All in Food & Drink
“The support that we’ve seen has been tremendous. The welcoming we received from the area has really been the best part. We have so many regular customers and friendly faces who pop in to say hi, grab a steak or two, or even drop off samples of their delicious creations they've made using our meat. “
“ We love to support Elgin street and Ottawa as a whole wherever we can....food, drinks, suppliers, art, music, culinary talent, other businesses...Ottawa is a really great place to be a part of for the variety of things we can tap into.”
“Before the restaurant industry I was in retail which is not a far stretch since it is also a service industry. You name it, I probably worked there. A lot of my customer service and sales skills could attribute to those retail years.”
“From the very first time we visited the Cafe years ago we knew it had great potential. Personally, I knew we would be able to take it all to another level with our skills and our creativity. I’ve always told my kids that by the time they were old enough they each would be running their own Cafe Latte Cino’s.”
“Anthony and I have been at it for 21 years. (October 27th 1997) we’ve been fortunate to have fantastic family support starting from our wives. Over the years, several family member worked with us also, today my son is with us, and two cousins. I’m sure there will be more to come. "
“Our favorite part of this industry and Elgin st is the fun and unique people we meet, who come in every day and make us smile, and become part of our family. “
“We roast and blend our own spice blends and for years people would ask mom and dad for a little bag so they recreate some of our flavours at home. For years it went on like this, but then about 12 years ago, we made some packaging for the spices and started selling them in the restaurants. The response was great and then Nitin approached Farm Boy about carrying the whole line. “
“An urban sociologist, Ray Oldenburg, coined the term “the third”. The First place being your home, the Second place being your job and the Third place being a gathering spot for all.”
“It continues to astound me to see so many amazing people come together and business relationships develop since before we've opened. We've received donations from local partners who have helped our café come to life, such as the hand-crafted cat tree, furnishings and other supplies. We source our menu items locally as much as possible, from the coffee roasters to the baked goods. “
“ From the day we opened our doors we could not keep up with demand. In order to work the hours required we created a Fun environment that persists today. If it is not fun we don’t do it. We have fun making our beer; fun selling it and we hope that people have fun drinking it.”
“I've always had a love of sweet treats since I can remember. It's hard to pinpoint when I actually started baking... My passion for food in general really started when I became vegetarian about 15 years ago. It forced me to start thinking about food in a different way. A few years later I became vegan and suddenly found that I couldn't eat pretty much any baked good! I had a choice….”
“Ottawa has a surprisingly seedy and colourful history. Many people look at it today as a clean, safe city to raise a family, but back in the day Ottawa (or Bytown as it was known) was considered one of the more drunken, violent and seedy cities in North America. It was mostly settled by hard-nosed lumberjacks and heavy drinking canal workers, none of whom ever really got along.“
“After we discovered and rehomed the colony of honeybees that was living in our wall in 2009, we quickly fell in love with the hobby. Over the course of a few years, we kept meeting people who were interested in keeping bees and learning about beekeeping, which sparked the idea for Host a Hive, our beehive rental program.”
“The Momo Spot are a group of friends that met at University. Some of us grew up here and others came here more recently for school. We are passionate about sharing our culture and food and in 2015, we took the opportunity to help Nepal after the devastating earthquake and held a fund raiser.”
“5 generations have worked at Louis’. It’s truly an amazing feeling and hopefully more generations to come.”
“Actually, it's been a long time dream... then an opportunity came up and I seized it. I wanted to created a small café where my two daugthers could have their first little job. I had read a book (fiction) about the life of a family growing up in Italy in 1950 or so. One of the character's name was Biscotti... I thought it sounded nice for a café :) ”
“Born in Montreal, I moved to Belgium at the age of seven and lived in Brussels for eleven years. My father worked in the hotel industry so I had the opportunity to travel all around Europe and visit some beautiful cities.”
“We wanted to create a space that was a hybrid of several business models to bring people together and expose them to art and culture.”
“I’m originally from Winnipeg, first generation immigrant from Poland! My whole family was born there, I was the only one born in Canada.”
“Ottawa is my hometown, I was born here and my family and most of the people I love live here. I care about this city and I’m happy my three kids are growing up here. I started LUNCH a little over ten years ago and I think it’s my small contribution to helping Ottawa grow.”
