By Olivia Grandy
For Revello Williamson, posting Ottawa food reviews online isn’t just a creative side hustle. It’s also an avenue for him to connect with like-minded people and highlight Ottawa’s diversifying food scene.
“Can’t wait until you guys open up,” commented Williamson, who runs Reviews by Revello, on an Instagram post teasing the now-open JFUSE back in February. The Old Ottawa East restaurant allows customers to chow down on aburi, also known as flame-grilled sushi, in a sleek and modern environment.
“I’ve been ready,” added Nadia Murisa of Spotted Ottawa on the same post. Williamson and Murisa say they’ve worked hard to build a trusting relationship with their audiences. In the process, they say they have found a community in a space where, until recently, they did not see many creators who looked like them.
“When I started my page, strangers reached out to me being like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so happy this page exists,’ and I know of other pages that are kind of doing the same thing, but obviously, you have to stand out in your own way, and I think being Black is a standout in itself,” Murisa said.
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With a background in marketing, she began her page out of frustration that Ottawa was being perceived as boring. Along with food reviews, you may know Murisa for posting monthly calendars on her page showcasing all the experiences the city has to offer.
“Everyone’s online scrolling. If they’re not liking the post or commenting on the post, they can see our comments,” Murisa said.
Williamson, who started his account after moving to Ottawa from P.E.I., was curious to explore all the food options in the capital. Now, he works in construction during the day and shoots content on the side. “People want Ottawa’s food scene to look like Toronto’s food scene or look like Montreal’s food scene. They want to have variety…. They want to be able to be proud of the city that they’re in,” he said.
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Whether he’s highlighting spicy charcoal chicken, bacon-topped cronuts or comforting pho, Williamson says he purposefully infuses his personality into his content. “I love food, and food will always be my vehicle for my page, but I also just enjoy [it] being a place where people come to laugh,” he said.
Alyssa Brown, who began running Ottawa Eats in 2019, initially did not show her face on her account but has more recently started featuring her face and personality.
In 2019, there were next to no Black food bloggers [in Ottawa] of those who did share themselves and their faces, so it definitely didn’t inspire me to put that out there either, but I’m very happy to see that is changing.
Brown’s account focuses on the complete dining experience and features colourful visuals of everything from crunchy breakfast sandwiches to refined appetizers. A post introducing herself to her community is now pinned at the top of her page.
Brown, Murisa and Williamson have connected offline and collaborated on content. Although they have found each other, they say being a Black food content creator has its challenges.
Murisa said she sometimes gets racist direct messages. A user once told her to go back to her own country after she had commented on a local meme account.
“If anything, it’s motivation for me to just keep pushing because, obviously, you feel uncomfortable enough to try to send me away, which just is projection at the end of the day because you’re intimidated for whatever reason,” she said.
Still, Murisa said feeling supported and connected to other creators helps her overcome imposter syndrome and stay creative in her content.
“When it comes to exposure or big businesses or even the city just highlighting us in posts—it’s monumental when that happens because there’s not a lot of us. There’s a handful of [Black] foodie and lifestyle creators in the city, and we try to stay very tight-knit,” Murisa added.
Brown, Murisa and Williamson say they feel they are contributing to a recovering restaurant industry by building trust with their audiences and making recommendations.
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About 360 new food premise licenses were issued in Ottawa between March 2023 and January 2024.
Max Roy, Vice President of Restaurants Canada, said creativity among restaurant owners and consumers is driving this upward trend in Ottawa, counter to the rest of the country. “The restaurants that survived the pandemic have the very good quality of being creative and listening to what the customers are asking for,” he said.
Labour shortage and inflation can be challenging for up-and-coming restaurants, but online foodie communities offer valuable insight for restaurants getting started, Roy explained.
“The online community can be a very helpful tool in determining the location of the restaurant, the menu items that you should be putting forward and what the experience is that the consumers are looking for,” Roy said.
James Park, the creator and owner of J:Unique and JFUSE, said his two restaurants depend on Instagram for marketing. With JFUSE, he hopes to create a dining experience that does not yet exist in Ottawa.
Allie Crawford, who manages JFUSE and J:Unique’s Instagram pages, says the hype generated by Ottawa’s online foodie community has been energizing during the process of opening a new restaurant. Crawford partially attributes this to Ottawa’s small town in a big city vibe.
[In Ottawa,] people really care about what’s happening next door,” Crawford said. “You give energy to get energy.”
Similar to Murisa’s page’s perspective, despite the stereotype that Ottawa is boring, Crawford, who’s lived in many places abroad, said she’s had the most fun in Ottawa because of the people who live here. Additionally, she said content creators’ candid and unsponsored review format generates a new form of authenticity for consumers. “As somebody in this generation, I think a lot of us are using those platforms to find places that will be of interest to us,” she said.
Williamson said even though he knows his contribution to Ottawa’s counter-trend of restaurant openings is small, his posts do add up.
“I get a lot of people who are new to Ottawa who reach out and are like, ‘Hey … I really like X, Y and Z. Can you tell me places that have these types of food?’” he said. “Even if it’s just one person, it boosts morale. It gets the restaurant owners saying, ‘OK, there is clientele out there that would like to see us succeed.’’
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