Anyone who loves curry often wants endless supplies. So many restaurants in our city can put a spin on a curry dish, a foodie is never disappointed and a novice is rarely overwhelmed. These magical places come together every year to flaunt their curry skills, and this year it’s for The Great Curry Cook-Off presented by the Ottawa Fringe Festival. For the past several years, the Fringe Festival has put on a fundraiser for curry lovers and curry inspired dishes from local restaurants around the city. Roughly a dozen restaurants... | Continue reading article

This past weekend I got a chance to sit down with co-owners Alessandro Argentina and Mike Hopkins of The Loft Board Game Lounge, to chat about their passion for board games and their brand new lounge. In the midst of preparations for their grand opening this Thursday, the two partners explained their vision and the driving force behind their idea to open the lounge in downtown Ottawa. Alessandro and Mike, both Ottawa natives, joined forces about a year ago in an attempt to introduce something fresh to the Ottawa nightlife... | Continue reading article

Where do you go when you’re craving pho, shawarma, bibimbap, or korma? Where must you absolutely take out-of-town guests for the best sushi, bannock, pupusa, or schnitzel? I decided to put my chopsticks where my mouth is and craft this list of the best global cuisine in Ottawa as a response to this recent Where to Eat in the Capital City feature – while I’m a big fan of every eatery mentioned, what frustrated me was the favouring of obvious, trendy spots and near-omission of global grub. O-town eaters know... | Continue reading article

Privé is at it again promoting another [classy, 19+] mouth watering experience, that has been the Tac-O The Town! What is Privé, you ask… Privé is an Advertising and Marketing agency that loves food. They are “famous” for bringing Ottawa The Underground Chef Market in November of last year and The Sip n’ Slurp Noodle Fest. in February. I used the word “famous” because as a fat girl at heart Privé events are always the highlight to my week. Nothing beats a night out with fantastic food! It’s a perfect... | Continue reading article

When I pulled up to the Overbrook industrial park and saw David Villarroel and his two young boys waving a blaring fire truck towards the back of the building, I thought: Oh no, the Cauldron Kitchen is already up in smoke! Turns out it was just a burning bush outside and not the premature demise of the Ottawa engineer’s new start-up business — a first-of-its-kind in the city — a commercial community kitchen. A sign from above, perhaps? Had he and business partner Dave Neil indeed been “chosen” to lead Ottawa’s... | Continue reading article

Prom dresses, 80’s office attire and a fair share of bad suits will be making their way down Elgin Street on April 26 to celebrate Ottawa’s fourth annual Bad Suit Pub Crawl. Groups of sober strangers put on terrible outfits and stop by pub after pub, transforming into drunken friends, still looking just as awful. All of these efforts go towards raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society. Participants are expected to contribute $2.40 each or an empty case of beer. “Instead, people (usually) hand me $20’s and $50’s,” says... | Continue reading article

Post by Joel Balsam. I love bagels. Not the six serving behemoth donuts with holes found in New York and Toronto; the smaller kind made with water. The Mordechai Richler of bagels attributed in the both aptly regal Montreal Mile-End borough bagel holes St. Viateur and Fairmount. But as the son of a “Montreal Anglophone refugee” who fled to Ottawa in the ‘80’s, I grew up on the incredibly comparable, if not, dare I say it, on par 24/hour bagel shop Kettleman’s Bagels. So when the creators of my beloved... | Continue reading article

It was touted as the most exclusive dining experience in Ottawa — the famous Cobra Club, where the city’s best chefs would get together to cook what they liked. Only the few, the exclusive, the invited, were allowed to taste. It was all so promising, so alluring. From the very beginning, I was captivated by the mystery. But like a tale involving an exotic charmer, reality differed from expectation. I was left with the culinary equivalent of waking up in a motel bathtub full of ice, missing a kidney –... | Continue reading article

This Saturday April 26th, the Brewery Market kicks off the 2014 season with their first event of the year, Drink of Dreams. This will be the event’s third year in the city. From its noble (hops) beginning in Toronto in 2011, they took off in Ottawa the following year, thanks to Taralyn Carver. They packed 10 breweries, 4 food vendors, live music, and thousands of people into a tiny parking lot in Hintonburg. By 2013, it had expanded into several large events held at Parkdale Park. This year, the Brewery... | Continue reading article

Throughout the year, Apt613 is partnering with the National Arts Centre to bring you restaurant reviews by musicians who are part of the  all-Canadian NAC Presents concert series. A couple of weeks ago, we sent a very pregnant Jill Zmud with hubby Alan Neal out to review The Rex, a small homie restaurant off the main drag in Little Italy. JILL:  First of all, let’s just say what excellent timing Apt613 and the National Arts Centre had in giving us this assignment. ALAN: It’s like our last hot date before the baby comes. JILL:... | Continue reading article