See the 8 day forecast at the ottawan weather

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It has been just over a month since we launched our ottawan memberships and we could not be more pleased. Thank you to everyone taking part.

And to the anonymous reader who used the ‘How are we doing’ poll (below) to tell us: ‘You guys are doing a super job. I will make a one time donation at the end of the month once I pay my utilites etc. I am a senior so only get paid once a month LOL’.

Thank you! That‘s so generous! But please, if you are a reader on a fixed income we implore you to keep your money. Memberships help pay our bills but ottawan donations should be a treat and not a burden. 

As for t-shirts: we‘ve sent off the order but we’re still waiting to get them. They are coming!

– Martha and Darren

•   Congratulations to the Ottawa eateries that made Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list this week: Buvette Daphnée (97 out of 100), North & Navy (95), Supply and Demand (75), Arlo Wine & Restaurant (71), Atelier (43), Riviera (28). Additional kudos to Buvette Daphnée for also landing 8th place on the Best New Restaurants list.
•  Kitchesippi Beer kicks off the 2024 Patio season with a Beer Garden Launch Party with live music, fresh beer, and special Sangria. Food trucks Ad Mare and Le’s Fusion Kitchen will serve up seafood, Vietnamese, and Thai treats.
•  altgrocery.ca is a nation-wide list of independent, local grocery stores when you want to shop outside of the Big Five supermarkets. The Ottawa list is pretty good, and there’s a form you can complete to tell them about grocery options in your neighbourhood.
•  The Knifewear Spring Garage Sale is on until May 20. Visit the Bank St. store for the latest in Japanese knives.
•  The 2024 Ontario Touring Guide by Edible Ottawa and Edible Toronto outlines the province’s 650+ wineries, ciders, distilleries and breweries to visit this summer. Pick up a copy at select locations around town.
•  Animated Coffee is closing after 10 years. All stock on the website is on sale, including coffee, brewing gear, and merch.
•  Meatings’ Customer Appreciation Pig Roast (Friday May 17 from 1:30 am to 2:00 pm) is also a nod to their supplier, Lavergne Western Beef. The event is at Lavergne’s headquarters, 3971 Navan Road in Navan.
•  National Caesar Day is tomorrow (Thursday May 16) but Moose McGuires Hunt Club has been celebrating all week with special cocktails. Receive a free Smirnoff bucket had or sunglasses with every Ceasar purchase. 3320 McCarthy Road, K1V 0X3
•  Peter Hum at the Ottawa Citizen went on a pizza crawl of well-known pie slingers. His verdicts:
  
  🍕 Colonnade Pizza: ‘Cheese, plus nostalgia, were the best things going for our three Colonnade pizzas.’
  
  🍕 KS On the Keys: ‘What was great, though, was KS’s coconut cream pie.’
  
  🍕 Pizza Nerds: ‘The pizzeria strives for quality, variety and imagination with 16 pies at an appealing price point.’
  
  🍕 Tangerine Pizza: Describing the ‘Tangerine Pizza’, ‘All of its ingredients, and especially the zesty tomato sauce, sang.’
  
  🍕 Tennessy Willems: ‘The wild boar pizza was a genius-level savoury-sweet-herby mix of local wild boar sausage, caramelized apple, sage pesto and two-year-old cheddar that should have a day named after it at City Hall.’
  
  However, Hum notes that none of these five beat his favourite pizzerias:  Heartbreakers Pizza, Farinella, Retro Gusto, and Roberto Pizza Romana.
•  Meanwhile, Vittorio’s Pizza House in Sandy Hill was recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world at the World Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. Chef/owner Vittorio Colaiacovo says he added pizza to his reptoire – one year ago – after his bed and breakfast business struggled after COVID.
•  Danielle Jeffery at Eat the Strip sought out Indonesian food at a strip mall in Gatineau, Djakarta Taste, where they have not changed the sign from the former occupant, Le Mexican. She found the rendang was ‘truly incredible’.

Ottawan of the Day

• Jeff McIntyre
• – The Westboro-based graphic novelist spent 11 months travelling in his 1985 Buick LeSabre to find the perfect images for his most recent work, Salmon Run. The graphic novel is available at Perfect Books, Spaniel’s Tale, Westboro Books, and online. (Kitchissippi Times) 

Quote

• “

• He can be a bit of a prick at times

• – Sportsnet journalist Elliotte Friedman on the Sens new head coach Travis Green. Friedman argues that a tough guy is exactly what the team was seeking. (Steve Warne in the Hockey News)

CITY HALL AGENDA

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

🙏 Diane Deans

•  Diane Deans has died after a five-year fight with ovarian cancer. Deans was first elected in pre-almalgamtion Ottawa in 1994, and served continously until 2022. That same year, she was controversially removed from the Police Board by machinations of then-mayor Jim Watson during the Convoy. Deans was 65. (Elyse Skura at CBC)

🚲 Bike Lanes

•  The Province is requiring the City to pay for the bike lane when a replacement bridge is built over the Queensway. The Province is responsible for the costs of construction of the Maitland Avenue bridge over the Queenway when it is replaced in 2027. However, while the lanes for cars will be paid by the Province, bikes lanes will be billed to the City at a cost of $5,403,185.84 (including HST). (Ted Raymond at CTV)

🏗️ Housing

•  Neighbours of a proposed rooming house on Baseline Road complained at a usually quiet City committee yesterday. The Committee of Adjustment is usually so boring that we don’t bother listing it in our ‘City Hall Agenda’ item – it deals with minor technicalities, mostly, like separating a lot into two. In this case, a proposed two storey building near Algonquin College had already been approved as a seven bedroom rooming house. The developer wanted to increase the rooms to 12 and to reduce parking from three spaces to one. Neighbours said a rooming house is out of character with the neighbourhood and would result in rubbish on the streets.  The Committee will make its decision within 10 days. (Arthur White-Crummey at CBC)

💰 Gatineau Park

•  Chelsea has lost its appeal to tax the National Capital Commission for Gatineau Park. Chelsea has been arguing that the bits of Gatineau Park inside Chelsea could potentially be used for development and should pay the appropriate equivalent in tax. The Commission successfully argued that the land will stay a park and will never be developed. Federal land is not subject to municipal tax but the Commission does pay a fee in lieu equal tax equal to what the tax would be in the cities it operates in, in this case about half of what Chelsea wanted. (Andrew Duffy in the Ottawa Citizen) 

MORE FROM THE OTTAWAN

• 🍺 Our Ottawa-Gatineau Craft Brewery Map

•  

• 🏆 The Best Of Ottawa Awards 2023

•  

• 🎧 Best Podcasts from Ottawa

EVENTS

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

Today

•  Grab your laptop, purchase some lunch or a cocktail and settle in for an afternoon of working at Absinthe’s Office Hours 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm at 1208 Wellington St. W K1Y 2Z7.

•  ByTowne Cinema: Terrestrial Verses, German Language Film Festival Ottawa: Alma and Oskar, Princess Mononoke (English subtitles)

•  Mayfair Theatre: Irena’s Vow, Purple Noon, Sasquatch Sunset
  
  Gigs

•  Jazz Nite with Peter Woods. Bar Robo

•  Jazz Jams with Ali Berkok. Montgomery Scotch Lounge

•  Gone Fishing, Valley Girls, Julia Camryn. LIVE on Elgin

•  Ray Chen (Mendelssohn and Mahler). NAC Southam Hall

•  Kings & Things. Atomic Rooster

•  Outside the Box Trivia (secret theme). Beyond the Pale

Tomorrow

•  flo. Literary Magazine presents a Poetry Workshop with award-winning poet Ellan Chang-Richardson. Free from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm in Meeting Room 1A at the Sunnyside branch of the Ottawa Public Library. Registration is required.
   

•  Alanna Sterling is playing a free lunchtime concert at the NAC’s Peter A. Herrndorf Place.

•  Westboro Village kicks off the long weekend with shopping and games in one of Ottawa’s hippest neighbourhoods. While you’re shopping, make sure you stop by 347 Richmond Road and 365 Richmond Road for lawn games, 300 Richmond Road for live music by Eric Luca, and Winston Square for a photo op.

•  Pony Girl is nominated in a massive five categories, but will they walk away with all the trophies? Is the Single of the Year award Zach Diamond’s to win? Get the answers to these questions and celebrate Ottawa’s bands, solo artists, venues, curators, producers, engineers, and music educators at the 5th annual Capital Music Awards at the Bronson Centre Music Theatre (211 Bronson Ave, K1R 6H5). Presented by the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition.

•  Ottawa Art Gallery’s Give to Get Art Auction is not just one of the coolest events on the Ottawa social calendar; the funds raised help keep admission to the space free and assist local artists. New this year: in addition to artworks participants will also bid on the chance to win commissions from a variety of artists. Tickets from $150.43. Thursday May 16 at the Alma Duncan Salon, Arts Court.

•  Michaela Chung brings her Daddy Issues show back to Yuk Yuk’s. Laugh along as she spins comedy gold out of dating, sex, family, and religion. Yuk Yuk’s at Biagio’s (1394 Richmond Road, K2B 6R8.

•  ByTowne Cinema: One Life, Terrestrial Verses

•  Mayfair Theatre: Common Ground, Irena’s Vow, Femme

  Gigs

•  James Arif & The Noise Komplaints. Montgomery Scotch Lounge

•  LustSickPuppy, Prolaps, Fire Manic. The 27 Club

•  Ray Chen (Mendelssohn and Mahler). NAC Southam Hall

•  Ana Egge. NAC Fourth Stage

•  Capital Music Awards afterparty. Rainbow Bistro

•  The Moto Social (meet-up). The Senate Tavern on Wellington

•  Country Nights - Southbound Boots. Heart & Crown ByWard

  Market

•  Actor/Filmmaker Social. Royal Oak 188 Bank St.

•  Moratorium, Ivy Gardens, Empress. House of TARG

•  Rachelle and Izzy & Wishkey Ghost (Indie Night). Overflow Brewing Company

Friday

•  Barrhaven Ribfest & Poutine promises more of everything they do so well: ribs, poutine, BBQ, music, plus they’ve got a new Kids Zone. The festival starts at noon today and runs until Sunday at Clarke Fields Park, 93 Houlahan Street, K2J 3Y7.

•  Dance your way into the long weekend with a Salsa workshop. It’s a drop-in affair with a dance party following the instruction, and you don’t need a partner or any experience. Lesson and party $18, party only $13. Rahim Salsa at St John the Evangelist Anglican Church, 275 Elgin St. K2P 0H8.

•  Thirteen Strings presents Vaughan William’s ‘The Lark Ascending’ with violinist (and Concertmaster of the Orchestra Classique de Montréal) Marc Djokic. The programme will also include selections from Robert Rival and Arcangleo Corelli. Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, 355 Cooper St, Ottawa, ON K2P 0G8.

•  Saunders Farm has lots of activities for energetic families this long weekend, but if you’re just looking for a new spot to hang out after work and maybe enjoy some wood fired pizza, head to the farm’s CiderHouse for Happy Hour today from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Reservations are necessary.

•  ByTowne Cinema: On Earth As It Is In Heaven, Su l’Adamant (On the Adamant), We Grown Now, I Saw the TV Glow

•  Mayfair Theatre: Wicked Little Letters, Irena’s Vow, The Red Circle

  Gigs

•  Booster Fawnn, Debbie Christ, Twin Turbo. LIVE on Elgin

•  Justin Duhaime. Montgomery Scotch Lounge

•  Forró Fever: Music and Dance Extravaganza. Queen St. Fare

•  The Start. The Prescott

•  Adeoluwa featuring Kobe Bean. Art House Café

•  Abigail Lapell. Red Bird

•  Dart Trees, Backseat Dragon, Customer Service. Rainbow Bistro

•  Revenant Dan, The Murder Crows, The Mountain Gems. Irene’s Pub Restaurant

Just Announced / Now Booking

• All aboard the Disco Bus, which will take intrepid shoppers on another excursion to cool retail opportunities in our fair city. Organised by She Shops Local, the next trip on Sunday, June 9 will visit 10 of Ottawa’s best thrift stores, Art in the Park festival, and a farmer’s market.

• If you think quilting is an old fashioned past time, you haven’t met Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild members. They’re holding a Show to celebrate their 10 years of existence on Sunday June 2, at which you can view some pretty cool quilts, ask questions and become truly inspired. To get early access to the show, buy tickets to the Gala the night before

• Juno-nominated Gentle Sparrow releases his new EP on June 9, with Lanark’s Ali McCormick opening. Irene’s Pub Restaurant, 885 Bank St. K1S 3W4

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