- Throughout 2019, beloved cheesemakers St. Albert Cheese Co-operative celebrate 125 years of making delicious cheese—especially loved are the squeaky cheese curds used in poutine!
- Speaking of poutine, Ottawa gives you two separate opportunities in spring to indulge your cravings. Enjoy French fries, gravy, and cheese curds at Poutinefest on Sparks Street(April 25-28) and Ottawa Poutinefest outside Ottawa City Hall (May 2-5).
- New! Ottawa’s Chinatown neighbourhood welcomed Corner Peach in January 2019, a cool café during the day that transforms into a “fancy diner” at night.
- New! The food hall concept has arrived in Ottawa with the launch of Queen St. Fare, which opened in early December 2018 on, yes, Queen Street in downtown Ottawa. Choose from Mexican, Vietnamese, pizzas, burgers, and plentiful vegetarian options—not to mention great local craft beer and talented mixologists. The venue— adjacent to a stop along the (coming-in-2019) Light Rail Transit system called the Confederation Line—has a capacity of 390 and hosts regular live music events.
- The second annual Vegan Night Market takes place April 6 at Lansdowne.
- New! OCCO Kitchen, which has delighted diners in Ottawa’s Orléans neighbourhood for years, opened a downtown location at the Albert at Bay Suite Hotel in early 2019.
- New! The Rabbit Hole hides its expansive stone-walled basement under a small street-level space on Sparks Street in downtown Ottawa.
- New! Popular chef Joe Thottungal opened a sister restaurant to Coconut Lagoon: Thaliserves platters that cover sweet, salty, bitter, sour, astringent, and spicy flavours all on one plate, right in downtown Ottawa.
- New! In Almonte, Ontario, a new distillery has opened that makes its products with milk byproducts, reducing waste and supporting local dairy farmers. Dairy Distillery’s vodka—called Vodkow, of course—is sold in clear glass milk bottles!
- New! Brew Revolution joins the local craft brewery scene when it opens in the west-end suburb of Stittsville in spring 2019.
- New! Kichesippi Brewing Company opens a new—much larger—tasting room in spring 2019.
- A stalwart of the ByWard Market neighbourhood, the Fish Market Restaurant (along with its downstairs wine cellar Vineyards Wine Bar Bistro and its upstairs pub Coasters Seafood Grill) celebrates its 40th anniversary in April 2019.
- New! An Ottawa coffee company is tackling the issue of unsafe drinking water on First Nations reserves in Canada. For every 40 bags of coffee sold, Birch Bark Coffee Company can provide one water filtration system. Great coffee for a great cause!
