Méli-Mélo - November 2023
Carleton Place Collective
Kaitey and Kevin Cosgrove were looking for an office space for their real estate group in 2020 when they found the perfect spot for a coffee shop on Carleton Place’s historic Bridge Street. “We thought it would be a great spot to have our office… and we thought it would be a great spot for a coffee shop,” Kaitey explains. So they made it both. In February 2023, after renovations to the former vacuum shop, the couple opened the Foundry Collective & Coffee Bar, with the coffee shop on the main floor and a co-working space upstairs. The name is a nod to Carleton Place’s historic industry, the Findlay Foundry, the eponymous cast iron stovemakers.
Kaitey has taken on running the coffee shop while Kevin continues to work in real estate on the second floor. The couple was tired of always working from home, and wanted to offer an escape for others in the same boat.
“We want people to have community space, to work, to connect with friends,” Kaitey says, noting that folks are encouraged to bring their laptop and stay a while. “Carleton Place is one of the fastest growing communities in Canada,” Kaitey notes, “and there aren’t a ton of independent coffee shops.”
Initially, the plan was to outsource food for the café to local makers, but Melanie Boudens, who previously owned the plant-based restaurant Grow Your Roots in Kanata, came on as the kitchen manager. “She’d been the chef at one of our favourite restaurants,” Kaitey says, “so that’s been a great partnership.” The streamlined menu offers different breakfast sandwiches and toasts on Nat’s Bread, and a selection of baked goods. Micro-roaster Mighty Valley Coffee in Smiths Falls provides the coffee beans.
After a year and a half of challenging renovations, Kaitey is thrilled at how the space came together. Getting to know new regulars has been a highlight. “We’ve made a lot of friends in the community that we wouldn’t have known otherwise,” Kaitey says. She credits Foundry’s dedicated staff with a lot of the early success and for acting as ambassadors for the local producers highlighted in the coffee shop. “It sounds really cheesy,” she chuckles, “but it’s been even better than we thought it could be.”
Foundry Collective & Coffee Bar
122 Bridge St., Carleton Place
foundrycollective.ca | @foundry.cp
Stills Life
Made by distilling fermented grain, gin’s predominant flavour has to be juniper. Beyond that, it can be made with “any botanical under the sun,” Julian Bernard explains. The co-founder of Clawfoot Stills credits gin’s versatility — both as far as gin recipes go, and as an ingredient in cocktails — as the characteristic that drew him to the spirit early in his bartending career.
After almost a decade behind the bar, Bernard is realizing a long-time dream of being on the spirits production side of things. “I’ve been working on this project for about seven years,” he says, “just chipping away at it.” He found his business partner in friend Sam Boisvert, and after assessing the viability of purchasing their own distilling equipment and space, the two decided to go the contract distilling route. Adam Brierly, owner of Ogham Craft Spirits in Kanata (soon to be rebranded as SFR Distilling, see story on page 43) is “a very patient man and a good teacher,” Bernard says. Brierly agreed to take on the pair’s recipe and so Clawfoot Stills’ first batch was underway.
“I wanted to do something really different,” Bernard says of his gin recipe. Through years of manning the bar at Fauna, he had heard from too many drinkers who were gin-averse because of juniper’s piney flavour. “I didn’t want it to be too delicate or floral,” he explains, but at the same time, he was looking for a more subtle note from the juniper berries. In the end, he settled on a corn base — for smooth mouthfeel and “an earthy, mezcal vibe” — coriander, grains of paradise, ginger, angelica root and a hit of citrus with lemon, orange and grapefruit peels.
Bernard and Boisvert released the first batch of Clawfoot Stills gin in July 2023; a microbatch of 363 bottles that were half gone just three weeks after hitting the market. With a contract distilling licence, they’re only able to sell to licensees, though those licensees are also able to sell through their bottle shops. At the moment, drinkers can find Clawfoot’s gin in a handful of bars in restaurants in central Ottawa — “our friends are running some great spots,” Bernard says — and Bernard is hoping a larger second batch finds its way into more cocktails around the city. For home mixologists, Bernard attests to the gin’s ability to play well with others. “It’s meant to be a cocktail gin,” he says, “and it really makes a fantastic negroni.”
Clawfoot Stills
clawfootstills.com | @clawfootcraftspirits
Traveller's Delights
Rupinder and Jasvir Pal opened their first restaurant, Aahar the Taste of India, in 2007 at the corner of Churchill and Car - ling, followed by a second location in Alta Vista. Their son, Shivdeep, has now taken a hiatus from a career in finance to join them on this newest venture in the city’s West End, Raahi Indian Dhaba.
“In 2020, everything shifted,” Shivdeep explains, “consumer preferences changed, and we wanted to take advantage of that opportunity.” In contrast to the two Aahar locations, Raahi offers a quicker, more casual experience. Dhabas are roadside restaurants in India, typically providing hearty meals for truckers moving cargo through India and Pakistan. Shivdeep likens them to the onRoutes on Ontario’s highways while “raahi” means traveller or wanderer.
“This is a family endeavour,” Shivdeep stresses, noting that his parents must have felt like raahi wanderers when they immigrated to Canada in 1996. The Pals have drawn inspiration for Raahi’s menu and branding from visits back to India, when the family would stop to fuel up at dhabas on the drive from the airport to their home village.
Raahi’s focus is North Indian cuisine, and offers a variety of street food-style snacks such as pakoras, pani puri and fusion such as dhaba poutine as well as hearty meals from the tan - door oven and biryani. “We wanted to keep the menu tight, but still make everything in house,” Shivdeep says. The best seller so far is the Raahi Thali, a combo that offers a choice of three curries, with papadam, naan, rice, raita, salad, dessert and a drink.
Whether diners are stopping in for a quick samosa or a full meal, Raahi Dhaba aims to send everyone away with a belly full of comfort food.
Raahi Indian Dhaba
782 Eagleson Rd., Ottawa
raahidhaba.ca | @raahidhaba
Move Over Vivaan, Welcome Kathā
The elevated street food restaurant that Sarath Mohan Teega - varapu opened in the pandemic has been rebranded and rein - vented into a fine dining Indian restaurant with an eight-course surprise menu. The restaurant, whose name means “storytelling,” has a brigade of Cordon Bleu-trained chefs from India and Sri Lanka and Teegavarapu has challenged them all to create dishes that mean something to them. The chefs present their own dishes to the diners with the accompanying story of what they mean to them, usually it's something they grew up with. The typical surprise menu features vegetarian, meat and seafood dishes and there's a full vegan option. They can accommodate gluten and dairy allergies with either menu.
Kathā
225 Preston St., Unit 3, Ottawa | 613.600.9201
kathaottawa.com | @kathaottawa
Sandwich Affirmations
For Phoebe Phuong Ha, the bread is the most important part of a banh mi. When she moved to Ottawa from Vietnam as a student more than 10 years ago, she found the options available for her go-to sandwich weren’t quite hitting the mark. Often the bread was too similar to a French baguette; too hard, too chewy. “It’s supposed to be soft,” Ha emphasizes, “crusty outside, but soft inside.”
Ha was working as a financial analyst when the pandemic hit, and she watched several of her family members who worked in restaurants juggle changing regulations and situations. Inspired to help out, and finally tackle her quest for the perfect banh mi in Ottawa, Ha began baking fresh banh mi buns and making sandwiches for family and friends. Soon, the support within the Vietnamese community was such that Ha was feeling encouraged to take her sandwich venture to the next level, but it was a friendly brush with bylaw that gave her the final push.
As part of a clampdown on food businesses popping up in people’s homes during the early months of the pandemic, Ha received a visit from a bylaw officer who left her with a warning about potential fines and explained the rules around commercial kitchens. “I was very honest, of course,” Ha says, “but the officer told me it smelled so good I should open a restaurant!”
By 2021, she was able to quit her job and move BanhMiYes into a commercial kitchen in Kanata. In April 2023, Ha opened her storefront in Hintonburg and wound down operations at the Kanata kitchen to focus on her more central restaurant space. The sandwich menu includes a variety of meaty options such as the Classic (three types of Vietnamese hams, traditional pâté and mayo), a Halal “meatball lover” option and vegetarian options such as crispy tofu, clear noodles and sweet potato. All sandwiches come with housemade sauce, carrot pickles and fresh veggies. “One bite offers all the flavour,” Ha explains, “the buttery mayo, the balance of sweet and sour from the pâté and the pickles.” And, of course, the fresh bread; bread-baking still begins daily at 2 a.m. “Every morning it’s fresh; that’s my promise to the customer,” Ha says.
Pointing to the widespread appeal of the Vietnamese sandwich, Ha points out that banh mi was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in recent years. “I was so happy,” she laughs. “I love my product, a Vietnamese product, and I always want to give my customers the best sandwich,” she says. So when someone asks “Do you want a banh mi?” Ha hopes the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
BanhMiYes
1129 Wellington St. W. | 1380 Clyde Ave., Ottawa
banhmiyes.com | @banhmiyes
