See the 8 day forecast at the ottawan weather

HELLO OTTAWA

The voting round is now open for the ottawan’s Best of Ottawa Awards 2023.

A few notes:

Higher volume We've had more nominations than we have ever received in the august four year history of these awards. We're impressed by the  knowledge that our readers have of Ottawa and our region, and humbled that you took the time to make your choices. Thank you for your submissions.

More Gatineau noms Also this year we've seen better representation from Gatineau shops and services, which is pretty cool. 

They're not really about the "Best" Despite the name, the ottawan’s Best of Ottawa Awards are not really to find the "best" of anything, but rather to uncover and highlight the many amazing independent businesses and people in the Ottawa Valley and the Outaouais. 

So, we'd love you to vote for your fave nominees, but we hope you'll also check out the others in each category over the next year. The voting round ends Friday November 3 at 11:59 pm. 

Prize draw Remember, if you include your email address in the voting round, you'll be entered into a draw to win $100 to spend at your favourite Ottawa or Gatineau business. 

Final note When you get to the media section, remember that we disqualified ourselves from any nominations, because that’s just the kind of daily local newsletter we are.

Click here to vote

– Martha and Darren

TODAY’S LINE UP

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

FORWARD the ottawan TO A FRIEND

OTTAWA HISTORIC LOGO T-SHIRTS

BUY A HISTORIC LOGO T-SHIRT

OTTAWA STATS

Sports

• 🏒 NHL Ottawa Senators 4 – Buffalo Sabres 6 last night

FOOD + DRINK UPDATE

•  Seven Tea Miles, formerly a popular food truck selling chai and Indian street snacks, has moved into brick and mortar premises on Richmond Road.
•  Bread By Us is baking Pan de Muerto, a traditional Mexican sweet bread, in honour of Day of the Dead. They’ll be baking the loaves on November 1, and you can order one starting at 9:00 am on Monday October 30.
•  Scary Dairy – erm, that is, the Merry Dairy – has released 13 Halloween-y flavours of ice cream. Choose from sweet, sour, and spicy categories. Some of our favourite ice cream names from their list are Chocolate Haunted Toffee, Scaramel Apple, and Cookie Monster. Get them at 102 Fairmont Drive, while supplies last.
•  Long Lane Farms in Renfrew County now makes sausages, and they're included in the Charcuterie Meat Sampler Box ($38.99).
•  Ameya Charnalia at Eat the Strip has discovered the diner delights of Bowman‘s Bar & Grill on Carling Avenue. He ordered a porkbelly clubhouse sandwich but it was the side dish of tater tot poutine that required a second round.
•  Jane Staples in Ottawa Life has five recommendations of sweet booze to enjoy while you steal your kid’s candy on Hallowe’en: Cave Spring Select Late Harvest Riesling VQA, Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage Port, Wayne Gretzky Estates Salted Caramel Cream Whisky, Nalewka Babuni Cherry Flavoured Wine,  and Ruffino Prosecco. (Links go to LCBO)
•  Also in Ottawa Life, Jordan Pizzuti seconds the Ottawa Citizen’s enthusiastic review last week of Kathā on Preston Street. Pizzuti says ‘RUN to your phones and book your reservations.’
•  Ottawa Tourism reckons that these are Ottawa’s Top 9 Wine Bars: Play Food & Wine, Beckta Dining & Wine Bar, 107 Fourth Avenue Wine Bar & Café, Vespa Wine Bar, Arlo Wine & Restaurant, Buyers + Cellars Tasting Room, 10 Fourteen, Bar Lupulus, and Abby’s Wine Bar.

Advent Calendars

2023 Advent Calendars are now on sale everywhere. We’ve compiled our 2023 list of calendars that are sold – and mostly manufactured – in Canada.

(Also, we’ve noticed that confusion is growing between Advent Calendars and the ‘12 Days of Christmas’, so here’s a quick summary of the difference between the two: according to the Christian calendar, Advent is the series of 24 days leading up to Christmas Eve, while the ‘12 Days of Christmas’ starts on Christmas Day and continues until Epiphany on January 6.

If your calendar has 24 things, enjoy them on the lead up to Christmas. If it has 12, it’s best to start enjoying them on Christmas Day. On the other hand, you do you.)

•   Purdy’s Chocolatier has a version of the classic little-windows-with-little-chocolates Advent Calendar of your childhood. Purdy’s also has a Vegan Chocolate Advent Calendar in a Christmas Tree shape.
•  London, Ontario’s Union Ten Distilling Co fills its Advent Calendar with 24 x 50ml craft spirits. It’s currently on sale for $175 (regularly $200) and shipping is free.
•   We highlighted La boîte à bonbons’ Advent Calendar last week, and it’s worth mentioning that this edition is available in a bundle that includes ornaments with candies inside as well as a Christmas stocking that is stuffed with candy. That’s a lot of bang for the buck, and it’s currently on sale for $99.99 (regularly $111.79).
•  Les Cadeaux Shop moi ça’s range of calendars includes those with chocolate, candy, bath bombs, hot chocolate, and tea. All are made in Quebec.
•  Over at Etsy, clever maker Knotted Sage has crafted a wooden tree with holes that you fill with miniature booze bottles that you purchase on your own. Once the empty Liquor Advent Calendar arrives, you can choose to paint it or leave it in its natural wood state. When you’ve filled it with miniature booze bottles, their lids become the tree’s “ornaments.” Like we said, clever.
•  Also at Etsy, you can download and print Advent Calendar boxes to fill with treats of your choosing. By Little Llama Shoppe.
•  Keep it classic with a Vintage Advent Calendar that contains no treats inside the doors, just Christmas scenes.

CITY HALL AGENDA

What’s going on at City Hall.

No meetings tomorrow.

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

🍞 Bread Factory

•  One hundred members of the  Enriched Bread Artists art collective may be renovicted over a $750-million high-rise development. Enriched Bread have had their studios in the former Standard Bread Company bakery on Gladstone since the 90s, but the building as now been sold and the new owner envisions 745 new housing units in three towers. The proposal does keep the building as a ‘cultural hub’ but there is no agreement with the artists. (Roger Egert at Hyperallergic) (Enriched Bread collective) (The Proposed Development)

🚌 Ottawa School Transportation Authority

•  The Ottawa School Transportation Authority is refusing to compensate parents whose children needed to find other transportation to get to school. The Authority, owned by the Ottawa Carleton District School Board and the Ottawa Catholic School Board says it needs the money it didn’t spend on drivers to spend on other drivers to be hired. (CBC)

🐕 Dog Parks

•  A new poll shows support for an off-leash dog park in Greely. One of Kitchissippi resident Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s campaign promises was to build three new dog parks. The City has surveyed residents and found support for a 350 metre space in Andy Shields Park. There are currently 11 dog parks in Ottawa. (Brandon Martin in Capital Current) (Give your view here)

⚡ Energy

•  A $650 million battery storage system has been proposed in West Carleton. Gatineau’s Evolugen – a division of Toronto’s Brookfield Renewable Power – plans a storage system that would hold 1,000 MWh of electricity on an 11 acre patch between Kinburn and Fitzroy Harbour. Presumably, it would buy cheap electrity from Hydro One at night and sell it back during the day at peak rates. If approved, it would open in 2028. (Evolugen)
  
  It’s behind West Carleton Online’s paywall but West Carleton ward councillor Clarke Kelly says the local community has been all over him about it.  An open house by the company will be held November 2 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the Fitzroy Harbour Community Centre, 100 Clifford Cambell St.

THE OTTAWAN T-SHIRT

BUY AN OTTAWAN T-SHIRT

MORE FROM THE OTTAWAN

• 🍺 Our Ottawa-Gatineau Craft Brewery Map

•  

• 🏆 The Best Of Ottawa Awards 2022

•  

• 🎧 Best Podcasts from Ottawa

EVENTS

Send us your event listings for consideration in the newsletter

Today

•  Bytown Museum is celebrating its 106th birthday. Admission is free.
•  The Ottawa International Writers Festival opens with a conversation between Shelagh Rogers and author Helen Knott. In her memoir Becoming a Matriarch, Knott explores grief and the true meaning of matriarchy.
•  Learn the basics of royal icing decoration in Scary Sugar, a 1.5 hour Sugar Cookie Class class by Capital Cookie Company. At the end you’ll get a box of cookies to enjoy at home. It’s all happening at Overflow Brewing Company, 2477 Kaladar Ave. $75 per person.
•  Cover band extraordinaire – and devoted gamers — F8-Bit plays Video Game Music Live: Halloween Edition at House of TARG. $10 cover.
•  The CBC’s The Debaters comedy show visits Ottawa again tonight. Meridian Theatres are Centrepoint.

Music

•  Jazz Nite with Jazzmin-T. Queen St. Fare

•  Whale and the Wolf, Varitones, Emi Jeen. Rainbow Bistro

•  Suicide Silence, Chelsea Grin. Bronson Music Centre

   

Tomorrow

•  Candlelight Concerts will be even more atmospheric than usual, given that the program is all spooky sounds of Halloween. Candlelight: A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics at Knox Church will take you through pieces like the theme from John Carpenter’s Halloween, the Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, even good old – and haunting – Tubular Bells (from The Exorcist).
•  Join a virtual lecture in the City’s Wildlife Speaker series about those major celebrities of Halloween: bats. Dr. Christina Davy of Carleton University will tell all about the bats that inhabit Ottawa.
•  Pumpkins After Dark continues its scary run at Wesley Clover Parks. Get inspiration for this year’s Jack O’Lantern as you view more than 10,000 carved pumpkins, watch pumpkins being carved in real time, and enjoy the tastes of the season.
•  The Ottawa International Writers Festival presents Waubgeshig Rice in conversation with Adrian Harewood. They’ll be discussing Rice’s new book Moon of the Turning Leaves. Also at the Festival tonight, a panel conversation about care, community and belonging with Governor General’s Award winner Darrel J. McLeod, Danuta Gleed Literary Award winner Zalika Reid-Benta and Booker Prize nominee Elaine Feeney.
•  The town of Carleton Place opens its doors this evening and every Thursday night until November 23. Fall in Love with Carleton Place invites everyone to explore the town's Heritage Downtown Shopping and Dining district. From 5:00 pm until late.
•  Have your costume judged by comedians in the Horrible Show at Calabogie Brewing’s Kanata taproom. Food and drink packages are available.

Music

•   Chopin for CHEO Charity Concert. Freiman Hall, Pérez Building, University of Ottawa

•  World Music: Huu Bac Quintet. Richcraft Theatre, Shenkman Arts Centre

•  Rocktoberfest Day 1. Rainbow Bistro

•  Kid G. Club SAW

•  Salt-o-ween: Halloween Drag Show. House of TARG.

•  LBM Trio. Montgomery Scotch Lounge

•  Jenn Grant. Babs Asper Theatre, NAC

•  Jean-Michel Pilc, Ira Coleman, Rich Irwin. Red Bird Live

•  Joey Cool and ReadyRockDee. Cafe Dekcuf

•  Open Mic. Stray Dog Brewing

•  Irene’s Blues Sessions. Irene’s Pub

•  Karaoke Thursdays. Atomic Rooster

   

Friday

•  ByWard Market is transformed as the 2023 Day of the Dead Festival takes over. There will be plenty to do, see, eat, and drink, and it’s billed as an experience for the entire family. Today through Sunday.
   
•  Stittsville Haunted Heritage Tours run every Friday and Saturday evening at 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm until November 11. Spooky! 1549 Stittsville Main St.
   
•  Out of the Box Fibre Artists are holding Fall Fling, a show that will double as a holiday shopping event.
   
•  Get down at Overflow Brewing’s Disco Inferno.
   

•  Pumpkins After Dark continues its scary run at Wesley Clover Parks. Get inspiration for this year’s Jack O’Lantern as you view more than 10,000 carved pumpkins, watch pumpkins being carved in real time, and enjoy the tastes of the season.

•  Let’s get rolling at the Hallowheel Roller Party at the Horticultural Building, presented by Ottawa Quad Rollerskating Club

Music

•  Dan Mangan. Bronson Centre Theatre

•  Dominique Fils-Aimé. Babs Asper Theatre, NAC

•  Geneviève Racette, Cinzia, and the Eclipse. Avant-Garde
   

Just Announced / Now Booking

•  The Canadian Fallen Heroes Foundation presents a one-night-only performance of Jake’s Gift, an award-winning one woman play by Julie Mackey about a WWII veteran who reluctantly returns to Juno Beach for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. The play is part of A Night to Remember, which will honour Canada’s fallen soldiers. Canadian War Museum.

DEALS OF THE DAY

BUT, ONE MORE THING ...

🐈 🐐 The animals are revolting

•  A wild African serval cat has escaped from a sanctuary near Killaloe, 170 km northwest of Ottawa. The cat is described as ‘spotted with pointed ears, weighing between 25 to 30 pounds’. Police say the animal should avoid humans unless threatened but is a danger to mid-sized livestock and pets. (Ottawa Citizen)
•  Forty four sheep have escaped from a Beckwith Township farm. ‘There was no obvious location where the sheep escaped’, said Ontario Provincial Police spokesman constable Joe Tereschuk. Do not let the serval cat know about this. (Ottawa Citizen)

THE END

the ottawan is written and edited every work day by Martha and Darren.

Is there something that Ottawa should know about? Email to us at hello@theottawan.com. We read every single comment. 

We’ll see you tomorrow.

Subscribe

Forward this edition of the ottawan to someone.

Missed an edition? View our archive here.

Historic Ottawa Logo T-Shirt shop