As part of our Think Global, Eat Local feature, we bring you the tastes of the Americas With files from Amélie Crosson, Cindy Deachman, Daniel Drolet, and Riva Soucie. Photography by Photoluxstudio.com – Christian Lalonde. Styling by Noah Witenoff. Illustrations by Colin White
THE AMERICAS
HAUTE OPTION
THE WHALESBONE OYSTER HOUSE
The world is their….
By Riva Soucie
Joshua Bishop got his “sea legs” in Toronto at Rodney’s Oyster House, a large, raucous restaurant that boasts thousands of oysters shucked each night. After he learned the ropes, he took off for a one-year trek across East Asia, scribbling business ideas in his journal as he went. By the time he returned to Ottawa in 2001, he was ready to start a catering company, but low funds had him working out of his parents’ basement. Didn’t seem to matter, though, because Bishop was focused on building a brand and a loyal customer base. His approach clearly worked. Open since 2005, The Whalesbone truly embodies the spirit of the new Ottawa, where local, creative expression is experiencing a revival in a way that forces even the critics to admit that we have something great going on in this city. The food is simply prepared and fresh, the wine and beer lean toward the local, and the busy bartenders favour the likes of Marley, U2, and Steve Earle.
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Ottawa Magazine Staff | December 14, 2010 at 9:15 am
Is fine dining dead? The city’s most buzzed-about restaurants are serving up a convivial atmosphere and refined dishes that take local and seasonal cooking to new heights. by Shawna Wagman, photography by photoluxstudio.com/Christian Lalonde
In 2007, Frenchman Yannick Anton took over the reins as executive chef of Le Cordon Bleu’s restaurant, Signatures. That same year the CAA/AAA recognized it as a five-diamond restaurant — the highest and most coveted symbol of excellence for fine dining in North America. Just one year later the Sandy Hill crown jewel shut down for what was billed as a mini-facelift. And, like the secretive French woman who returns from her weekend getaway looking decades younger, the acclaimed culinary classroom emerged with little fanfare in November 2009 with new radiance, a new attitude and, judging by the new clientele, fewer wrinkles. It had a newfangled name as well: Le Cordon Bleu Bistro @ Signatures. With its sunny yellow walls, contemporary tableware sans tablecloth, and servers empowered to make wine suggestions as well as small talk, Signatures bid adieu to its seven-course marathon meal; its dark, sombre dining room; its sommelier and 40-page wine list; and the decadent white-glove and silver-bell service. Gone is the $45 main course, and in its place, there’s a three-course prix fixe lunch menu for $25.
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Ottawa Magazine Staff | November 29, 2010 at 8:00 am
The top 10 places to eat right now. Plus an insider’s guide to 16 additional must-try eateries. by Chris Knight, photography by photoluxstudio.com/Christian Lalonde
Scientists will tell you that which separates us from all the other beasties is the opposable thumb and conceptual thought. I think that what really makes us different from your average bear is that we cook our food. I braise, therefore I am.
I sweet potato, therefore I yam (sorry, couldn’t help myself). There is a direct anthropological link between when we began to char and when our brains got bigger and our jaws got smaller (easier to chew and digest a sabre-toothed bunny rabbit once it was spit-roasted and served up with a side of frog). The other big whoop on the evolutionary timeline was when we stopped chasing migratory animals and settled down to grow stuff. Give up your nomadic ways, and suddenly you’re building huts to last, latrines, Pilates studios, row housing and suburbs and eventually adding condos with fees. Apparently, maize was all the rage back then: easy to grow, easy to store, lots of serving options. See where I’m going? It’s all about the food, baby. Moses might have spoken to a burning bush, but what he really said was “Who wants theirs medium-rare?”
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Chris Knight | May 10, 2010 at 9:00 am
A 16-ounce New York steak with mashed potatoes and vegetables from Sterling (Photograph by photoluxstudio.com/Christian Lalonde)
Mmmmm… steak…red meat. Like fish, a good hunk of beef deserves to be served almost naked — no spices other than salt and pepper, no sauces (or on the side). Great meat and great heat mean carnivore red light at night. It continues to amaze how an elegant and sweet rib steak can be reduced to shoe leather by a wanker grill boy.
Here are the three places you should go for mooo:
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Chris Knight | May 8, 2010 at 3:27 pm
The dining-out biz in Ottawa has grown to the wonderful point that not every place fits the standard definition/structure we usually assign to restaurants. Here’s a bunch of places that don’t fit the strict ligature of restaurant classification, but that you really should check out.
LE CAFÉ: Chioggia and golden beet root (Photograph by photoluxstudio.com/Christian Lalonde)
107 Fourth Avenue Wine Bar
Situated in the middle of the tame and predictable Glebe, bursting with mediocre pubs and Indian restaurants, Fourth Ave. is a great place to go for a cocktail or an exceptional glass of wine in a chill environment. Food? Go for lunch; go for a light dinner. The small steak frites is the best deal in town, and the daily specials are imaginative. 107 Fourth Ave., 613-236-0040, 107, 107fourthavenue.com
Murray Street Kitchen Charcuterie Wine
The best charcuterie in town awaits, paired with smash cheeses and excellent pickled sides. Awesome patio and crazy mojitos. 110 Murray St., 613-562-7244, murraystreet.ca
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Chris Knight | May 8, 2010 at 9:27 am
Les Brasseurs du Temps has ambitious plans to serve up beer and history in equal measure by Amélie Crosson
Thirst for knowledge: Marc Gaudin (above right) is passionate about bringing alive the brew history of the region — which is why he has big plans to upgrade the status of Les Brasseurs du Temps from microbrewery and restaurant to microbrewery, restaurant, and museum. Photographs: Marc Fowler/Metropolis Studio
When Marc Gaudin and his partners opened Les Brasseurs du Temps last summer, the ghost of Philemon Wright must have gasped, “It’s about time.” After all, it was here at the corner of Papineau and Montcalm (formerly Brewery Street) on the banks of Brewery Creek that Wright himself decided in 1821 to convert his distillery into a brewery to satisfy the hordes of thirsty English and Irish labourers who descended on the area to build the Rideau Canal. Almost 200 years later, Gaudin and his partners hope their modern brew hall, housed in a stone heritage building located on the same site, will draw in modern-day hordes of thirsty patrons in search of fine microbrews, good food, and history.
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Amélie Crosson | April 8, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Inspired by a trio of well-known public works of art, three foodies design their own masterpieces by Melanie Scott
When it comes to public art, the capital’s reputation could, for the past 150-plus years, best be described as lacklustre. Same goes for its food. Just a few decades ago, you’d have been hard- pressed to find more than a few patinated bronzes of dead white guys scattered around our parks and deep-fried zucchini was de rigueur. But skip forward to today, and suddenly we find ourselves on both the artistic and culinary maps — local masterpieces of art and food abound, enlivening our public spaces and dinner plates. Which got me thinking — what if one were to marry the two creative pursuits?
“If dishes of food are works of art,” writes Elizabeth Telfer in Food for Thought, “then food is an art form.” So take three foodies. Show each a standout work of art. And see what happens.
Masterpiece theatre: (left to right) Marc Lepine of Atelier, Kris Hamilton of Thyme & Again, and Yannick Anton of Signatures design and build their own food-based artistic creations after viewing three well-known local works of public art (Photography by photoluxstudio.com/Christian Lalonde)
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Melanie Scott | October 20, 2009 at 2:49 pm
