Méli-Mélo May 2024
Looking Elsewhere
Thr33’s Co. Snack Bar opened on Bank Street in the spring of 2020. “We’re the definition of pandemic babies,” Tyler Da Silva chuckles. Despite the slew of pandemic-related challenges, Da Silva, along with his colleagues and friends Ian Wilson and Tam Auafua, found themselves ready to add to their plates after a few years of running their restaurant in the Glebe.
While Thr33’s Co. focuses on a creative, snacky menu and specializes in gin, the trio wanted to try a different concept. Wilson, who manages the front of house, had noticed that diners were always enthusiastic about Da Silva’s plant-based dishes at Thr33’s Co. “We felt that there was a need for not just a plant-based restaurant, but one that was geared towards a really fun wine program as well,” Wilson explains.
Their second restaurant, St. Elsewhere, opened in October 2023 on Somerset Street in Chinatown and has been serving up lunch and dinner along with a growing wine list and cocktails. “I’ve always had fun with food,” Da Silva says, explaining that beyond everything being plant-based, the menu is not constrained to one particular cuisine or style. It includes familiar dishes such as carbonara and gnocchi, that have been given a St. Elsewhere twist. “We’re not beholden to the idea of plant-based food being one thing in particular,” Da Silva says, “I think it will surprise people.”
St. Elsewhere
826 Somerset St. W., Ottawa
stelsewhere.ca | 343.588.1537 | @st.elsewhere.613
Kourtney Morin has had to contend with their desserts truly looking too good to eat. While selling cookies at a market, they recall hearing a passerby tell their partner that the cookies looked so good there was no way they would taste good, too. Morin insisted that these non-believers sample a taste. “They ended up coming back to buy five cookies,” Morin remembers.
When their son was diagnosed with autism, Morin began selling their baked goods to help supplement their income and pay for their son’s therapy bills. Then the pandemic hit, and Morin quit their job as a data analyst to care for their son full-time. At that time, the baking side hustle became viable as a full-time job that would offer more flexibility to devote time to their family.
“I’ve been baking my entire life,” Morin says. They went to culinary school just over a decade ago and trained in pastry as well. “Decorating cookies is therapeutic for me,” they explain. Morin launched five years ago as “Hello Dolly Pastries” and got their start at Comiccon in Montreal. In August 2022, they opened their storefront in Hintonburg. Due to Morin’s experience with customers assuming that such colourful
creations couldn’t be edible, a cheeky notice on the shop wall states, “Yes, they’re cookies. For humans.”
Morin still brings their baked goods to Comiccons in Montreal and Ottawa, they’re a regular vendor at the 613flea markets and they take wholesale orders. They’ve also started offering cookie-decorating workshops.
Cookie flavours include vanilla, churro, chocolate, as well as seasonal additions, and Hello Dolly also sells a variety of cakes, meringues, and vegan baked goods. Along with the colourful cookie designs, Morin and their team come up with — think Pokémon and Super Mario characters, Taylor Swift-inspired friendship bracelet cookies and a series of 90s nostalgia cookies — the shop accepts custom orders for just about everything. A recent custom order requested a dinosaur construction worker in space. “We get random requests and I absolutely love it,” Morin laughs, “the more unhinged the better.”
Hello Dolly Pastries
992 Wellington St. W., Ottawa
hellodollypastries.ca | @hellodollypastries | 613.986.2132
Lebanese Breakie in the West End
Samah Said and her long-time friend Fadia Zakaria were looking to offer “something different” in Kanata. In the summer of 2022, the two decided to combine their business and culinary skills to serve bright and fresh Middle Eastern breakfast spreads at Tirweka.
The menu draws from both of their backgrounds — Said is Palestinian-Canadian and Zakaria is Lebanese-Canadian — but also their favourite dishes from the Middle East more broadly. “We’re in a multicultural country, we want everybody to feel welcome,” Said says. With their business, the co-owners also wanted to be able to help immigrant women. Zakaria leads the small team in the kitchen, made up primarily of women who are newcomers to Canada and are working their first jobs in Ottawa.
Some of the most popular dishes include the fatteh, a hearty bowl of fried pita bread pieces topped with chickpeas, a garlicky yogurt with tahini, pomegranate arils and toasted nuts. For easy sharing, there is the Tirweka Traditional Platter with labneh, halloumi and majdouli cheese, with olives, fresh vegetables and warm pita bread. There are Middle Eastern pies with za’atar and falafel, as well as baklava and almond cookies to pair with Turkish coffee. The kunafa, a dessert of crunchy spun pastry around soft cheese, is a recipe passed down from Said’s grandmother. It’s a laborious dessert, and, like most things at Tirweka, is made from scratch. “Everything we make, you need to give it love and do it the right way,” Said explains.
At the centre of the spacious seating area is a tree of pink blossoms that Said made herself. “In the Middle East, for breakfast, you always sit outside between the flowers and the trees,” she says, explaining that she wanted to recreate that kind of ambiance, with airiness and a cosy welcome. That welcome has been reciprocated by the community with guests arriving from as far as Montreal and Toronto. “From day one, people loved the idea and supported us so much,” Sadia says.
Tirweka
473 Hazeldean Rdl, Unit 9, Ottawa
tirweka.com | 613.836.1777 | @tirweka
Main Street Market Season
The Ottawa Farmers' Market (OFM) is introducing another outdoor farmers’ market this season. The Main Street Farmers’ Market, in Old Ottawa East, will be the organization's fifth market location — added to the existing roster of producer-only markets in Westboro, Barrhaven, Orleans and its largest at Lansdowne Park.
Established as a non-profit in 2007, the Main Street Farmers' Market was previously run by a dedicated volunteer board and had to contend with two relocations due to construction. Under OFM’s management, the Main Street market will relocate once more to the newly constructed Grande Allée
Park just off of Main Street itself. The park offers anchors for vendors’ canopies and is lined by mature leafy maples.
Most of the vendors from past seasons are expected to return to the new location, along with some additional vendors and programming. The season is tentatively scheduled to kick off May 11, and will run every Saturday until the end of October.
Main Street Farmers' Market
Grande Allée Park, 185 Main St., Ottawa May 11 to Oct. 26, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
ottawafarmersmarket.ca | @ottawafarmmkt
Piles of Peonies
Who can resist the abundant beauty and the exploding joy of a peony in season? All those ruffled petals, the vibrant pinks, soft cream colours and moody purples signal the real beginning to the growing season in Canada, be that flowers or vegetables. Peonies scream ‘Spring has sprung.’
Last year, Jess Weatherhead, co-owner of Roots and Shoots Farm in Sainte-Cécile-de-Masham, Que., launched her first peony festival.
“There’s just something about a peony, they’re so outrageous and puffy,” Weatherhead says, “there’s something magical about them and they make people happy.” Weatherhead has planted more than 1,000 peonies, for which she hopes to develop a robust wholesale market, but for now, she’s happy to sell direct to consumer as well.
On the middle weekend of June, close to the summer solstice, Weatherhead threw a party. With peony-themed dress up, children’s activities, music and food, Roots and Shoots celebrated all things Paeoniaceae. Customers strolled the fields, gathering huge bouquets as they went. The festival was four years in the making. Peonies typically shouldn’t be harvested for the first couple of years, lightly thereafter and it’s not until year five that they reach full maturity. “They’ve been more work than I anticipated,” says Weatherhead, who, like every gardener, fights a constant battle against weeds. Peonies are also subject to botritus, a nasty disease that turns leaves and buds brown. This means she must remove all leaves from the field in the fall, instead of allowing them to rot into the ground. That’s a huge job on a market garden farm where every other fruits and vegetables are also screaming for love and care. But like the U-pick flowers Weatherhead also grows, “I can’t seem to stop. Flowers are my side passion. They’re a little indulgence.”
The Peony Festival at Roots and Shoots Farm
Saturday, June 15, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Admission is $5 (includes a free peony stem), Kids are free
115 Ch. de la Beurrerie, Sainte-Cécile-de-Masham, Que.
rootsandshootsfarm.com | @rootsandshootsfarm
