Owner Michael Cox, top right, stands inside The Scottish and Irish Store, the two-storey Ottawa destination with The British Food Market on the ground floor offering “virtually thousands of different food products” from the UK and Ireland.

When Michael Cox opened The Scottish and Irish Store in 2003, his focus was on heritage items from across the pond, not groceries. Knitwear, Celtic jewellery, kilts and tartans filled the original shop in Bells Corners. After a couple of years in business, he began offering food items. “All of a sudden, we had a lot of customers coming in because of the food. We expanded [the food section] very, very quickly,” Cox explains.

Now, more than two decades later, the business has evolved into a two-storey destination in Ottawa’s west end, with The British Food Market occupying the ground floor. Cox consolidated two shop locations and a separate warehouse into one address in 2024. The 10,000 square-foot warehouse contains “virtually thousands of different food products that we bring in from the U.K. and Ireland,” he says.

During COVID, Cox saw a massive boost in online sales, especially for food items he ships across the country and the continent. “People who are second or third-generation descendants of Scottish or Irish immigrants still want to try the stuff that their parents and grandparents introduced them to,” Cox says. For Ottawa’s expat communities — and for anyone with an affinity for biscuits, bangers or black pudding — the shop has become a culinary anchor.

When it comes to haggis, the shop sees sales increase in November for St. Andrew’s Day on Nov. 30, but January is really the star of the calendar. Robbie Burns Day on Jan. 25, the annual celebration of Scotland’s national poet, has become the store’s biggest food-centric holiday.

“We normally sell about 300 to 400 pounds of haggis,” Cox says. The store stocks traditional haggis “balls” in one-to-three-kilogram sizes, as well as oven-ready trays of sliced haggis ideal for hosting a crowd. Everything is frozen, and Cox stresses the importance of patience in the preparation. “It has to be fully thawed,” he explains, “sometimes people don’t wait long enough and the core is still frozen, and it will blow up… then all of a sudden you’ve got a haggis soup in your pot of boiling water.”

Cox reassuringly emphasizes that cooking haggis, though, is very simple and should be served alongside neeps and tatties (rutabaga and potatoes) for a traditional dinner. The store provides cooking instructions and a pamphlet to guide those hosting their own Robbie Burns dinners. It includes the Address to a Haggis, the poem in Scotch-English meant to be read before serving the haggis, as well as the order of some humorous toasts and readings.

Cox himself is very fond of the national dish. For those squeamish about the contents of haggis, he offers clarification: “Everybody thinks it’s the sheep intestines, but it’s not. It’s the offal: the heart, lung and liver.” (Canadian regulations don’t allow consumption of sheep lung, so local haggis uses only heart and liver.) The offal is combined with oats, suet and a mixture of spices. Leftovers work well for a Scottish-inspired breakfast plate, Cox says.

Burns suppers have become a philanthropic tradition for Cox as well. This winter marks the 14th year of the store’s charity Rob-bie Burns Dinner in support of the Roger Neilson Children’s Hospice, hosted with radio station Live 88.5. Before dinner, there’s a whisky experience and the evening includes Highland dancers and pipers. “In the last 13 years, we’ve raised $200,000, and we always sell out,” he says.

On top of giving back to the community, these celebrations are a way of sharing culture while honouring the lasting legacy of Burns himself. “A lot of people don’t know that much about him. You find out just how influential he was to the world, even today,” he says, noting that even Bob Dylan has named Burns as a key artistic inspiration.

Beyond Burns-night fare, The British Food Market’s shelves are lined with everything from Welsh sausages and steak and kidney pies, to U.K.-imported flour, crisps, teas, marmalades and the famous Walker’s shortbread. “We go through cases of biscuits, it’s our biggest-selling category of products,” Cox says.

For many shoppers, the experience is about more than a grocery list. Nostalgic flavours connect to family memories and kilt fittings can get emotional. “It’s not like just going in and buying a suit,” Cox says of clan tartan shopping. “Sometimes people get pretty choked up.”

Whether one is Scottish by blood or simply curious, The Irish and Scottish Store offers a warm invitation into tradition. For Cox, whose parents immigrated to Canada from Edinburgh and who has made many trips back to visit family in Scotland, sharing those traditions feels meaningful. “That’s what we wanted to do: for people to see a little bit more about the different cultures, and have fun doing it,” he says.

The British Food Market The Scottish and Irish Store
1051 Baxter Rd., Unit 22A, Ottawa
scottishandirishstore.com | @scottishandirishstore