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HELLO OTTAWA

If you or someone you know lives with disabilities, the City is running an online event next week on a topic that is rarely talked about: emergency preparedness.

In the first half, the City’s Office of Emergency Management, Accessibility Office and Ottawa Public Health discuss key emergency preparedness considerations as well as what resources are available for those living with disabilities. 

In the second half, the Office and Public Health will be asking the audience about the emergency service needs and perspectives of persons with disabilities.

The session is Tuesday, Feb 13 from 1:00 pm to 3:00, and registration by Monday at 4:00 pm is required. 

American Sign Language, Langue des signes québécoise, continuous real-time captioning in English and French, and simultaneous French translation will be provided. Other disability-related accommodations can be requested in the registration.

– Martha and Darren

Our Valentines Guides

❤️ Valentine’s Day Experiences and Gifts

14 different ideas.

❤️ Valentine’s Day greeting cards

When you can’t find the words to express your feelings, a well chosen card can help. There’s no need to buy a mass produced greeting when these locally- and Canadian-made options are available.

❤️ Romantic Gift Ideas for Your Valentine

Seven easy ideas.

❤️ 5 Food Gifts and Dining Ideas for Valentine’s Day

It’s not just chocolate. But chocolate is included.

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

•  Almanac’s Let’s Get Started workshop this evening (5:00 pm to 6:00 pm) will take absolute beginners through keeping and using a sourdough starter. $45 will cover the class as well as a take-home starter of your own and bag of flour.
•  The Whalebone’s Valentine’s Dinner Kit for Two contains scallops, chips with a dip of crab, caviar and chive, mussels, braised beef, leek and charred broccolini parmentier, all topped off by an Italian pudding. Yes, you’ll need to do a bit of cooking at home, but also yes, you will be hailed as a culinary hero. $125, for pick-up on February 14.
•  Zola’s has Valentine’s Day covered with romantic dine-in and heat-at-home menus. The latter option also comes with a single long stem rose (*swoon*), a scented candle, and semolina dinner rolls.
•  Six Ottawa restaurants made OpenTable’s Top 100 Romantic Restaurants in Canada for 2024 list: Coconut Lagoon, North and Navy, Riviera, The Shore Club, Zoe’s at the Château Laurier, and NeXT.
•  Meanwhile, Arôme – Casino du Lac Leamy is the only Québec resto to make the list outside of Montréal.
•  After 28 years, the Clocktower Brew Pub on Glebe, the first one, is closing to be replaced by a Turkish restaurant, Sultan Ahmet. Clocktower’s other three locations remain open.
•  Ameya Charnalia at Eat the Strip knows the magic words to find a hidden gem: ‘tucked away in an industrial park near a massive snow dump’. The crispy fresh onions, creamy, peppery, well-spiced sauce, and sabaayad bread at Sabaya Shack were ‘delightful’, he says of the Somali-style chicken wraps.
•  Over in Brockville, five restos are taking part in the first ever Mac N' Cheese Fest for the month of February: 1000 Islands Brewery, Finnigan's Tavern, Richard's Coffeehouse, Tait's Bakery, and Texas Tavern are all competing for the title of ... Big Cheese? Big Mac? They don’t say.
  
  Darren has only been to Brockville once in his life and he’s somehow been to three of these five places, although without a Mac N’ Cheese bun fight.
•  The Ottawa Citizen’s food writer Peter Hum rated the 10 dishes served up at last Saturday’s 2024 Canadian Culinary Championships at the Shaw Centre.
  
  He puts Chef Raghav Chaudhary of Aiana Restaurant Collective’s dish (featuring oysters, crab, trout, and algae) at number five and he concurred with the judges at putting Chef Jasper Cruickshank of Wild Blue Restaurant + Bar in Whistler’s dish (featuring shrimp, Dungeness crab, leeks, wakame, and geoduck clams) in first place.
•  Before that, Hum had a hankering for Brazillian cuisine. He discovered the ghost restaurant Sabor Brazil, which only accepts orders early in the week to be delivered or picked up Saturdays. He liked it. Over in Gatineau, he found Rio Açaí in Gatineau, a smoothie bar that specializes in bowls, crêpes, and – yes – smoothies made of açaí, a purple palm tree superfood.
•  In their biweekly Apt 613 Best Bites column, Alison Larabie Chase and Kiersten Vuorimaki recommended Afghani Mezbaan (‘luscious roasted eggplant chunks with onions, tomatoes, spices and a garlic yogurt drizzle were awesome’), Latin American Gooney's Arepas & Sandwich Works (‘The arepas are fresh, overstuffed, and delicious’), and Asian fusion Datsun (‘Get the dumplings. Do not share.’)
•   Mike Cohen in Montréal community newspaper The Suburban wrote about what’s on at Ottawa’s museums. But he also recommended breakfast at Ralph & Sons Diner on Carling and finished the day with prime rib at Big Rig Kitchen & Brewery. He notes that the brewpub also makes its own sodas, Lil’ Rig, which we didn’t know.
•  We don’t know if this is true or not, but the just-opened-last-week Bobino Bagel says that it is the first Montréal-style bagel joint in Gatineau. And yes, Gen X Radio-Canada viewers, it is named in tribute to the eponymous kids show. Bobino Bagel is located across the street from the Museum of History.

OTTAWA STATS

CITY HALL AGENDA

What’s going on at City Hall

Transit Commission
Thursday, February 8 at 9:30 am

• Presentation from the International Association of Public Transport
• Presentation - OC Transpo update – rail, bus, and Para Transpo
• Capital adjustments – Transit Commission
• Focused Fare Compliance Initiative

📋 Agenda
 

French Language Services Advisory Committee
Thursday, February 8 at 5:30 pm

• 4.1 2024-2026 Work Plan

📋 Agenda

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

🛫 Ottawa Airport

•  United Airlines is increasing its Ottawa business. Starting April, United will fly three times per day between Ottawa and Dulles International Airport in Washington. The airline currently has two flights per day to the US capital. United is the only US-based airline that flies here. (Mia Jensen in the Ottawa Business Journal)

🌲 Château Montebello

•  The Château Montebello is up for sale after China’s largest real estate bankruptcy. Opened in 1930, Château Montebello is the world’s largest log cabin and is managed as a luxury affair by Château Laurier owner Fairmont Hotels. Chinese real estate behemouth Evergrande, which bought the hotel in 2014, was forced into a US $245 billion bankruptcy by a Hong Kong court last week and must liquidate all its properties. (Andrew Duffy in the Ottawa Citizen) (Château Montebello website)

🛻 Convoy News

•  The proposed class action lawsuit against Convoy participants has survived a request to dismiss. The defendants – who include convoy coörganizers Tamara Lich, Chris Barber, and Pat King – wanted the judge to throw out the proposed lawsuit under Ontario’s strategic lawsuits against public participation legislation. Usually known as SLAPP, the legislation allows judges to throw out lawsuits that are intended only to drain the resources of defendants. The judge kept the proposed lawsuit alive on the basis ‘certain plaintiffs were subjected to what they contend to have been extreme amounts of noise, horn honking, incessant diesel fumes and other pollution, blockage of the streets and intimidation’.  (Aedan Helmer)

🥫 Donovan Burey’s Weekly Grocery Review

•  Every week, Donovan Burey goes through the flyers and publishes the best deals on Ottawa Reddit. Some highlights: pineapple $1.88 at Food Basics, ground chicken $3.00 per lb. at Maxi, and Beef brisket $5.44 per lb at Metro. (/Ottawa)

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MORE FROM THE OTTAWAN

• 🍺 Our Ottawa-Gatineau Craft Brewery Map

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• 🏆 The Best Of Ottawa Awards 2023

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• 🎧 Best Podcasts from Ottawa

EVENTS

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

Today

•  Ottawa Fringe Festival’s bilingual Undercurrents Festival brings its programme of new, original theatre productions from Ottawa and across the country to Arts Court, today through February 17.

•  Kanata Theatre’s production of the suspenseful drama Mauritius opens for a limited run.

•  It’s also opening night of Gladstone Theatre’s production of It Had to be You, running until February 17.

•  Poets Marjorie Silverman and Cara-Lyn Morgan give readings at Octopus Books this evening.

•  The Historical Society of Ottawa presents History of Ottawa’s Caribbean Community with author Dave Tulloch. The virtual presentation explores the lives of people from the Caribbean, who over the last 70 years have made their home in one of the world’s coldest cities.

•  Doors Open for Music at noon today continues with The French Harpsichord in Germany, with Ottawa musician Suren Barry delivering a programme of German composers influence by French music.

•   The NAC’s Hip Hop Theatre Festival continues with Twisted, a 21st century update on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

•  ByTowne Cinema: Run, Origin, Dawn of the Sea - 4K Restoration.

•  Mayfair Theatre: The Boy and the Heron, Mad Dog Morg 
  
  Gigs

•  Music Trivia. Red Bird

•  Jazz Nite with the Aardvark Big Band. Bar Robo

•  Beats & Boards. Art House

•  Prime Rib Big Band. Irene’s Pub Restaurant

•  Vocal Jams with the Gerri Trimble Trio. Montgomery Scotch Lounge

•  Phew Pkew Pkew, MVLL Crimes. Dominion Tavern
   

Tomorrow

•  It doesn’t seem possible that Candellight Concerts could get any more romantic, but they’ve created a swoon-worthy lineup of music fit for the season of love. The music, by such luminaries as Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, and Elton John (to name a few), will be performed by the FILMharmonic Orchestra. 6:30 pm at the Carleton Dmoinion-Chalmers Centre.
   
•  For the duration of Winterlude, Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau has become Snowflakes Land / Le Domaine Des Flocons, where you’ll find fun for the whole fam. Tube slides, a maze, face painting, and free hot chocolate are just a few of the activities you’ll find on site. Today from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The action continues through Sunday.
   
•  Kai Thomas’ best selling novel In the Upper Country won the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, was shortlisted for both the Govenor General’s Award for Fiction and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and is gaining more fans every week. As part of OPL’s Black History Month programming, Ottawa’s English Poet Laureate Jamaal Amir Akbari leads a conversation with Thomas about his work, and the audience will have a chance to win a copy of the novel. It’s happening for free in the Chamber at OPL Nepean Centrepointe branch, but you must register.
  
  If you can’t make it in person, the event will be live streamed on the OPL’s YouTube page.
   

•  ByTowne Cinema: Ru, Origin, The Teachers' Lounge

•  Mayfair Theatre: Freud's Last Session, Koyaanisqatsi
  
  Gigs

•  The Song is Queen! Avant-garde Bar

•  Elliott Brood, Loon Choir, Bastards and the Buzzards. Rainbow Bistro (limited tickets at the door)

•  SH-BOOM. Montgomery Scotch Lounge

•  Maïa Barouh. National Arts Centre
   

Friday

•  Hills Winter Music Festival brings Chamber music to unique spaces in the Gatineau Hills. Tonight’s opener is sold out but tickets for Saturday and Sunday are still available.
   
•  Divertimento Orchestra performs its Pops Concert at Woodroffe United Church tonight and tomorrow. The program features hits from Humperdinck, Gershwin, Ellington, and more.
   
•  Overflow Brewing hosts another Art Battle, where the creatives have 20 minutes to paint the winning artwork (according to the audience vote). It’s no holds barred live art.
   
•  Snowflakes Land / Le Domaine Des Flocons continues at Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau
   
• ByTowne Cinema: Tótem, Sometimes I Think About Dying, The Boy and the Heron, Drunken Cinema: The Wedding Singer
   
• Mayfair Theatre: Freud's Last Session, The Braid (aka La Tresse), Zombie, The Room
   
• Gigs
   
•  Lucky Songs feat. Libby Hortop and Bruce Enloe. Meow! That’s Hot (519 Bank St)
   
•  80s Dance party. House of TARG
   

•  Petr Cancura. Montgomery Scotch Lounge

•  William Prince with Kacy and Clayton. NAC Southam Hall

•  Phillippe-Audrey LArrue Saint-Jacques. Shenkman Arts Centre

•  Midnight Vesta, Quirks. Cafe Dekcuf

•  That’s Rich weekly comedy show. Pour Boy

Just Announced / Now Booking

• Are you sitting comfortably? Let’s begin. Ottawa Bagelshop’s Storytime is your weekly opportunity to sip coffee while listening as authors, actors, playwrights, and historians read out loud. Weekly readings range from fantasy novels to comic memoirs to cool histories of Ottawa and, on the Sunday of Family Day Weekend (February 18), kids will enjoy The Laughing Princess. The sessions, which are free to attend, begin at 2:00 pm each Sunday until March 24. at 1321 Wellington St. W.

• The NCC’s The Beautiful Capital event will explore abandoned early 20th century blueprints for Ottawa’s design, consider the correlation between philosophical principles and urban design in Washington, DC, and question where architecture itself is going. Free to attend in person or online but registration is required. Thursday February 22, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Urbanism Lab (40 Elgin St)

DEALS OF THE DAY

BUT, ONE MORE THING ...

Postmedia, owners of the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun have selected the 2024 winners of the National Capital Region’s Top Employers. If you work at one, let us know if the prize has been awarded correctly at ‘hello@theottawan.com’.

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