno nominee Miss Emily will bring her blues stylings to First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa for A Miss Emily Christmas in Ottawa. Find out why musicians from Rob Baker (of the Tragically Hip) to KISS's Gene Simmons are impressed with her voice.

•  In the mood to belt out Christmas carols? We’ve got just the event for you. You’ll get to sing outside and enjoy hot chocolate and treats by the fire pit. Donations for the Blair Court Community House Food Bank will be gratefully received.
   

  Gigs

•  Blingo Night. Pour Boy

•  The Powergoats Annual Holiday Show for the Snowsuit Foundation, with Hot Jupiter. Rainbow Bistro

•  Share the Band Live. Café Dekcuf

•  Latin Friday. Mavericks

•  Pleading with the Devil. LIVE on Elgin

•  The Barrow Gang. Atomic Rooster

   

Just Announced / Now Booking

•  It’s going to be fiercely competitive, highly creative, and probably quite sticky at The Standard this Saturday afternoon, (December 16) as the Gingerbread House Decorating Contest gets underway. The winning team of up to 4 people will win a $100 gift card to the Standard as well as Tiki Christmas Mugs. Reserve your team now info@thestandardtavern.com.

•  General admission tickets go on sale at 10:00 am Friday (December 15) to AEW Collision’s event at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday March 16.

DEALS OF THE DAY

BUT, ONE MORE THING ...

Nine projects were recognized at the Ottawa Urban Design Awards. The categories were: 

• Urban Infill, (low-rise and mid to high-rise), for a building or group of buildings, of high architectural standard, that achieves quality urban spaces and enhances the urban fabric of the neighbourhood
• Public Places and Civic Spaces, for spaces that feature sustainability while enhancing the accessible public realm
• Urban Elements, for design elements that contribute to the unique character of the neighbourhood at a human scale
• Visions and Master Plans, a forward-looking category for inspiring ideas and guiding plans for the future
• Student Projects, for theoretical or studio projects submitted by university students

And the results are ... meh? Take a look at the photos. We aren’t terribly excited. 

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