Hello Ottawa

WEDNESDAY DRINKING AND DINING UPDATE

•  🌷 Starting with this Sunday’s match against Japan (June 14), the folks from Dutch Grocery Store will be at Local Heroes Sports Bar  to watch all the Netherlands World Cup games...and they’re bringing Bitterballen. 
• 🍓 Strawberry Blonde Bakery has not one, but two seasonal menus up and running: the Pride-themed Funfetti Cookie Sandwiches, Sugar Cookies, and Rainbow Bagels will run throughout June, while the Father's Day Menu (including Mississippi Mud Pie Tarts, Maple Bacon Doughnuts and Cupcakes, and a huge Cookiegram) will finish June 21. (Westboro and Kanata) 

• 🧢 Dads eat for free at Zolas on Fathers' Day. 

• 🏺 Aurelius is now stocking small batch artisanal vinegar from St. Eugène Vinegar. Check them out at the sampling pop-ups at Aurelius' two locations: Wellington West (June 19, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm) and Kanata (June 20, noon to 3:00 pm)  

• 🌶️ Last week, Peter Hum at the Ottawa Citizen lamented over restos limiting the spiciness of dishes to appeal to local tastes. Whatever your opinion is of that, readers wrote letters to the editor both agreeing with and opposing you.

• As if to rub his readers’ collective noses in it, this week Hum chowed down on the spiciest Chinese cuisine – Sichuan – at Altay Flame Uyghur Cuisine on Beechwood Avenue.

• Alas, ‘Altay Cuisine’s food “tastes the same as in China, but less spicy. But if customers ask more spicy, we can do it more spicy”, says the owner’.

  🍖 In Capital Eats, Ralf Joneikies says ‘Twenty hours of slow cooking, a gravy that left a lasting impression, and one very good reason to visit Carling Avenue’ about BBQ joint Grounded Kitchen in Westboro.

• 🥞 That terrible pub on the domestic side at the Ottawa Airport is no longer, having been replaced by a Zak’s Diner. Regardless of your feelings about Zak’s, this is a definite improvement.

• 🥙 Montréal’s Boustan won ‘best tasting shawarma’ at last week’s Ottawa Shawarma Festival. Enjoy it while it lasts, Montréal, the Shawarma Capital of Canada will not stand for this next year.

• The Festival also broke a world record for longest shawarma, with a 350-metre-long sandwich.

• 🍨 Gatineau’s worker-shareholder dairy coöperative, Laiterie de l’Outaouais, has launched an ice-cream brand, Rebelle. It became available in select grocery stores June 1  – and Costco as of last Monday. Watch for their ice cream truck throughout Ottawa this summer.

STATISTICS OTTAWA

NUMBER

• 15,000

• The approximate number of books owned by the Jewish Youth Library of Ottawa that will soon be available after a decade in storage.

• The Library will be moving into the new Chabad of Wellington West at 166 Huron Ave. N. after a successful $1.7 million fundraiser to buy the property.

• – Zenith Wolfe in the Canadian Jewish News

OTTAWAN OF THE DAY

• Edith René 

• The student at École secondaire catholique Franco-Cité  was awarded the CBC’s First Page student writing challenge in the grades 10 to 12 category.

• Rene’s story,  Lost For Words, is about book banning and censorship.

• First Page winners receive a year’s worth of books from OwlCrate and 50 books to their school library. 

• – CBC

QUOTE

“

• This is our last chance because once again, we will be without space

– From a Facebook post by House to Home Ottawa as it once again faces closure due to lack of warehouse space.

House to Home  provides ‘community donated home furnishings to new refugees arriving in Ottawa’ but requires space to keep the donations. It lost space at Westgate Mall ast year and now is losing a space donated by Dymon Storage. 

– Peter Szperling at CTV

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WHAT’S GOING ON AT CITY HALL

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

THE DAILY POLL

What should be done about invasive wildlife, such as coyotes?

🔘 Nothing. If one becomes a problem, remove it to somewhere else

🔘 We’re the invasive one, it’s the humans who should move

🔘 We need a wildlife park ranger force to keep them in check

🔘 We need to call a meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the needs of both humans and wildlife

🔘 The ACME catalogue should have a wide range of remedies

• 
  Previously in OTTAWAN polls:

• What kind of compensation do you think OC Transpo owes its riders?

  • 12% None

  • 14% Two weekends of free service sounds fair

  • 16% OC Transpo really needs to make a grand gesture, like free monthly passes

  • 53% Every single manager at OC Transpo must ride OC Transpo for six months, no exceptions

  • 5% Every manager at OC Transpo must ride ParaTranspo for one week; two days would probably be punishment enough

  • 
    Commentary

▪️ “I think refunds for pass holders would be the fairest thing to do.”

▪️ “Feel the experience of the general public who endure the pain everyday of poor public transportation.”

▪️ “Apparently ridership has dropped by 200-300,000 compared to 2025 YTD. Expected and not a surprise. Time is money and trust is down. Many are forced to endure due to finances/circumstance.”

▪️ “Let them have a taste of their own medicine. They must take transit for 6 months and publicly post about it so the citizens knows they aren’t just standing at a bus stop once or twice for a photo op. Enjoy your 1.5 hour commute to work and back daily.”

▪️ “Two weekends of free service is ridiculous when most of us who are shafted by transit are weekday commuters. I have no need to take transit on the weekends so I would get zero compensation for the amount of times I’ve been late to work due to OCTranspo.”

▪️ “Compensation is silly when the system doesn’t work. Finish the LRT. Get buses running on time.”

▪️ “Not just OC T managers – add ALL members of Council with Transit Commission members getting an extra six months. Since that will go until after the election which may remove some of these bozos from City Hall, maybe we should just toss them now!”

▪️ “Managers using the system daily, not as a punishment but as a way for them to monitor the system and get in front of problems.”

▪️ “OC Transpo is an embarrassment; especially for the capital of a G7 country.”

▪️ “Politicians should be forced into Vision Zero.”

▪️ “I worked in various roles at OC for a decade. Management is generally clueless.”

▪️ “Ensure that all OC Transpo Senior Managers use their own Transit service to get to work and back every day for at least 1 year so they experience the real service levels — warts and all!”

▪️ “Suggesting that the proper compensation is two free weekends is embarrassing. How is that compensation? People who have bus passes (the ones who suffer the most from this fiasco) wont benefit from it. They are already in a deficit, lets not make it worse.”

▪️ “Public apology. Nothing less. And slips that apologize when the bus is late that you can show to your employer.”

▪️ “The Mayor and all of the councillors must ride along smacking themselves in the face in a Pythonesque manner chanting ‘Commuters of Ottawa, forgive us!’.”

▪️ “If OC Transpo can’t get management into the office on time, maybe they’ll do something … or mandate work from home.”

▪️ “Also all members of City Council and senior city managers.”

▪️ “Make them ride on a functional transit system for a week, then bring them back and force them into Ottawa transit as per the final two options.”

▪️ “The compensation offered is a joke, put the money into fixing the overall transit system.”

▪️ “City councilors too.”

HISTORIC OTTAWA LOGO T-SHIRTS

Ottawa Valley Ale T-Shirt Long forgotten, but Ottawa’s first craft brewery was Ottawa Valley Ale, incorporated in 1985. Help support the ottawan by buying one of our historic logo t-shirts. Shop for t-shirts

THE ROLLING THREE DAY CALENDAR

Is there an event we should know about?
Please use our easy event submission form

✳️ Means change from previous edition

WEDNESDAY

• Field Notes Jazz Duo will play originals and covers at Fono.  

• Kelly Beaton, MPA, RHN, of Eat Well Be Well will host a workshop on Nutrition and the Aging Brain at Old Town Hall (61 Main Street) from 6:30pm - 8:00pm. Registration is $25. (Old Ottawa East) 

• Pianist Dave Draves’ monthly Elton John Hour is all Rocket Man, from greatest hits to lesser known gems. Bar Robo (The Glebe) 

Cinema

• ByTowne Cinema: Dossier 137, IXIM: El amor no tiene género (Love Has No Gender), Backrooms  

• Mayfair Theatre: Silent Friend, Little Lorraine, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter 

Gigs

• King Falcon, Sun Dried Flies, Four Eye Muscle Man. House of TARG

• Jazz Jam with the Beeched Wailers. Irene's Pub

THURSDAY

• 🆓 The RCMP Musical Ride will be going on the road shortly but first it must pass the Commissioner’s inspection this afternoon. 1 Sandridge Road (Manor Park) 

• Italian Week takes over Little Italy with food and cultural events until June 21. This morning at City Hall, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe will proclaim the festival open. 11:00 am (Downtown) 

• The Festival Franco-Ontarien is Canada's largest celebration of Francophone and Francophile culture outside of Québec. This year's festival starts today, with Improtéine headlining at Major’s Hill Park this evening. (Downtown). 

• Thirteen Strings celebrates 50 years of music-making in the Capital with an elegant soirée at the residence of His Excellency Michel Miraillet, Ambassador of France to Canada. Thursday, June 11. (New Edinburgh)  

• Saint Paul University Faculty of Philosophy prof Dr. Richard Feist is Special Guest at 9th Hour Theatre Company’s next Gleanings series event. The Beams are Creaking will start as a staged dramatic reading of the eponymous play by Douglas Anderson about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who took part in a failed assassination attempt against Adolph Hitler.  

Cinema

• Bytowne Cinema:  Backrooms, Meet Cute: Desert Hearts  

• Mayfair Theatre. Silent Friend, Little Lorraine, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter  

Gigs

• August John and Sun Dried Flies. Club SAW

• The Flex, Stigmatism, Zeal, Trenchcoat, Koffin Byrth. House of TARG

• Art of the Duo. GigSpace

• Chris & Kay ft. Tessa Duc. Night Oat

FRIDAY

• The Peter Hum Quartet plays a Greatest Hits show of original jazz at the Robo Lounge. $10. (The Glebe) 

• It’s Riverside’s turn to host City of Om Movement + Wellness Festival. Find all the yoga sessions, vendor market, and Hyrox Simulations, at the RA Centre. 

• 🆓 Osgoode Porchfest 2026 starts with an Open Mic tonight at No Go Cafe before the porches open up tomorrow. 

• The unbelieveble truth is that Pique turns 20 this weekend, despite having been around for just five years. The festival’s knowledge forum at Arts Court, Topique, is led by artists and makers from around the world and explores equity, sustainability, and collective futures in the arts. Meanwhile, tonight’s Pique Opening Party at Gridwrks is a collab with Laylit. (Downtown) 

• Also turning five: Fiesta Cabana Fest 2026 at Horticulture Building and Bronson Centre . If it's Cuban food, music, and culture you're looking for, book your ticket now. (The Glebe)  

• Are you calling in sick this afternoon? Hintonburg Public House will be screening the Fifa World Cup Opening Ceremony featuring Ottawa’s own Alanis Morrisette, starting at 1:30 pm. (Hintonburg)  

• The Festival Franco-Ontarien is Canada's largest celebration of Francophone and Francophile culture outside of Québec. This year’s festival continues today with Camp Kazoo for little festival goers, while Joyce N’sana, LGS, and Jupiter & OKWess perform on the MainStage. (Downtown). 

Cinema

• ByTowne Cinema: Agatha’s Almanac, L’Inconnu de la Grande Arche (The Stranger of the Great Arch), The Piano Teacher, Moulin Rouge! With Live Burlesque 

• Mayfair Theatre:  Calorie, The Art of Adventure, Ichi The Killer  

Gigs

• Yassin & Sean Terrio, River City Junction. Rainbow Bistro

• Tin Constellations, Quiet Skies. Art House

• Heart Education Time, Rooty Naky and the Rootables, Chambered by the Gates. Avant-Garde Bar

• Psykkore. Avant-Garde Bar

• Boy Band Story. Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa

• Danny Sylvester Duo. Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa

• IllScarlet 20th Anniversary of EPdemic. Bronson Centre

JUST ANNOUNCED / NOW BOOKING

• Ottawa City Woodshed's July courses have dropped. Highlights: Mid-Century Inspired Walnut Wine Rack (July 31), Laminate Paddle Making (July 4, 18, 25), Intro to Pyrography (July 17), Hand Made Pizza Peels (July 30 and August 1) 

• Comedy has a new home: upstairs at the Carleton Tavern. Check out the next Stand Up sesh on Tuesday June 16. They say: ‘Local Comics. Cheap Beer. Home by 10’. (Parkdale)

DEAL OF THE DAY

For a limited time enjoy up to 50% off select pieces from the Summer Collection from François Beauregard.   To mark National Indigenous History Month, all regular-priced eye products from Cheekbone Beauty are 20% off until June 14.

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BUT, ONE MORE THING ...

The City is hoping to receive heritage designation for five distinctive buildings designed by architect James Strutt. 

The Pembroke-born, Glebe-residing Strutt worked in the midcentury modern style, mostly in the 1950s and 60s. 

The buildings proposed are:

• Bells Corners United Church at 3955 Old Richmond Road
• Trinity United Church at 1099 Maitland Aveneue
• St. Teklehaimanot Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church at 915 Merivale Roard
• A home at 211 Cunningham Avenue in Alta Vista.
• A home at 20 Qualicum Street near the Queensway Carleton Hospital. 

Urbsite has a nice roundup of photos of Strutt’s work.

RAPID RESPONSE QUALITY CONTROL

THE END

THE OTTAWAN is written and edited every working weekday by Martha and Darren. Is there something that Ottawa should know about? Email to us at hello@theottawan.com. We read every single comment.