Category — Out to Lunch

I won’t lie, it’s been kind of a dream of ours to have a great lunch, sweets and coffee shop near our home. Ok, the dream is mostly my husband’s since he works from home and there’s only so many biscotti or polish donuts a person can eat before getting a little bored.

Pressed gourmet sandwich shop is slated to open on November 21 at 750 Gladstone Avenue (corner Gladstone and Arthur) and will feature:

• Fair trade coffee from Equator
• Lots of in-house cooking (and smoking!) and many local ingredients
• Vegan options
• Large space for live music
• Ample stroller parking
• “Kid’s menu” with Mac n’ Cheese, grilled cheese and all-natural hot dogs
• Lots of space to meet and gather
• Wifi

When we met last night, they were still working on sourcing their sweets and bread.  So far, they know it won’t be Art-is-in since they felt their business was too similar to their City Centre concept.  (My 2 personal cents: I don’t go to Art-is-in at the City Centre because it’s just not convenient to walk there from West Centretown, we don’t have a car to drive there and I haven’t bothered to figure out how to get there on a bike.  And I love their bread.  Ok.. rant over.)

Update: They’ve decided to go with ACE bakery ciabatta – it provides the right texture for the paninis.

They are planning to open early around 7:30 to catch morning commuters.  And will hopefully soon have their liquor licence for those after-work commuters and evening concerts.

Jeff, the owner, gave me a tour of the space last night.  Of all the cool things they were planning, the piece of equipment that really got Jeff talking the most was the smoker. I am convinced that by opening day, this machine will have moved into a prime viewing (and smelling) location.

He talked of brining and smoking pork belly, making brisket for chili and even smoking squash for vegetarian soups.  They’ll also be doing vegetable dishes like collard greens and braised red cabbage.  It’s great to see vegetables being featured.

They have done extensive renovations to turn the old fluorescent kebab shop into a cozy nook.  With the fluorescent lights gone, the walls and ceiling repainted and the addition of lovely wooden church pew seats from a local church, artwork, and ambient lighting – the space has really transformed into the kind of space to sit and relax.

While they may have had reservations about joining the Twitter thing, I have no doubt that they will find it teaming with local foodies waiting to retweet daily specials.

•  Pressed website
• Twitter
• Facebook

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Update!  December 8, 2011

We’ve had several meals here now (with and without the small boy) – here are some of our favourites:

Latte

Panini with homemade pickled beans (totally delicious)

We eat a lot of meat at home, so it’s nice to have a break.  Their vegetarian chili is filling and perfect for winter.

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On Sunday, we were feeling adverturous.  Letting our cares flap in the breeze.  Booking the Vrtucar to go to the market AND pay for parking.  That’s the wild side for us.  Hey, it was cold.

Alden chose a purple cauliflower.  That’s the wild side for him.  Will he eat it?  Who knows.  He chose it very carefully.  Not the cauliflower in the front, but the second one in.  That’s the one.

Having driven to the market instead of biking, we were feeling particularly wimpy and prone to the cooler October temperatures.  Our usual stop for an apple cider wasn’t going to warm our quickly cooling toes.  Then I saw the Flatbread Pizza Company oven.  Without a lineup.

Let’s get a pizza!

I asked about the dough. There were no eggs or milk.  Can you leave the cheese off the top?  No problem.

Sold!  There we were – ordering our first pizza.

We went with the Italian sausage and onion pizza.  While the kid ended up just picking off the onions and meat to eat, we happily picked up the slack by devouring the crusts.

This was a solid win in the allergy-friendly dining out handbook.  Why didn’t we try this sooner?

The little dude still got his apple cider.

Few food-realted things in Ottawa have made me fume as much as the recent “great cupcake challenge” post on Apartment613.  I was upset that Thimblecakes (my choice for the best cupcakes in Ottawa) seemed to be getting judged unfairly against the competition.  And when I shared my outrage with my husband (a small business owner here in Ottawa), it hit a nerve for him about how people treat entrepreneurs in this city.

This type of food writing also left me with a bad feeling about how us food bloggers go about our business of critiquing food – many of us (myself included) having neither small business or culinary training. (A topic best saved for a separate post.)

On that note, I asked Wendy, the owner of Thimblecakes, if she would be interested in doing an interview for Apron Strings because these negative reviews stung me as if the shop was my own.  People who know me, know how special this shop is in my life (offering nut-free and vegan cupcakes and ice creams). It’s one of the few places I know I can easily take my son out to eat.  With no worries.  It is priceless.  And it is a one of a kind shop in Ottawa. And there are great people behind these cupcakes who truly want you to have a great experience and delicious cupcakes.  Whether you have allergies or not.

Welcome to Thimblecakes!

I wanted readers to know why Thimblecakes is so special and what sets it apart from other cupcake shops. Let’s get to know Thimblecakes!

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Many of your cupcakes are vegan. Are you a vegetarian / vegan?

I call myself a vegetarian with vegan tendancies! (I’m not strict. I cheat on dairy and eggs when it’s convenient! I know so bad! But only organic free range)

(I have been known to sneak cheese in the house after Alden is asleep.  Shh!)

How did you get into the baking business?

I started baking around 4 or 5 years ago when I tried a business venture that was going poorly. Broke, alone and bored my obsession with the Food Network took off. I would watch it while I baked, learning new skills with every batch! I found a new love.

With way too many sweets in the house I started giving them away to neighbours and when I found a new job, my new obsession turned into a business from all my give aways. My regular clientele encouraged me to open a store front and one, Dee even came up with the name after a little brain storming session! I’m so lucky

How did you know it was the right time to open a shop? Did you research other neighbourhoods?  Or was Centretown always the aim?

I did much research. I sat on many benches watching the flow of traffic day and night, weekends and weekdays. I thought I knew every space in the city for lease until I sat at the Bridgehead one day, looked out the window and saw a for lease sign in the window across the street. Woohoo!  It was perfect! 

 Is there a right time to open a small business? I don’t think one can know. You just have to give it a shot and see if people want what you’ve got! 

The cupcake display wall

Your shop is one of the few nut-free bakeries in Ottawa. (Thank you!!) What made you decide to go peanut/nut free?

We knew the unfortunate truth that food allergies are becoming common place. Two of my dear friends, one being my business partner is allergic to nuts and I felt just terrible for them that they would have to miss out on part of a celebration because of an allergy.

 I had tried for a year to be completely vegan so I also understood having to miss out. Then I met some friends that shared with me how hard it was living with an egg allergy. Then it hit me how many people were gluten intolerant. Then another friend mentioned how many young ones (and older ones) have type two diabetes. So we offer the whole spectrum of “free” cakes, because people need it and we can help (and I think they taste pretty darn GREAT!)

(Agreed!  Alden has nosedived into more than a few of your cupcakes.  And despite what a certain Ph.D candidate and university lecturer in law at Carleton thinks – it is not just for unvaccinated granola munchers.  Allergies happen and  Alden is fully vaccinated.  Posts like that make me so angry.  So angry.  No link for you law-man! )

Savouring a mini cupcake

Aside from offering allergy-friendly treats, your business also stands out because of your environmental concerns.  What are some eco-friendly things that people may not know about your shop?

I think it’s really important to use local and organic products and luckily we have many customers that also feel that way! It tastes better, it’s better for the environment and it gives money to local people!

We use environmentally friendly everything, so we apologize in advance if you’re used to Cotonelle at home. We have the rough recycled paper toilet paper at our shop! Myself and my partner take the recycling home every week from the shop as the city won’t give us bins, crazy eh? Same with the compost.

 (Yes!  I know how much our small family tosses into our Green Bin.  I hope food businesses will be able to take part in composting too.  It seems a logical extension to the program.)

People who aren’t parents probably don’t know the controversy over food dyes and artificial flavourings.  What’s your policy?

Our flavourings come from fruits and vegetables, we use very little extracts. (Only mint. I tried to use fresh mint and after a good puree it doesn’t even smell like mint anymore, weird!) The only coloring we use is in the vanillas because some of our clientele wanted to see splashes of bright colour.

 I always see your shop name popping up at local community events. 

We love to be involved with community events! If it wasn’t for this wonderful community, I wouldn’t have a shop! People have been so lovely to us, we try and help everyone that asks us, even if it’s simply a handful of free cupcake cards to give away as a prize for their event.

Our big one this month is for the Maycourt hospice. They’re doing a holiday tour to raise money where people visit the most beautiful homes in the city and upon return can indulge in some ThimbleCakes. I just love the Maycourt, perhaps it strikes the heart for me as my Grandmother had stayed there. What a lovely facility and a wonderful concept.

Last month we were involved with the running of the brides, a Humane Society fundraiser and of course Capital Pride! What fun that was!

I should have taken the photo before I bought half the minis. The dish on the left? All vegan.

Experimenting – do you set aside time each week to experiment with new flavours and combinations or is it more of an ongoing process?

We come up with new recipes every two months to keep our cakes seasonal! I usually put two or three days aside for experiments just before the new flavour launch. For example today we created 6 new flavours including Viva Puff (vegan), sea salt caramel and a lovely apple spice! I love baking! It’s such a fun challenge to create new flavours!

(Sea salt caramel!  My weakness!)

Vegan chocolate ice cream.

And last, but not least.  How do you handle food reviews?  I think you need to have a very thick skin to open a food business.  Everyone seems to have an opinion… and a blog.  : )

To be honest it breaks my heart when someone doesn’t love the thing l have poured my heart and soul into. I am so incredibly proud of this shop, its goodies and the staff that I can’t read them.

Luckily for every one bad one there are 20 rave reviews and three times that of verbal praises, but it’s that one poor one that sticks in my head.

I have a staff member, Jessica, who researches the reviews. I feel it’s still very important to know what people are saying and listen to what they want from us. There is always room for improvement and the pats on the back sometimes feel good too.

Parting words?

I would love for people to know that ThimbleCakes was created out of love! Any baker or chef, home or professional will tell you that there’s something about feeding people. It just feels so good to hear the mmms and “ this is so good” from happy people that it keeps me striving to make cupcakes that everyone can enjoy! 

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There you have it! A glimpse behind the scenes of Thimblecakes.  To my foodie readers, always question who is writing these reviews and don’t be afraid to use your own judgment.  In the world of cupcakes, some people like them sweeter, richer, denser, crumblier, taller, wider, smaller, cheaper….  you get the idea.  Taste and preferences are complicated.  And clearly, with the number of cupcake shops in Ottawa, there is something to suit everyone’s tastes.

Now, if you’ll excuse me,  I’m feeling the need to go eat some cupcakes…  signing off as Wendy would say, “Big smiles!”

369 Bank Street
www.thimblecakes.ca
(613) 695-0109

I’m revising this post. I’ve been thinking about how I handled this review and I think I should have sent my comments directly to the owner before publishing my thoughts online. I’m taking down my disgruntled comments and will try to resolve my issues offline. In retrospect, I may have been too harsh given my previous glowing endorsements. I will admit, I felt pretty let down at my last outing, but throwing up a nasty review shouldn’t have been my first step to resolve the issue.

I’ll also be taking down the comments for this post. Thank you for commenting, but I need to try and do the right thing.

Somehow our special (and rare) dinner date outing to DiVino was mistaken as an anniversary dinner. We were sorry to disappoint the staff when we informed them that we were “only” on a date. No special event – just a rare few hours alone together.  With no dietary restrictions.  Bring on the cheese, nuts and eggs.

We chose DiVino again for our date night dinner for two main reasons:

1. Proximity to home.  We can get there in under five minutes flat.  No commuting.  No taxis.  No wasting time.  Because every.minute.counts.
2. The food and wine.  Obviously.

Now, some people get to stay up late and shut a restaurant DOWN!  Us, on the other hand, we opened this place UP!  Earlybird style. In true “we are not Mediterranean” fashion, we were the first people to arrive.

We sat at the table that overlooked the kitchen.  There are no Gordon Ramsay’s in this kitchen – it all seems smooth sailing.  We guessed that with so much prep work is done in advance (making pasta, simmering sauce, curling the onions) that the actual cooking part is the “easy” part of the process.  Or so it seems.  I’ll find out in a couple of weeks when I take a cooking class here.

We started the evening with a platter of pickled vegetables and cured meats (affettati misti) and a glass of prosecco.  See the fennel and lemon olives in the centre? I am going to try making them at home.  (I’ve even gone and picked up the ingredients!)

Up next:  Fried olives with a meat stuffing (olive all’ascolana) with arugula and an asparagus puree.  It’s got ‘lana’ in the title – clearly, this dish was meant for me.  And if you’re looking for a more affordable way to discover the hidden mysteries of ‘umami‘?  Eat these and carry on.   $9.  That’s it.  Mystery solved!

We ordered the pasta sampler again.  Calling it a ‘sampler’ sounds too homespun, let’s use the restaurant term, ‘pasta tasting’.  That’s better.

The gnocchi had a parsley and almond pesto with shrimp.  Amazing.  Buttery and light all at the same time. (Looks like I’m not the only one dealing with parsley overload these days!)

At this point, a few glasses of wine into our outing, my memory for food details ran out.  Initially, I wasn’t planning to snap any photos and I didn’t bother to bring a pen and paper.  Then I changed my mind.  So much for being “off duty”.

Pasta tasting dish #2:  broccoli and spicy salami?  (Husband!  I need your help!)

Dish #3: More pasta!  Good grief, brain.  Veal sauce?  Hey, fancy onion!  Blog schmog.  I am having a good time.

Next dish: Beef with wild mushrooms and a gorgonzola sauce.  I always remember the cheese.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t begin to list our wines.  Most were red.  Northern? Fancy sounding.  Greatly enjoyed.  To the last drop.

With time running out on our babysitter’s clock, we had to pass on dessert and coffee.  Oh well… next time!
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DiVino Wine Studio
225 Preston Street
(613) 221-9760

Bowich dessert counter

I love pretty much everything about Bowich except one thing: the waiting. When they first opened, I kind of wrote off the slowness as a kink that would get worked out after a few weeks of lunch rushes. Ten months later, I haven’t noticed much improvement in this area. Bowich even recommends that you call in your order for speedier service. Hmm. Is this a New York thing? Is calling in an order supposed to make me feel like a trendy workaholic, working my way up the corporate ladder and calling in my boss’ lunch order? I guess I should just take a seat on one of the Eames rockers and chill out.  Except, I’m Type A and I don’t really do “chilling out.”

If they were serving real meals like at Grounded Kitchen, *maybe* I could tolerate calling in an order, but for sandwiches. For pete’s sake.  Sandwiches.  Waiting is not a sidedish.  The time it takes to get my food is the main reason I don’t go there more often – despite supporting their choice to source quality and organic ingredients.

Friday's special: grilled cheese and pickled cabbage

Ok, waiting times aside, the food is good.  Solid. Though, I have yet to be really wowed. I was really looking forward to the grilled cheese special on Friday since it was served with pickled cabbage. Alas, the cabbage didn’t have much zip. I expected it to be a riff on grilled cheese and pickles where the cabbage would be provide that crunchy salty and sour zing. Alas, it was not the case. It still looked very pretty.  I bought red cabbage this weekend to try a home version.

Dessert: lavender meringues

For dessert, I picked up four lavender meringues (two for me, two for a friend). I’ve been on a lavender kick at home, so these were fun to try.  Totally floral and light.  Definitely a girly dessert.  I was also smitten with the berries in mason jars for Berries in cream.  Quick, fun, casual, seasonal… did I mention.. quick?

All in all, I’d give Bowich another try and place my order in advance.

Daily specials can be found on Twitter and Facebook.   Their regular menu is available on the Bowich website.

PEI Flavours guide - day trip planning

I’ve eaten my fair share of oysters both from the island and from elsewhere, but I’ve never bothered to learn how to open an oyster for myself.  I wanted to earn my girl guide badge in oyster shucking so we drove up to Stanley Bridge to visit Carr’s Oyster Bar.

Now, the first time I can recall eating an oyster was when I was a teenager and we were on some sort of family outing to a cow show in Crapaud. I can’t remember what other food producers were there, but I remember trying two oysters: one plain and one with a squeeze of lemon.  Not bad.   This was before locavores and 100 mile diets, so I’m not sure how fruitful these efforts were to convince Islanders to eat food from the Island.

After that, I don’t remember eating oysters again until later on in my university days when I’d return home “from away” over the summer break.  Once I got to grad school in Ontario, my “foodie currency” became “oh no, I only eat seafood when I’m home on PEI.  I could *never* eat fish that had flown.  On.a.plane.”  How crude.  Silly Ontarians.

Eventually, I got to taste oysters from around PEI (and shhh…  other provinces), but the oysters from Malpeque Bay, Colville Bay and Raspberry Point are the ones I still choose above all others.

Fast forward a few years.

When I brought my then-boyfriend to the Island for the first time in March of ….errr… 2005, we shared a plate of Malpeques at Carr’s.  And two years later we got married on PEI.  So – draw your own conclusions about PEI oysters. (And yes, we stopped at Carr’s the day after our wedding too.)

Ok, back to Shucking 101.

Destination: Carr's Oyster Bar

We arrived in the early afternoon for a quick bite and hopefully a shucking lesson.  Alden was still snoozing in the car, so he stayed with the grandparents and I enjoyed a little mom-time inside over a plate of shellfish.

The first thing to do was choose the oysters.  I went for three small and three large.

Choosing the oysters: 3 small, 3 large

I had my lesson in shucking from Suzanne (daughter of Phyllis Carr – champion shucker).  She made it look so easy.  Wedge your knife in the top, wiggle, pop, scrape, cut the muscle on the bottom of the shell.  So easy.

Twist and wait for the pop

Well, my large shell cracked in half and I kind of gutted one of the small ones.  My speed, accuracy and presentation were rock bottom.  Like many other learned skills, I just didn’t have the feel for it that years of practice bring.

Cut the muscle on the top

Suzanne had made it look so easy.  My idea of hosting an oyster party back home in Ottawa with my new shucking skills was dashed.  I would have to settle for *sigh* oysters at a restaurant.

I slurped back my oysters.  Some plain, some with a squeeze of lemon.

Sit down and enjoy

From the restaurant, I watched boats deliver their catch to the wharf less than 500m away from the restaurant door.  Carr’s may not be as fancy as my local oyster bar back in Ottawa, but the food also doesn’t need to travel very far to get to your plate.  Fish.on.a.plane.  Silly Ontarians.

View of Stanley Bridge

Need to know more?

• Learn about oyster aquaculture in Colville Bay from Chef Michael Smith’s show “Food Country“
• Carr’s Oyster Bar: 10056 Route 6, Stanley Bridge

Prince Edward Distillery - vodka, gin, rum, rye and soon... whiskey!

Ever since I sampled some PEI potato vodka at a PEI tourism event a year ago drizzled over oysters, I knew I wanted to visit the Prince Edward Distillery the next time I was on PEI.  Unlike an earlier misadventure to a new winery,  I made sure to call ahead to see if they were open because even in mid-June, you just never know.

Getting to the Prince Edward Distillery was on my ‘must do’ list for this trip to PEI.  The distillery is located in the eastern tip of the island in Hermanville (about an hour from Charlottetown).

For $10 you get a tour of the distillery and you get to sample 3 products.  Our tour began with the potato bins!

How the potatoes arrive - potato bin!

Local potatoes arrive then are diced and cooked.  It takes about five hours for the potatoes to break down into an oatmeal consistency.  (Most vodkas nowadays are made with grain which only takes a few hours to cook down.)  Using potatoes makes for a more labour intensive product: washing, dicing and the increased cooking time compared to grain makes this a real labour of love.

This machine cooks up the potatoes - it takes 5 hours.

Our guide (and co-owner) leads us to the still.  None of us on the tour had ever seen a still before and we marveled at its Jacques Cousteau appearance.  The only things going under today were a batch of blueberries ready to be processed into blueberry vodka.

Arla explains how the still works.

This machine comes from Germany and is self cleaning.  Gotta love modern amenities!  Otherwise, that’s a lot of little portholes to clean by hand with a toothbrush.  No thank you.

The still. Possibly doubles as submarine.

A little cork sniffing to get our noses working

Next stop on the tour – a lesson in casks and a bit of cork sniffing.  These casks are made of oak and are charred inside.  The distillery only uses new casks to ensure that their product is pure.  (I had no idea that used casks were used to make whiskey.  And reused.  And then reused.)  I can totally appreciate that in the first years of business, you don’t want any funny business going on with used barrels and mystery flavours.

Bottling! Today they were bottling whiskey.

On the day I visited, they were bottling whiskey and putting labels onto the bottles.  I am smitten with their packaging and bottles – I think it’s really stylish.

Finally, the part we had been waiting for – the tasting!  We started with the blueberry vodka pulled straight from the freezer.  I was totally prepared for some sort of overwhelming berry-ness liked you’d get with a fruit wine.  Instead, this was completely subtle and understated.  It was definitely my biggest surprise of the tasting.  You get the essence of blueberry, without the sweetness.  Hmm… kind of wishing I had purchased a bottle of it now in retrospect.

Sampling chilled blueberry vodka

Since I had already tried the potato vodka (the LCBO sells it at their Walkley Road location in the Vintages section), I decided to sample the gin and rye.  The gin was my favourite and a bottle of it is coming home with me.  It tasted of salt air and juniper berries (and a combinations of angelica root, coriander, ginger, lemon grass and orange peels).  And NO NUTS!   Did you know that both Bombay Sapphire Gin and Beefeater contain nuts.  Neither did I until I started reading up on different gins tonight.   Stupid nuts turn up everywhere.  Gah.

I sampled their rum as well.  Now, I am not a rum connoisseur, but I liked this one.  This was likely due to the molasses quotient in the ingredients – as my husband knows, if there’s molasses I AM THERE.    Apparently, the Merchantman Pub in Charlottetown is the only place to sample this product outside the distillery.  So, if you can’t get to Hermanville…  head downtown instead.

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The girls and I met up for Ottawa’s first ever Dishcrawl event this week. What is Dishcrawl? You could call it a pub crawl, but with food… or better yet, food speed dating!

Here’s the gist: the organizers send you a meeting spot 48 hours before the tour starts. The stops are kept a secret and you are led to four (or in our case five) different restaurants to sample a special dish that they have prepared for the group.

The samples were generous sized “appetizer” portions so you are pretty full by the end of the tour. The cost of drinks is not included.

Helpful Tip! If you do decide to have drinks, carry cash with you. Waiting for a group of people to do debit/credit card transactions does slow the tour down.

For this tour, we met in the Byward Market. (Future tours may include other neighbourhoods in Ottawa.) I’ll admit, I poo poo the Byward Market quite a bit. Admittedly, it’s not my favourite place in the city for a number of reasons and there are only a handful of restaurants that would lure me into Lowertown.

(I know some people loooove the market, but it’s not my thing. I find it pretty dirty, touristy, overwhelmed with car traffic and university students. I am too old to have any patience for “woo hoo” girls. If I could be transported to the area of Murray and Dalhousie and magically avoid the rest of the market, maybe I would change my mind!)

Ok, back to the tour.

Stop #1: Sidedoor

I had my fingers crossed that this would be a stop.  I’ve been wanting to try it since it opened – not only because of all the good reviews, but because tacos are my new obsession to make at home.  At Sidedoor, the spice mixes are all ground by hand, the food is fresh and made to order.  Very fresh and very tasty.  I was smitten with my Bajan fish taco.

This was a “Jalapenoja” made with gin, lime, cucumber and jalapeno.  Arriba!

And the tacos.  Hello radish!  I know what I’m going to be doing with the radish in my garden.

Stop #2: Steak

If I could describe this restaurant in two words it would be “boy club”.  Leather chairs, TVs, red walls, meat and potatoes.  The decor alone told me this probably wasn’t a “Lana” restaurant, but hey… here we go.

We were served steak tartare, poutine gnocchi and a mystery deep fried dish in the centre.  Was it calamari?  Moving on.

Stop #3: Mambo!

This is the market’s new latin american ‘fusion’ restaurant.  I enjoyed our stop here and their “Mystics and Manicures Tuesdays” (fortune telling and manicures) did sound… well.. intriguing.

Stop #4: The Cupcake Lounge

These were some stylish cupcakes.  My loyalty to Thimblecakes remains, but these looked very posh and came in all the usual flavours.  I imagine they get a lot of wedding business.  Even the decor in the shop was chic.  I tried the espresso cupcake, but many in my group went for the cinnamon.

Final stop #5: Kinki

I haven’t been to kinki since my grad school days when it first opened. They have a new outdoor tiki-esque style patio (tucked behind the hot dog cabin), but other than that, I’m not sure much has changed. Two words convince me this: sushi pizza. Stick to the basics and the saketinis if you go.

The next Dishcrawl is on July 4 and I think tickets are still available. Thanks to the great organizers of this event. If you’re visiting Ottawa, I think this would be a terrific item to add to your intinerary. There was a good mix of locals and tourists, so if you want to get the scoop of things to see in the city from real people who live here, sign up now for the next Dishcrawl .

Last week, the husband and I were walking home after the little dude had a tour of the fire station on Preston (he could barely get to sleep that night). As he enjoyed his piggyback ride home, we stopped to peek in the windows at DiVino Wine Studio and noticed that they had a menu. Hey! For some reason, I thought this was a wine making supplies store. Imagine our surprise when we checked them out online and found out that it was a restaurant, tasting room and cooking school.

Given its convenient location, we decided to reserve an early table for our date night. It looked cozy from our nose-pressed-against-the-glass snooping. And upon our arrival, it was even nicer, spacious yet cozy all at the same time. The dining room looks on to an open kitchen that is impeccably tidy and a large island-style eating area where the wine tasting classes take place. The island of seats overlooking the kitchen reminded us of being invited to someone’s house – just on a larger scale. Surrounded by walls of wine, we were seated at one of their rustic style wooden tables with an excellent view of the kitchen.

Images of their travels (and dogs) were projected onto the wall. It’s down to earth and fancy all at the same time. My favourite combination. Given our inexperience with Italian wines, we happily took all of our server’s and his colleague’s recommendations. You could tell from their descriptions of the wines that they live and breath wine and could talk terroir until the cows came home.

Since their small plates menu looked so interesting (and we knew we wanted a cheese plate), we opted for the smaller 3oz size glasses of wine paired to each of our dishes. We started with a glass of prosecco while we made our final decisions.

First up – deep fried olives stuffed with beef served on a bed of arugula. Salty, savoury, peppery and crunchy? Yes. As our eyes widened at how amazing this dish was, we immediately knew the rest of the evening was going to be great. The batter on the olives was so delicate and not at all oily. They managed to slice each olive in half without cracking any of the crust. We don’t know much about deep frying, but we thought that showed a lof of skill. And arugula. Everything tastes better on a bed of arugula, doesn’t it?

Deep fried stuffed olives

Next, the insalata. These were lavender beets, goat cheese rolled in poppy seeds, blackberries, grapefruit and edible flowers. The dressing was light yet packed a lot of flavour. I am inspired to grow beets and try to recreate this at home. So simple, so pretty.

Lavender beet salad with goat cheese

Next, roasted duck. If only I had written down the exact description. All I can remember is that the sauce is a red wine, there was truffle, truffle salt and a delicious cheesey puree.

Roasted duck

We were still feeling pretty hungry at this point, so we took our server’s advice and ordered the pasta tasting trio. I normally don’t like ordering pasta at restaurants because it’s never very good! By this point, we trusted their advice and confirmed that they make all of the pasta from scratch. Yum. Maybe it’s because we don’t eat much cheese or eggs anymore, but we both were struck at how good the noodles tasted. They had a flavour!

First the fettucine with cheese sauce and sliced zucchini.

Fettucini with zucchini

Then the “off cuts” pasta that was served with a rabbit ragu and possibly truffle salt? This was my favourite of the three pasta dishes.

More handcut pasta with rabbit ragu

Finally, the gnocchi. So melty, so soft. So… much better than our version. This dish was served with a lamb sauce.

Gnocchi with lamb ragu

And for our dessert, we ordered a selection of three cheeses (including one blue cheese from New Brunswick – Geai Blue). This was served with wine jelly, dried fruits, candied nuts and the cutest little crackers that looked like they had been cut with a ravioli cutter. I imagine they were made in-house as everthing else was. The husband finished off with a vin santo and I had a glass of red wine that was made in the northern region of Italy from dried grapes.

Dessert: cheese!

Overall, neither of us could say enough good things about our date night at DiVino. And to have it so close to home? It was a super win. Honestly, it was one of the best dinners we’ve ever had in Ottawa. We’re looking forward to many more date nights there.

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DiVino Wine Studio
225 Preston Street
(613) 221-9760