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Wednesday, July 09 2025

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MEMBERSHIP STATUS:

⛅ High 28° Low 16° and partly cloudy ☀️ 5:24 am 🌛 8:52 pm

Hello Ottawa

In Today’s Edition

→ Gatineau declares the pileated woodpecker as its official bird

→ Wednesday’s Dining + Drinking update puts biryani and Portuguese tarts on the menu

→ Deals of the Day on Maison Marie Saint Pierre womenswear and Manitobah moccasins

📨 Inbox Update

Thank you to those who wrote to us about our change in emailers.

It seems like the truncating of the ottawan in Gmail has stopped, removing a big headache.

Some readers wrote that the type size of the ottawan on phones is way too small. We’ll try to do something about that but not today – changing type size depending on the size of the screen is modern day witchcraft and our cauldron is still brewing.

Others have said that Microsoft Outlook just has no respect for the width of the few images that we run. We made a change on that too, so we hope it works.

If you are seeing something unusual in your ottawan, please let us know at ‘hello@theottawan.com’.

– Martha and Darren

WEDNESDAY DINING + DRINKING UPDATE

🧀 Limited edition Beemster Grass Cheese from the north of Holland is now available at the Dutch Grocery Store on Merivale. 

 🧀 In other cheese news, if you're a fan of Back 40 in Mississippi Station, you can pick up a wheel of its locally-made, crumbles-like-Roquefort Calabogie Blue at Jacobsens on Beechwood. 

🍺 Beers and Bites ‘hoppy hours’ will be back at Vanier Museopark's Sugar Shack in August. Keep an eye on the organization's new bilingual website for details. 

🍕 Farmgate Cider is serving cheese ($13) or pepperoni ($15) hand-stretched 12" pizzas in in a wood-fired oven on select Saturdays this summer. Even better: the first Saturday is three days from now (July 12).

😋 In the Ottawa Citizen, Peter Hum proposes Wellington West as Ottawa’s ‘Most delicious street’, namechecking Stofa, Supply and Demand, Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli, Parlour Ottawa, Parma Ravioli, Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner, Petit Bill’s Bistro, Bar Lupulus, Amandine Pâtisserie, Absinthe, BanhMiYes Hintonburg, Westboro Subs, Phở Việt Noodle, Moo Shu Ice Cream & Kitchen, Courage Cookies, Tennessy Willems, Taqueria La Bonita, SuzyQ Doughnuts, Love and Electric Ice Cream, and Les Moulins La Fayette.

But Hum hasn’t given up his sweet treat obsession, taking a page from Eat the Strip, he found delicious Portuguese tarts at Lusa Bakery at a Hazeldean Road strip mall. Lusa Bakery opened in Kanata after closing in Gatineau and Hintonburg.

🍲 In Eat the Strip proper, Ameya Charnalia also went to a Kanata strip mall to find ‘some of the best biryani in the city’. At Hyderabad Biryani Point, Charnalia says ‘the mutton biryani was the star: flavourful, generous, and comforting without being heavy’.

🍖 Capital RibFest is cancelled this year due to construction at the Marion Dewar Plaza at City Hall, its normal home. 

STATISTICS OTTAWA

NUMBER

  • $27,576,000

  • – The amount of money collected by the Ottawa Hospital from its Civic Campus, General Campus, and Riverside Campus parking fees in the 2024-25 fiscal year, a $2 million increase over the previous period.

  • Josh Pringle at CTV

OTTAWAN (HONORARY) OF THE DAY

  • Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

  • The Danish actor – you know him as Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones – dropped by the city while filming the second season of his series, An Optimist’s Guide to Saving the Planet. 

  • We saw on Instagram that Coster-Waldau visited Highjinx, amongst other places, but those posts have now all been scrubbed from the Internet. 

QUOTE

  • “

  • There’s nothing like waiting for a fire truck while your son’s house burns to the ground, or waiting for an ambulance that is off to another call while your grandmother is dying. I hope and pray that no one else is ever in that position.

  • – Marie Tubby, speaking to North Algona Wilberforce Township council in opposition against the Kn¿where Festival, a three-day electonrica event that is expecting to draw 5,000 fans to Raven’s Knoll, off Highway 60 between Eganville and Golden Lake, in September.

  • Alex Lambert in the Eganville Leader

SPORTS

  • ⚽ canadian championship quarter final Atlético Ottawa 4 – York United 3 yesterday
  • ⚾ frontier Ottawa Titans 6 – Tri-City ValleyCats 1 yesterday

PLEASE SUPPORT THE OTTAWAN

the ottawan was launched in 2020 as the daily answer to the questions: What’s going on? What should I do? Where is somewhere good to eat?

Please consider joining the many other readers with a monthly, annual, or one-time donation to keep the ottawan on its mission.

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WHAT’S GOING ON AT CITY HALL

No more meetings this week.

Meetings and Agendas

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

🦜 Pileated woodpecker, step up and take your pride of place as the official bird of Gatineau. In a public poll, 4,182 residents chose the bird over competitors the wood duck, the white-breasted nuthatch, the cedar waxwing, and the belted kingfisher.  – CBC

↪ While the City of Ottawa does not have an official bird, listeners of CBC Radio Ottawa chose the black-capped chickadee as the unofficial municipal bird in 2015.

👨‍🍼 Fathers who are experiencing perinatal depression and anxiety will have new support from Ottawa Public Health this autumn. The free, nine-week, virtual cognitive behavioural therapy sessions are being offered through Public Health’s new resource, Parenting in Ottawa, in consulation with McMaster University. The details page is here. – Andre in the Barrhaven Blog

🧢 Ottawa Titans fans can watch 34 games of the remaining season on Rogers TV. This is the first time that Titans games have been televised. Fans can watch the selected matches on the Rogers Ottawa Community Channel. Most games will be live but a few will be tape-delayed. – Marco Vigliotti on Compass News

💥 It has been five days since the last pretty-much-only-in-Ottawa-phenomenon, vehicles crashing into buildings. In a two-car collision yesterday, one careened into an apartment building at 214 Metcalfe. The Ottawa Fire Service’s Structural Collapse Team was called in to ensure that the facade did not collapse. No one was injured. – Ottawa Fire Services Twitter

 

THE DAILY POLL

Would you call Ottawa a walkable city?

Yes

Yes, but only the original Ottawa

No

  • Previously in ottawan polls:

  • We asked, ‘Do you live in the Capital because you want to or because you have to?’

  • 60% Want to

  • 22% Have to

  • 18% Born here


  • Commentary

  • ▪️ “I moved from Vancouver to study at uOttawa, got a job with the government, and am stuck here until I retire because remote work is no longer welcome which is a shame for the future of the public service.”

  • ▪️ “IMO, the best city in Ontario.”

  • ▪️ “Would gladly move to a smaller town if possible.  Ottawa has become too expensive (housing), way too busy and crowded, has way too much violent crime and too many highrise buildings now.”

  • ▪️ “I moved to Ottawa for work 25 years ago. I could move back to the GTA–where I’m from–since the location-of-work requirements changed after the pandemic, but why would I want to? Ottawa is pretty great.”

  • ▪️ “No rentals available in the rural area where I’m originally from. Cannot afford a house. No family. Had to move to the city to get an available rental.”

  • ▪️ “Ottawa’s a wonderful place to live; and I knew it when I was a kid in the 1980s; Ottawa was the cool city with all the museums I loved. Now it’s so much more.”

  • ▪️ “I love my little city. My partner (also born here) not so much. Totally doesn’t cause friction.”

  • ▪️ “Just retired to golden triangle from GTA last September. Wanted a small Walkable city and love it! Nice people!”

  • ▪️ “I moved from Montréal to Ottawa over 37 years ago and I still love living here.”

  • ▪️ “Born here and want to live here. There are many great things about this city but for me it's the perfect place to raise a family.”

  • ▪️ “I would move to Vancouver to be with my daughter… but she doesn't have room for me and I cannot afford to live there!  I would be so GONE if I could!”

HISTORIC OTTAWA LOGO T-SHIRTS

T-shirt example

Ottawa Valley Ale T-Shirt

The Ottawa Journal began in 1885, edited by the legendary William Dafoe, later of the Winnipeg Free Press. It was closed in 1980.

Help support the ottawan by buying one of our historic logo t-shirts.

Shop for t-shirts

THE ROLLING THREE DAY CALENDAR

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

✳️ Means change from previous edition

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

  • 🆓 🏒 A new exhibition about Guy Lafleur opens at the Musée régional de l'Outaouais today. Learn not just about the hockey legend but his unwavering attachment to the Outaouais region. Guy Lafleur, from Dream to Legend runs until August 31 at Zibi's Panorama Space.

  • This afternoon at 1:00 pm, Music & Beyond Festival explores English music under the last Stuarts: Works of Locke, Blow, and Purcell. The program is performed by Les Boréades. At 2:00 pm, Phaeton Piano Trio plays Mozart, Saint-Saëns, and Schubert. This evening, The Silk Road Returns features a collaboration of arts, dance, and opera studios, who perform Chinese Music and Dance. 

  • There’s a night of music and comedy ahead at Anina's Café.

  • The 43rd annual HOPE Volleyball SummerFest pre-party heats up at 5:00 pm, all in preparation of tomorrow's game day and concert. 

  • You'll be on the edge of your lawn chair as Capital Pop-Up Cinema screens Speed on Sparks St.

  • Bluesfest lineup: Hozier headlines the RBC Stage. On the River Stage: The Dead South. Sarah Harmer plays Lebreton Stage. Catch the Claudettes at the Barney Danson Theatre. Get the party started with DJs Karyen and DJMC.

  • Felabration Shakara is Canada’s first officially licensed Felabration event, bringing a panel discussion, art, food vendors, and of course Afrobeat to SAW Centre.

  • ⚾ Ottawa Titans take on Québec Capitales. Tickets start at $13 for the game, which will feature tunes by Taylor Swift, a free friendship bracelet to the first 500 fans through the gates, and post-game fireworks. 

  • If the weather holds, A Company of Fools presents The Comedy of Errors in Patterson Creek from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

  • ByTowne Cinema: Materialists, Lumière, l'aventure continue, Dogtooth - 4K Restoration, Sinners

  • Mayfair Theatre: The Phoenician Scheme, Materialists, Scanners 

    Gigs

  • Wedding, Tea 'n' Oranges. Art House Café

  • Sussex. The Prescott

  • Rexford Drive. Rainbow Bistro

  • The Underground. House of TARG

  • Drag Bingo, Beyond the Pale Byward


JUST ANNOUNCED / NOW BOOKING

MADE IN CANADA DEALS OF THE DAY

Those with a bigger womenswear budget should check out the seasonal sale at Maison Marie Saint Pierre. This is the time to bag a bargain on high end work and occasion wear.

Save up to 40% on moccasins in the Manitobah Summer Sale.

BUT, ONE MORE THING ...

  • “What happens when artists, thinkers, and chaos-dreamers decide to hold up a mirror to their city and dare to look back at it?” 

  • That’s the question asked in the debut edition of Orange Cube, a new print magazine that has launched to shine a ‘a spotlight on the things we think are cool and interesting about the city from our own perspective’.

  • Copies are availble here for $30. – Olivia Grandy in Capital Current

  •  

RAPID RESPONSE QUALITY CONTROL

What did you think of today’s ottawan?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great

⭐⭐⭐ Satisfactory

⭐ Needs Improvement

 

 

THE END

Martha and Darren in action

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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