Méli-Mélo September 2022
The Sourdough Train
Inspired in part by the sourdough bread-baking craze that came with the first wave of pandemic lockdowns, Liliana Piazza was on a mission to create something unique to Ottawa with the Bagelshop’s sourdough bagels. The shop is now home to the country’s only wood-fired sourdough bagel. “These bagels are like a New York-style bagel and a Montreal-style bagel had a baby,” Piazza says. “They are bigger, chewier, maltier and have a slight tang.”
The sourdough bagels were in development for months before their launch end of April 2022. Just as enthusiastic home bakers may have done when they hopped on the sourdough train, the baking team at the Bagelshop took many weeks to tweak the recipe, establish a schedule for the sourdough starter and adjust the baking conditions to come up with what Piazza calls “an amazing bagel.” Having taken over the Bagelshop from her father just three years ago, Piazza was keen to make her mark with something unique in the bagel world. The sourdough bagels have been a hit, with “full-on converts” from the classic bagels to the sourdough edition. “We have decades of tradition and knowledge in bagel-making and I wanted to take that expertise and apply it to something new,” Piazza explains.
Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli
1321 Wellington St. W. | 613.722.8753
ottawabagelshop.com | @ottawabagelshopanddeli | Open daily, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
A Humming Café
Just in time for the 10th anniversary and the opening of a new factory and shop, Hummingbird Chocolate has added a café to its sweet Almonte home. It’s a plan that’s been brewing for the chocolate-makers for the last five years or so. With the new factory featuring large windows into the production space and information about cacao’s origins and Hummingbird’s chocolate-making process, “the café is another reason for people to visit, to stay and enjoy the really unique experience of a bean-to-bar chocolate factory,” co-founder Erica Gilmour says.
A challenge familiar to almost evryone who has undertaken a construction project during the pandemic, there were delays related to supply-chain issues, but it was worth the wait for chocolate lovers. They “seem to love the space — especially the smell of fresh chocolate wafting throughout,” Gilmour enthuses. Hummingbird plans to add more indoor seating this autumn, as well as seasonal flavours for its popular chocolate drinks. For those looking to experience a sampling of its chocolate profiles, Gilmour calls the single origin chocolate flight a must-try.
Hummingbird Chocolate Factory, Store & Café
476 Ottawa St., Almonte | 613.801.0357
hummingbirdchocolate.com | @hummingbirdchocolate
Picking Pumpkins
Pumpkins punctuate the end of the u-pick season, but don’t despair, there are plenty of farms where you can pick the plump produce (although it’s more of a bend-your-knees- to-save-your-back kind of harvest than the light and breezy berry-picking of summer.) From Millers’ Farm and Market (Manotick), Proulx Farm (Cumberland), Cannamore Orchard (Crysler) and Log Cabin Orchard (Osgoode), there are plenty of options.
The Cherry on Top
Over the years of making her maraschino cherries, Sara Pishva had tried making other products with the leftover sour cherry juice, but was never satisfied enough with the results to add it to her lineup of Top Shelf Preserves. But she didn’t want to waste the precious by-product. Instead, she sought out someone who could use it. “I was giving it away to lots of businesses hoping something would stick, and it finally did with the County Bounty,” she explains. Dodie Ellenbogen’s soda company in Napanee uses locally grown Ontario fruits, and now uses the sweetly tart juice to make its cherry soda. Pishva gifts Ellenbogen the cherry juice, who in turn sells Pishva the soda at wholesale price to sell at the Top Shelf Preserves shop and markets in Ottawa. “It turned out so well,” Pishva says, and since Ellenbogen has agreed to pick the leftover juice whenever there’s maraschino production, Pishva hopes to continue the carbonated collaboration down the road.
Pishva has other products she’s hoping her fellow producers can use. “A big one around here is carrot ends because we cut carrot lengths for our jars,” though staff always takes the carrot offcuts, or they get turned into juice or baked snacks for the team, Pishva would love to partner with someone who could use them on a regular basis. Short of that, food scraps from Top Shelf get picked up for pig feed and compost at Mariposa Farm. Whether it’s preserves, pop or pig feed, there’s nothing going to waste at Top Shelf.
Top Shelf Preserves
527 Gladstone Ave. | 613.371.2789
topshelfpreserves.ca | @topshelfpreserves
thecountybounty.com | @thecountybounty
Spirit Shift at Café Palmier
In pursuit of creating a more inclusive drinking experience at Café Palmier, the team crafted all of its cocktails to be alcohol-free, with the option of adding spirits. “Everyone can enjoy a non-alcoholic drink, while not everyone drinks alcohol,” events co-ordinator Emily Carey says, “so why make the standard something non-inclusive?”
Carey brought the idea of a zero-proof cocktail list to her team after beginning her own journey of sobriety from alcohol. That shift opened her eyes to a lack of selection and visibility of non-alcoholic options within the restaurant industry. It was a team effort to create the new drinks list at the Chelsea, Que., café, with all staff taking part in recipe development and tasting. The goal was to create a list that cuts out the booze, but not the flavour or quality, and for these non-alcoholic options to be the main event rather than an afterthought. Carey says the alcohol-free menu has been received with praise and gratitude from customers, as well as an acknowledgement that there needs to be more of this kind of inclusive planning. Her current favourites include a cucumber rosemary fizz, jalapeño cinnamon margarita and the Aperol Spritz, which features Ottawa’s Silver Swallow kombucha.
Café Palmier
40 chemin Scott, Chelsea
cafepalmier.ca | @cafe.palmier
Truck Boyz No More
Luis Guerra and Moudy Husseini both found themselves out of work when the pandemic hit and restaurants shut down. Husseini had been working in hospitality in Ottawa, while Guerra was a general manager for a Mexican restaurant group in Toronto. “We decided we’d had enough of working for [other] people, so let’s open something, let’s try something,” Guerra says. Just a week before opening their planned ghost kitchen, a friend let them know he had a food truck available to rent, “and it just kind of took off from there,” Guerra chuckles. While the goal was to eventually open a restaurant, amidst the extra uncertainty the pandemic brought to the restaurant industry, the two were keen to test a concept before committing to a more permanent space. Torta Boyz opened as a food truck in the spring of 2021 and quickly had lineups that spilled down the block on Preston Street.
After a season of the food truck, the pair was ready to commit to a brick-and-mortar restaurant, and rented a shared space on Lebreton Street. Three months later, the café they shared the space with found a new home, so Torta Boyz took over and gutted the space. The lads added tables, built a bar and patio. They love to host, and being able to welcome guests to have a seat and stay a while is bringing them back to their favourite aspects of the hospitality industry. The two friends have known each other since meeting on a soccer team as young kids. These days, Guerra is at the helm in Torta Boyz’ kitchen, while Husseini handles the front-of-house duties. Diners can enjoy spicy margaritas and tasters of mezcal with their tacos and the menu has expanded slightly from the truck days. Of course, the ever-popular loaded asada fries and tortas that had folks lining up at their food truck remain.
Torta Boyz
60a Lebreton St. N., Ottawa
@tortaboyz.ot
Creativity and Caffine
When the owners of 25:8 Architecture + Urban Design firm went looking for an office, they knew they wanted something atypical. Founder Jay Lim figured “if a garage was good enough for Apple and Amazon, it was good enough for [25:8] Architecture.” The garage at 60a Lebreton Street came with some commercial kitchen equipment and so the 5:2:8 Creative Coffee Collective was born out of the team’s belief that architects only need two things, creativity and caffeine. The collective is run by a STEAM team, many of whom are students in STEAM fields (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics) at Carleton University, where Lim teaches.
The collective features a different micro-roaster weekly and is striving to be a hub for coffee enthusiasts. Coffee lovers “are drawn to the shop to explore new flavours and to fall in love with new classics,” Lim says. To accommodate the growing architecture firm, the collective moved into a new home in an old house in the heart of Ottawa’s Chinatown in the summer of 2022. The team converted the ground floor of the house on Somerset Street into the 5:2:8 café space, and the upper floors into offices for 25:8. Guests working in the coffee shop are able to rent private office space upstairs, and the firm also offers the use of equipment such as 3D printers to patrons. To celebrate its new space 5:2:8 collaborated with local roaster, Opulence Coffee, to develop a custom brew — “bold, yet fun and approachable,” Lim says. It’s aptly named The Architect Roast.
5:2:8 Creative Coffee Collective
642 Somerset St. W., Ottawa
528coffee.com | @528creativecoffeecollective
