Méli-Mélo - March 2024
Find Us Around the Block
After a little more than a decade in its original home, the Around the Block Butcher Shop (ATB) team is moving, well, around the block. “We’re over the moon,” co-owner David Wallace says, noting that the new location will offer about three times more space. ATB co-owner Chantel Balla, echoes that enthusiasm, noting that the extra space will allow the team to expand its offerings, making use of skills and interests that were constrained in the smaller butcher shop.
The move comes with a minor rebrand, with “market” being added to the business name. The market moniker gives the ATB team added flexibility and more room to grow. “As the food landscape changes, we can change with it,” Wallace says. Along with the butcher shop and grocery items, the team is gearing up to reintroduce lunch offerings, with sandwiches, salads and soups. With dedicated kitchen space, there will be vegetarian and vegan options and coffee service, too. “We really want to bring forward these bright, fresh, tasty options,” Balla says, “and all made with love, definitely.”
The expanded space offers some notable functional perks as well. There will be a customer washroom, more parking and the shop will be accessible. “Staff are ecstatic that we’re getting a dishwasher,” Wallace chuckles.
ATB’s first home on Cobden Avenue has housed butcheries for 50 years, and that legacy will continue; Wallace estimates that he and Balla have sold half of their equipment to new tenants who plan to open a halal butcher shop. When Wallace and Balla were looking to expand the business, staying in the neighbourhood was “non-negotiable,” according to Wallace. He grew up in the Centrepointe area, and now the shop is growing there, too.
Around the Block Butcher & Market
117 Centrepointe Dr., Ottawa
aroundtheblockbutcherandmarket.ca | 613.820.3258 | @atbbutcherandmarket
Split Tree Branching Out
For as long as Split Tree Cocktail Co. has been in business, a bricks-and-mortar space had been on founder and owner Steve Morrier’s mind. And it finally happened last year in Westboro. Split Tree recently celebrated 10 years in business, and a little more than a year in its physical location. “There’s a European courtyard feel to it,” Morrier says of the space, “it’s a hidden gem.”
The shopfront is a home for the cocktail and soda mixes that Split Tree has been distributing nation-wide for years, but also for an array of barware, glassware, bitters, garnishes, charcuterie, snacks and a burgeoning bottle shop. Morrier wants shoppers to be able to get everything they might need for home entertaining in one stop.
The other big addition to Split Tree’s space is workshops. “When we first started, we were really just shooting from the hip,” Morrier laughs, “but the workshops have exploded.” Offering private, public and corporate education sessions, Morrier hired experienced bartenders Jesse Baillie and Aryn Pepper to lead a spate of cocktail workshops. Ranging from nonalcoholic mixing workshops to Japanese cocktails, spiritspecific sessions and whatever other themes Baillie and Pepper dream up, workshops allow guests to get hands-on cocktailing experience.
Pepper, a trained sommelier, is also leading the charge on Split Vines, a wine education and tasting series as Split Tree grows its retail wine offerings. After working for years in the restaurant industry, Pepper is on a mission to help wine drinkers relax. “You’re allowed to like what you like,” she says, noting that she encourages people to let go of preconceived notions they may have about certain wines or wine regions. She’s keen for guests to expand their horizons and, like Split Tree, branch out a little bit.
Split Tree Cocktail Co.
98 Richmond Rd., Unit J, Ottawa
splittree.ca | 613.722.3598 | @splittreemixers
The Charm of Ramen
Stella Lee enjoyed a lot of ramen growing up. Originally from South Korea, which has its own unique ramen culture, Lee and her family have always been fascinated by Japanese ramen.
“We were planning to open a family ramen restaurant,” Lee explains. “We each learned a section [of the business].” Stella’s mother Sungeun Kang went to a ramen school in Tokyo, while Lee did her ramen research across Japan in Sapporo, Hakata and Tokyo. Lee’s brother Joshua had honed his skills in the kitchen of ramen restaurants in Toronto for more than 10 years, while her other brother Harrison went to business school. “We tried to make an Avengers team to open the restaurant,” Lee laughs, “we prepared for years for this.”
The family opened its ramen restaurant, Jinsei Ramen, in downtown Ottawa in March 2023. The shio (sea salt) and shoyu (soy sauce) broths, made from scratch daily, take up to 12 hours to make. Along with well known chicken and pork broth-based ramen, Jinsei offers umami rich clam and chicken broth. “Japan is surrounded by the sea, and there’s seafood in everything,” Lee says, noting that the clam broth is a family favourite. Vegetarian ramen features a creamy soy-milk base with fried tofu nuggets, and there are eggfree noodles for vegans. The family is looking to expand the menu with a miso ramen series soon.
The group has been pleasantly surprised by the number of Ottawans who are ramen enthusiasts. From the tare sauce seasoning and the aromatic oils that float at the top of the bowl, to the richness of the broth in the bottom, Lee notes that Jinsei guests enjoy a progression of flavours. “People fully enjoy it until the last drop,” she says. “That’s the charm of ramen.”
Jinsei Ramen Restaurant
2nd floor, 300 Laurier Ave. W., Ottawa
@jinseiramen | 613.563.1111
How the Sausage Gets Made
Learn how to make sausages from the folks at Valley Sausage Co. while enjoying a pint at Spark Beer or Stray Dog Brewery. Led by the husband and wife duo behind the Valley Sausage Co., Will Thorne-Morris and Tamara Saslove, the 90-minute workshop will take participants through mixing, piping and spinning their own sausages. Tickets include the instruction, a beer and the four pounds of sausage participants will make to take home.
Valley Sausage Co.
@valleysausage | valleysausage.com/collections/workshops
Spark Beer | 702 Somerset St. W., Ottawa
March 2,16, 23, 30, April 7 and May 11, 19, 25
Stray Dog Brewery | Lacolle Way, Unit 4, Ottawa
April 2 and May 7, 28
A Bread Hobby-Turned-Vocation
Robert Thomas had been making sourdough bread long before it became a top pandemic-lifestyle hobby. “Now there’s millions of YouTube and TikTok videos on how to do it... [before] you kind of just had to screw up a lot of loaves figuring out how to do it,” Thomas laughs.
Thomas moved his sourdough hobby from Toronto to Belleville five years ago and began sharing it with friends. Not long after, folks were keen to buy loaves and soon Thomas and his wife, Sarah Williams, started baking in a commercial kitchen to supply local restaurants. In 2021, they opened their own bakery, Small Scale Bread. At first, they offered their breads and simpler treats such as cookies, muffins, cakes and bars. Then Williams, who is also a self-taught baker, began adding savoury and sweet laminated dough pastries — flaky croissants, danishes, pain au chocolat, to name a few — to the bakery’s offerings.
The couple offers different loaves each day of the week, so regulars can plan their visits according to their favourite type of bread. Thomas’ favourite is a hearty "Seedy Danish” rye bread, while the perennial bestseller is the classic “Country White Sourdough.” Another popular offering is Small Scale’s sourdough pizza. “It’s almost like a focaccia — it’s really thick, so you get to enjoy the bread component a bit more,” Thomas explains.
To wash it all down, Small Scale offers drip and pour-over coffee, and an impressive array of natural wines and local craft beers to take home from their bottle shop. Thomas explains that their non-bread offerings have grown as the two set out to provide products they like, but couldn’t easily find in Belleville. “Sourdough, natural wine, coffee…it’s all fermented. They’re all in the same family, I think,” Thomas says.
Small Scale Bread
14 N Front St., Unit C, Belleville
smallscalebread.scvr.co | 613.707.3845
