ottawa foodies

Ron Eade's blog, Omnivore's Ottawa, has been mentioned here before. I highly recommend it.

The last few posts;
* Whalesbone Oyster House's Joshua Bishop plans to open an environmentally sustainable fish shop on Kent Street in April (for restaurants first and later, possibly, the public).
* Tomorrow, Sunday, February 24th is the last day of business at the original location of The Works at 143 Putman Ave. in New Edinburgh. They are doing 'free' burgers in exchange for donations (noon to 6 p.m.) to benefit the Vanier Boys & Girls Club.
* Chefs/brothers Ross & Simon Fraser will be opening their own restaurant in The Works space in May.
* Val Belcher plans to open a Big Easy's Seafood and Steak House on Preston Street in May.
* 14th annual  Seedy Saturday (March 1, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Ron Kolbus Lakeside Centre in Britannia Park) to buy and exchange interesting and heirloom seeds.

O.K. Enough of my summarizing. Ron's writing is worth visiting...

communities.canada.com

Interesting! The fact that Val Belcher left the Lone Star Group in 2005 must explain why the quality there has suffered a bit in the past few years.

I'll have to subscribe to Ron Eade's blog now... as if I don't already have too much info coming in! ;-)

Who would have thought they would close the original location of The Works? I was very surprised at how small it actually was the first time we went there. The new restaurant will be very intimate, that much is for sure!

Since space is always a big issue in Works locations, I'm not surprised that they're moving it! Correct me if I'm wrong, but the New Edinburgh Works always seemed to be the one with the spottiest quality, right? It might be fixed with the move to a larger location.

Fresh Foodie - Site Question, is there a place on OttawaFoodies where links for other great food websites are listed together?

momomoto,

I had only been to the New Edinburgh location once, but I found it to be BETTER than the Westboro location. I may be in the minority though.

Food&Think, yes, just click on "wiki" and then "Links".

Fresh Foodie - Thanks. BTW, I find the "descriptions" useful, (as I'm sure others do) is this something we the user can add? Otherwise at first glance it is just a sea of lists.

Yes, anyone can edit the wiki content. It might look a little daunting if you aren't familiar with the syntax, so I'm perfectly happy making changes myself if people send me feedback or email.

Fresh Foodie - Ok I tried to access the Link Page Source to add Ron Eade's name beside Omnivore's Ottawa, but all it said was the Page was READ ONLY. I obviously am not familiar with this set-up.

Could you please revise the listing to add the description:
Omnivore's Ottawa - Ron Eade

That would be most helpful. Thanks

Food & Think; Done.

And Ron's last couple posts are, again, really good. The "Speed Dating for Farmers" event at the Chateau Laurier yesterday and a review of last night's National Arts Centre Culinary Experience...with the giant ohhhhhhh pastry table from Pasticceria Gelateria Italiana with 1,400 servings that were completely gone in two hours. (If I had been there: 1.5)
And Michael Blackie's smoked and braised rum & coke duck. (!!!)

Ah! So maybe it's the Westboro one that's causing the issues. I've only been to the one in Bridlewood and the one in The Glebe. I *might* have gone to the Westboro one once. ANYway, I've never had problems so serious that I've said that I'd never return. Maybe I'm just a sucker for delicious burgers ;)

Let me see.... The Works 'Free' Burger for charity event.

The (soft) target was to raise $2500.
They raised $1200.
They served 500 meals.
That's a donation of ($1200/500) $2.40 per meal/person.
To get a Works Burger for $2.40 sounds like a pretty good deal.

Then again, not all meals contained a free burger, say, 10% didn't.

Then the deal would be ($1200/(500-10%)) $2.67 for a Works burger, still a good deal.

Betcha Ion Aimers had a good day. The 500 instead 300 customers in the same timeframe would be treasure trove.

With all the cross selling of onion rings etc. and up selling of deserts (see ottawafoodies.com), I'm sure the expenses were covered, and then some.

Oh yes .... and when people are getting something for free, they are more apt to 'have another round of drinks' and tip better.

Hey Momomoto, I've had problems so serious that I will never go back to any Works. Ever.
When Beechwood first opened, everything was great. Food quality was excellent and service was perfect.
The minute they expanded, it started going down hill. Fast.

Service started suffering IMO and each time I returned they constantly and agressively tried upselling the menu (onion rings, milkshakes, organic beef extra side sauces, pushing beer), even after the orders had been taken. So freakin' annoying!

The last straw was a case of food poisonning which was nasty. Management was not receptive and basically dismissed my claim, even though 3 others in my party had the same outcome. Never again.

I had the same experience as Daft_diner. Loved the Beechwood location, tried the Westboro one in 2005, got salmonella poisoning from undercooked turkey, and never went back. I'm thinking about trying again though -- I'll just pay careful attention to the colour of the meat.

P.S. AMR, thanks for adding Food&Think's suggestion to the Links. :-)

Daft_diner,

I hear ya.

I met an ex-waitress from the Works once . She told me of a contest they ran amongst the wait staff one month. The non-burger sales were measured and the wait staff with the most cross-selling and upselling sales (from non-burger sales), wins.

And it all started with McDonald's famous line, "Would you like fries with that ?".

Maybe the new Works line should be: "Would you like salmonella with that ?"

hehehe

Back to Ron Eade's Blog - he posted a fantastic mac and cheese recipe today. We tried it and it was really good. I'm already looking forward to my lunch tomorrow! :-)

Link: communities.canada.com