By Andre. R. Gagne, Jane Heintzman, Christina Leadlay and M. Marta Reyes. This article appeared in the April 2021 edition of the New Edinburgh News.
Bye Table 40, hello Bottle Shop
Over the years, Fraser Café’s Table 40, next door to the long-running restaurant at 7 Springfield Rd., has played host to gatherings of all descriptions, including Books on Beechwood’s popular Titles at Table 40 series, when local authors dined with neighbourhood residents to discuss their latest works.
But since the pandemic began more than a year ago, communal dining and group gatherings in general have disappeared, abruptly quashing the raison d’être of Table 40. So café owner Ross Fraser and his team decided to convert the space to a new use.
In early March, Fraser’s new Take Away and Bottle Shop launched operations in the former Table 40 premises. The shop offers both a range of fresh prepared foods such as house-made pasta, freshly baked breads and pastries, salad bowls, and fried chicken, along with such frozen specialties as tourtière, meatballs, lasagna and a variety of soups. For the sweet-tooth crowd, the shop is featuring coconut butter tarts, pumpkin pie with ginger streusel, and a selection of Fraser’s homemade ice creams. You’ll also find such tasty Fraser condiments as preserves, hot sauces and dressings: the shop’s product list will “be ever growing and evolving,” says general manager Carmen Gunn.
As a complement to your gourmet meal, the Bottle Shop offers a full range of libations from cocktails to craft beer and wine. The wine selection is particularly extensive, featuring Italian, Chilean, French, Spanish and California red wines, along with white, sparkling and rosé wines from New Zealand, Italy, South Africa, France and California. And mark-ups have been deliberately kept within a reasonable range.
Online orders from the shop can be placed any time, for pick-up Wednesday through Sunday from 4–6:30 p.m. In mid-March the shop’s doors also opened for in-person shopping. And there’s more to come: “We’ll be expanding to include a lunch-time service in the coming weeks,” says Carmen, “stay tuned for an update!”
When the pandemic struck, the Fraser Café team pivoted swiftly from indoor dining to an extraordinarily popular family-style dinner service, offered Wednesday through Sunday for take-out or local delivery. Fraser’s cuisine is offered in generous portions for families of two or four, with menus posted online several days in advance. But these meals sell out quickly, so don’t dither before placing your order!
In recent weeks, the café has added yet another arrow to its quiver, launching a focaccia pan pizza menu, available for pick-up Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There are currently three options, covering a range of tastes from the adventurous meat-lover to the vegetarian. In the former category, the Spicy T-Loaded Pan Pizza, is lives up to its billing with hot paesanella salami, Italian sausage, red peppers, banana peppers, red onion, hot honey, and more. The Fennel Countdown dials down the spice a touch, offering a combination of fennel cream, mushrooms, artisan ham, bacon, arugula, carrot sesame pesto, pear, parmesan, and mozzarella. And last but not least, the Legend Has It Antipasto Veggie-Loaded Focaccia Pan Pizza serves up a combo of artichoke hearts, broccoli rabe, black olives, fior di latte, tomatoes, pickles red onion, oregano, and mozzarella.
On April 8th, Fraser will reopen to indoor diners. But as long as COVID-restrictions remain in force, both restaurant hours and the numbers of diners will be limited, and physical-distancing, mask-wearing and strict hygiene protocols will continue.
Dinner service will be offered on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5:30–9:00 p.m., and in keeping with provincial alcohol restrictions, bar service ends promptly at 9 p.m. A maximum of 35 guests may dine at one time, with no more than four guests (including children) at one table. Guests’ reservation and arrival times will also be staggered to minimize crowding at the entrance.
And one more thing to look forward to at Fraser Café: when spring and warmer weather finally arrive, plans are shaping up to relaunch the outdoor patio operation: “We do plan to rebuild and give it another go!” says Carmen.
Visit frasercafe.ca for their latest menus and ordering details. –JH
Red Door re-opens after fire
New Edinburgh coffee lovers were quickly set at ease only a day after the neighbourhood favourite café Red Door Provisions had a fire scare.
In the wee hours of Feb. 19 a malfunctioning water pump caused an electric flame-up that sent firefighters rushing to the 117 Beechwood Ave. coffee shop to find smoke billowing from a basement room. The blaze wasfully extinguished by 2:40 a.m. with minimal damage.
Chef and owner Lauren Power is happy to report that it took only 24 hours to clean up, as firefighters didn’t have to use much water. The café was able to open again in short order. The team, already stressed in these trying times, worried what the loss of perhaps a week or longer might mean for business, so news from the City that they could re-open so soon was as sweet as their baked goods. From the many online posts, it was welcome news for the taste buds of their clients, as well.
“We had an outpouring of support from our community which was really incredible!” says Lauren, who says that the flood of orders to their online shop kept the kitchen team busy during the clean-up. “Because of the support, we didn’t lose the sales that we had predicted, and we had a fantastic 12 hours preparing more than200 orders for pick-up the following day. It was amazing, and we are very thankful to our beautiful community.”
While this wasn’t something the team could have predicted, Lauren says the café is going to do a complete re-evaluation of their fire, security, and surveillance system. Though it worked perfectly, the Red Door Provisions team wants to ensure it always will.
Meanwhile, the café is looking ahead to the summer patio season – armed with lessons learned during the first summer of COVID-19 restrictions.
“We learned how to adapt on a weekly, if not daily, basis! We will continue to make these adaptations as required this patio season,” Lauren says.“We are really looking forward to opening up our back parking lot with picnic tables again, and are going to try to improve our seating as best we can. Our front area will also be open for distanced seating.”
As for what patrons can expect in 2021, Lauren says they’ll focus on expanding their offerings. They’ve addedmore grocery items, as well as prepared meals and frozen pastries, allowing customers to take Red Door Provisions favourites home to enjoy.
They are also looking to branch out this summer, with a food truck and a second location – certainly no easy task these days. But, as Lauren explains, like many other small businesses, Red Door Provisions has no option but to keep going.
“These businesses are our livelihoods, and the livelihoods of our staff. We have poured years of blood, sweat, and tears into our business, and have a lot left to accomplish and prove! It will take a lot more than a global pandemic to shutter our doors, and we are always ready for the next change or adaptation that we need to make in order to keep growing and thriving.”
Visit Red Door Provisions at 117 Beechwood Ave., online at reddoorprovisions.com or by phone at 613–695-6804.-ARG
Sezlik team grows
Ottawa’s hot real estate market has been making headlines for a few months now, so it’s no surprise that realtors are building their teams to keep up with demand for their services. Long-standing NEN advertiser Sezlik Realty (sezlik.com), based on Landry Street, is doing just that.
Charles Sezlik and Dominique Laframboise welcomed Tracy Martineau to their team full-time this past February. Tracy will be a familiar face to many readers. For the past seven years, she managed Jacobsons Gourmet Concepts at 103 Beechwood Ave. (Her mother Terri still works there, Tracy confirms in an email to the New Edinburgh News.)
Attention to detail and kind customer service are skills Tracy honed not only at Jacobsons but also in her 25 years in the restaurant industry in Ottawa and Toronto. In 2016, she launched her own business, Vanilla Staging and Home Organizing, and has been helping the Sezlik team for more than a year.
As a client concierge and staging consultant, Tracy helps clients get their home ready and picture-perfect, working hands-on with each client. With Ottawa’s housing market showing no signs of cooling, Tracy’s staging skills will be working overtime this spring, the traditional season for house purchases.
“We continue to come up with new, innovative, and personalized marketing strategies to assist [sellers] in achieving their goals,” Tracy tells NEN, hinting that Sezlik has “big changes” in store this season. Intriguing!
NEN thanks the Sezlik team for their continued support, and we wish Tracy and the entire Sezlik team all the best for 2021. –CL
Teaching all dogs good tricks
A new service in our community has arrived just in time to polish up the manners of pandemic pooches for the coming season of social activity (distanced, of course) in local parks and green spaces.
Happy Fido Dog Training (happyfidocompany.com) offers force-free dog obedience training, puppy socialization classes, and consultation on a wide range of dog behaviour issues. It’s owned and operated by Manor Park resident Fumie Watanabe, a professional dog trainer. She holds certification from the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, and has specialized training in dealing with dog aggression, and in canine first aid. Before launching her business, Fumie worked for several years in a local force-free dog training school.
Fumie has attended a variety of seminars, conferences, courses and workshops with leading professionals in canine training, and works hard to stay abreast of the latest research. “The art and science of dog training are constantly evolving based on research,” says Fumie. “I want to help dogs and their families using up-to-date,evidence-based dog training methods through my business.”
Fumie has had dogs in her life since childhood. As a child in Tokyo, Japan, her family had a large German Shepherd, which she admits was “a challenge” in that famously populous cosmopolitan centre. Interestingly, she redirected her early training skills to pet birds, which she taught both to “speak” and to come when called!
In recent years, Fumie has lived and worked with Jaxx, a rescued cocker spaniel. Like many rescue animals with difficult backgrounds, her companion came with a host of behaviour problems, the handling of which first sparked her interest in dog training. Perhaps the most widespread behaviour issue in Fumie’s experience is “reactivity.”
Reactive dogs overreact to such situations as meeting another dog, a loud noise, or what they perceive as a hostile object. (In my own household, garbage bags and umbrellas were prime offenders!) “It’s like a panic attack,” says Fumie. Typically, the dog’s reaction (lunging, barking, growling, or snarling) is driven by fear, lack of socialization, over-excitement or a combination of all three. And as many struggling owners know, the problem can be incredibly difficult to handle, so professional expertise can be a lifesaver.
As long as pandemic restrictions continue, in-person/paws training is regrettably not an option. However, Happy Fido offers dog training sessions and behaviour consultations via Zoom (visit the website for details). Once the COVID situation improves and rules are relaxed, Fumie plans to offer indoor, in-person, semi-private classes (three dogs maximum per class), as well as one-on-one, in-person, private sessions. The exact location remains to be determined, but, says Fumie, “it will likely be in the New Edinburgh and Manor Park area.”
Happy Fido’s Good Manners class in basic obedience is an eight-week course that includes a 45-minute webinar on training theory and puppy development stages, followed by seven one-hour classes. The Puppy Socialization class – which Fumie regards as a critical step in the training process – includes a 45-minute webinar, and six one-hour classes. Fumie thinks of her own beloved dog as “a perfect example of what happens when a pup is NOT socialized early,” and is strongly in favour of starting the socialization process at eight to 12 weeks, after the puppy’s first round of shots.
Among the many skills required to be a capable dog owner is the ability to “read” canine body language. “I often feel that owning dogs without knowing how they actually communicate is like trying to survive in a foreign country without knowing the language,” says Fumie. Through her training and experience, she has acquired considerable fluency in this mysterious language, and helps her clients to develop their own expertise in reading the signals, from the submissive grin of a guilty mischief-maker to the raised hackles of fear or aggression. No training needed to interpret the wildly wagging tail and loopy smile – they’re happy to see us!
Contact Happy Fido Dog Training at info@happyfidocompany.com; on Facebook facebook.com/HappyFidoCo; or on Instagram instagram.com/happyfidoco. Good luck to Fumie: you’ll find no shortage of potential clients in our dog-loving neighbourhood! –JH
New brewery pours liquid gold
For Duncan Mackay, Duncan Studd and Jeff Moore, part of the team behind the brewery, it was about time! The nugget of the idea emerged years ago, when the three were working as geologists in search of gold.While many of us have tasted a craft beer (or seven) before, this may be the first to have a golden beginning.
“The name was thought up by my fiancée while we were on a drive through rural Ontario and happened to pass a gem mining location. We wanted to keep the theme close to [our] shared mineral exploration background,” explains Duncan Mackay, referring to the trio as prospectors. “Beyond the mining connotation, Good Prospects also reflects the positive vibe that we have felt from the local community and that we hope to contribute to.”
Mackay was first introduced to the craft beer world on a surfing trip to Tofino, B.C. Having only tasted beers from the major companies, he was blown away by how much more enjoyable a craft brew was. He startedmaking his own beer while still in university, by first trying to emulate his favourite local brews before moving onto his own creations. It was a lucky strike that, while mining for those literal golden riches, he’d discover two other guys that also had a love of craft beer – and the experience to brew up a new business.
Duncan Studd, Mackay says, has a knack for creating novel recipes, while Jeff Moore, in addition to having brewing knowledge, happens to be an excellent carpenter and all-around handyman. Once Good Prospects is in full swing, customers will be able to check out Jeff’s work: the cherrywood bar and tables he has built to kit out the tasting room.
“We had originally planned to open in Spring 2020. That all changed with the first wave of the pandemic and the uncertainty at that time. Our construction was stalled for a couple months while we sorted out what could be done, but we kept pushing ahead,” explains Mackay. The trio is looking ahead to an opening later this year.
Good Prospects has been a business three years in the making, so what are a few more months to ensure things roll out right? For now, the team is happy with how the community poured out to collect their initial batches, made available for curbside pick-up.
“Brewing the first batch for the public and filling our bigger fermenters was exciting! I had brewed the Canary in a Kolsch Mine recipe many times before, but it was a special feeling to be putting labels on the bottles knowing the next person who picked up this beer would be one of our first customers,” says Mackay.
Along with the aforementioned brew, when taking a swig of a Good Prospects beer like Gold Strike Grisette or Rough Gem IPA, you can bet it’s been thoroughly mined beforehand for the perfect taste. Mackay would have it no other way. He still makes beers inspired by favourites he’s dug up over the years. When he finds one he really likes, he researches its style – flipping through texts from as far back as the 1800s or travelling the worldto find the right mix.
“What sets us apart from other craft breweries is our focus on more traditional European styles of beer. Our two mains right now are a Kolsch-style ale and a grisette: a Belgian ale). We are working on a Dunkel recipe and will have a couple of our saison recipes going into the fermenters soon, too.”
Though still a work in progress, the brewery website goodprospects.ca is the place to secure some bottles of Good Prospects. But get your orders in early: new brews are popular and tend to sell out quickly.
“Selling out of beer in the first two weeks was a welcome surprise,” says Mackay. “We have had to really push to up our production, but knowing the support from the community is there has really motivated us to work as hard as we can. We are very grateful to our new friends and neighbours for cheering us on!”
Good Prospects Brewing is located at 411 St. Laurent Blvd. (near Full Cycle). Visit them online at goodprospects.ca –ARG
‘Burgh BFFs launch PR firm
An idea that sprouted while pounding the pavement on Crichton Street over many years has now blossomed into a reality for two longtime friends and New Edinburgh residents. Meet Liz Gray-Smith and Sally Douglasand their new public relations firm: GSD and Co. The name is both a reference to their last names (Gray-Smith Douglas) and the phrase “Get S@#t Done” – which is essentially what they like to do and how they’ve modelled their business.
“We do the things our clients don’t have time to do but need doing,” says Liz. GSD specializes in project management and external and internal communications, and also partners with other specialists in graphic design, social media, and web design, among other services. “We are well connected with ‘giggers’,” explains Sally, referring to people who work in the gig economy, characterized by short contracts and freelance jobs. Liz and Sally bring in a combined experience in journalism, project management, and media and government relations.
It’s still early days, but GSD is already cultivating a roster of small- and medium-sized businesses and associations as their clients, and Liz and Sally have been pleasantly surprised by how many gigs they already have on the go. No small feat during a world pandemic, but according to Sally, there was no better time to start a business like theirs.
“I can’t think of a single organization that isn’t going through some sort of change right now, from working remotely to how they’re engaging with clients,” she says. “It’s all about change management and they need communications solutions to support that internally and externally.”
Like most business weathering the pandemic, their interactions are virtual, but they’re eager to meet face-to-face with their clients in the near future, which both feel is key to sparking the kind of creativity that gets the job done in their line of business. And when that happens, they intend to hold meetings right here in the neighbourhood and take advantage of the many coffee shops and restaurants here, as a way to support the other entrepreneurs in their own backyard.
“It’s all about supporting the community who has supported us all these years,” says Liz, adding that GSD looks forward to helping promote some of the businesses in New Edinburgh in the near future as well.
Learn more about GSD and Co. at gsdandco.ca. –MMR
Your body’s one-stop-shop
Last fall, when Craig Adams closed Studio One personal training following a roller-coaster of pandemic lockdowns, local chiropractor Dr. Pierre Brunet stepped in to take over the lease for the second floor at 1 Springfield Rd. (above the soon-to-open Mr. Luko coffee shop).
Dr. Brunet had been serving clients at Studio One for several years, and with Craig’s departure, he took the plunge to set up the Rockcliffe Chiropractic Centre (drbrunet.com), a full-service clinic offering chiropractic treatment, acupuncture, active release therapy (a manual technique for releasing painful soft tissue restrictions), customized exercise programs, massage therapy, and personal fitness training.
In recent months, the former Studio One space has been reconfigured to create two new chiropractic treatment offices, a massage treatment room, and a large open-concept rehabilitation area. Work is also underway to create a physiotherapy office, as plans are in the works to offer physiotherapy services, in keeping with Dr. Brunet’s objective of building a multi-disciplinary clinic, or “one-stop shop” for aches, pains and injuries.
The current roster at Rockcliffe Chiropractic includes two chiropractors, Dr. Brunet and colleague Dr. Greg Stolz, a specialist in shoulder injuries; Registered Massage Therapist Keaton Basso, who offers fascial stretch therapy and kinesiology, in addition to therapeutic massage; and Lidia Szucs, a local personal trainer who previously practiced at the former Studio One. Lidia has been providing in-person services since Feb. 16 when COVID restrictions were slightly relaxed.
Strict COVID protocols are in place at the clinic to protect all concerned. Precautions include screening questionnaires for clients, mask-wearing for all participants, frequent hand washing, and physical distancing during appointments. Dr. Brunet wears both a mask and gloves, and sanitizes equipment before and after each patient. The clinic’s square footage allows for a maximum of 14 clients and staff within the space.
Despite continuing concern over community spread of the virus, Dr. Brunet has found that almost all his regular clients have chosen to continue in-person treatments, as opposed to opting for virtual consultations. Massage therapist Keaton has had a similar experience, treating a large influx of patients since the start of the new year. However, once clients have received much-needed pain relief from the initial hands-on treatments, follow-up appointments can often be carried out virtually. Via video calls, Dr. Brunet and his team can check up on prescribed exercises, evaluate range of motion, and offer advice on pain management, ergonomics for home offices, or more effective performance of exercises.
Like many others in his industry, Dr. Brunet has noticed a marked escalation in cases of low-back and neck pain since the onset of the pandemic last March. He notes: “My patients have become a lot more sedentary as a result of gym closures and changes in their daily habits like walking to work, or using the stairs at work.” Compounding the problem are the makeshift home-office set ups that have taken the place of more ergonomically-correct workplace settings, and taken a toll on posture and overall musculoskeletal health. In these cases, Dr. Brunet and his colleagues prescribe a corrective exercise routine to resolve pandemic pains.
Rockcliffe Chiropractic Clinic’s hours of operation are Mondays and Fridays, 8 a.m.–5p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12–8 p.m.; and Wednesdays, 8a.m.–6p.m. For details, visit drbrunet.com or call 613-979-7461. –JH
Peace of mind for property rentals
Faithful NEN advertiser Greentree & Co. Rentals celebrates 32 years in business in 2021. This family-run New Edinburgh-based business was created in 1989 by the late Mary Ellen Boomgaardt. She was inspired to start a property management company for foreign service members after hearing a tale of woe from one of her husband Ray’s colleagues. “He had rented his house in Ottawa to a tenant. The tenant’s cheques bounced, and after several months he left the property, having never paid any rent and leaving the property in shambles,” explains Mary Ellen’s daughter Aisling Boomgaardt, who now runs Greentree & Co. along with her brother Bram Boomgaardt.
Mary Ellen and Ray were familiar with what foreign service members and diplomats had to go through managing their properties while overseas, having been on posting themselves. Ray served as legal affairs counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. “We believe there is a continuing market for the services we provide: Protecting one of the most important assets people own, freeing our clients of worries about their home, and giving good reliable service to their tenants,” Aisling notes in an email to the New Edinburgh News.
Greentree’s day-to-day focus is renting the properties and managing the homes under their care. Over the years they have assembled a team of independent contractors to do care and maintenance.
“The enjoyment comes from solving problems of import, working with others, and the satisfaction of a job well done,” she says.
Aisling notes that the name Greentree is a combination of her mother’s maiden name, Greene, and the English definition of Boomgaardt, which means “tree garden” in Dutch. The Greentree logo – a tree inside a house – was developed by a New Edinburgh resident whom Mary Ellen met at a community fitness class run at the former Crichton Street Public School. These green-and-cream signs are ubiquitous in the Burgh during the warmer months when “posting season” starts for foreign service members.
The pandemic has affected the property management industry, explains Aisling. Some tenants have requested a temporary forbearance in their rents, which Greentree has been able to accommodate with landlords. “One curious effect of the pandemic was that a number of tenants decided to purchase homes, so that also has created additional work for Greentree,” Aisling says. “However, the rental market in central Ottawa has remained quite strong.”
In the three decades since her mother founded Greentree, Aisling says many things have changed, from the increased ease of communicating with our clients internationally, to the creation of their website which is a business key driver. Yet some things remain the same: “From day one we used a PC and an HP printer. Mary Ellen actually bought the HP printer while on vacation in New Hampshire, because it was not yet available in Canada. That original printer lasted for nearly 20 years!” says Aisling.
Although Mary Ellen passed away in May 2020, her Greentree legacy continues with Aisling and Bram at the helm. NEN thanks the Greentree team for their many years of support and wishes them all the best! –CL
BUSINESS NOTES:
St. Charles Market (SCM)’s André Cloutier reports that residential occupancy of the new building is moving ahead swiftly, and by April, six of the eight stories will be occupied. Levels seven and eight are well underway, and will soon house four spacious, highly customized penthouse units. This spring, work will ramp up on the remaining portion of the exterior terra cotta cladding, temporarily postponed to prioritize interior finishing of the condos.
Design work is underway for the commercial space adjacent to the SCM forecourt at the corner of Barrette and St. Charles Streets. It’s hoped that the new occupant will very soon be able to announce their arrival! Timelines remain uncertain for the spaces in the former St. Charles church, where progress has been disrupted by the pandemic. –JH
LCBO here at last
By the time you read this, the long-awaited LCBO outlet in Minto Beechwood should be up and running. Minto’s Kevin Harper was exultant to finally reveal a definitive launch date of Mar. 29, when the new, 8,000 square-foot outlet will open its doors to the community after many months (years!) of anticipation. The NEN looks forward to reporting on all the details soon. Kevin is hopeful that a side benefit of the opening will be to attract other prospective occupants to fill the remaining commercial space (about 2,000 square feet). –JH
Minto Beechwood II: While the pandemic has resulted in some delays in the City of Ottawa building approvals process, on the whole, steady progress has continued on plans for Minto II, Minto’s new mixed residential/commercial development with frontages on Beechwood and Barrette Streets. The project application is expected to reach Planning Committee in May.
According to Minto’s Kevin Harper, design work is ongoing, and the company is currently awaiting the first round of comments on its Site Plan presentation, anticipating that these will focus on the height of the brick elements on the Beechwood front, as well as on the linkage between the Beechwood and Barrette buildings. He remains reasonably confident that once the approvals process wraps up later this year, work on the site will be able to launch by November or December, kicking off what he estimates will be a 30-month build.
Minto remains committed to using the Beechwood Village Alliance (BVA)’s “wish list” of amenities as its principal guide to the selection of commercial occupants, and Kevin is well aware that the community preference is essentially “small is beautiful.” The full wish list, which includes a hardware store, a vegan restaurant, a bakery and a gift store, was reported in the October 2020 edition of the NEN. This time, Kevin says, Minto has some skin in the game: the residential units will be rental, as opposed to condominium, so choosing businesses which serve as attractive amenities to building occupants will be a high priority. –JH
