ottawa foodies

I went here to try their grilled cheese with artisan ingredients, but this isn't really a restaurant, and the way it was all set up was really awkward to me. From the pictures, reviews and ads I saw, I thought it was a cafe/deli + grocery. Not so... it's actually a high end cooking supply with a tiny area for food in the corner and one table to sit at. It kind of felt like the store was trying to be too many things at once. If they want to be a store + lunch place they should make a nice outdoor patio to sit on or a dedicated lunch cafe area. Some cool stuff in the store, though I can't afford it.

We went on the weekend and picked up a few necessaries, and also a few NON-necessaries.

$5 for a half-pound of Cow's Dairy (PEI) butter made with sea salt?
Yep. It was worth every fork full.

hungry hungry hippo, I asked about the mac n cheese and was told they just couldn't do it in the joint kitchen supply and cheese store because the odor of cooked cheese would end up permeating all of the products. This made good sense to me! It also made me extra sorry I never got to try it. They do have plans to offer it as a bake-at-home product...

Truth be told, I've spent a fair bit of time (and money) at the new location already. Very dangerous to have it near where I work! ;-)

Gah! I went in on Saturday, hoping to grab lunch with the wee ones. No tables for Serious Cheese... seriously sad. I didn't bother asking if they still made grilled cheese or cheesy mac because I there was no place to eat it. I also didn't see it up on any board.

Does anyone know if it is still available?

Happy to have this store in the neighborhood.. finally somewhere to get my knives sharpened! Sadly, the cheese selection was much smaller than across the street at Farm Boy. Mom and I did pick up a number of kitchen gadgets for stocking stuffers. Going to try the cute little café corner next time.

At the cash, do they still sell those really evil chocolate cookies that sort of look like blobs of poo but taste like winning?

I briefly visited the new store in Kanata today. First thoughts:

* Massive store, full of stuff that foodies like to look at and buy. I will spend hours here I'm sure!
* Lots of high end stuff: appliances, knives, ingredients.
* Not a massive amount of product in the cheese section, compared to say Nicastro's or Farm Boy. The selection looks to be of high quality.

and for those of us who have to look OOS up on a map - hooray! Hintonburg/OOS already have way to much going for them :)

With the outmost of respect to GitK, Serious Cheese, and all the nice people in Kanata...

OH CRAP!

Ack! Why do they have to move all the way to suburbia?! #endrant

I am just jealous because I love both stores but I don't drive. I can hop on the bus and be at their OOS location in 15 minutes. When they move to Hazeldean it will now involve a loooong commute for me to get my mac 'n cheese fix. ~sigh~ On a positive note it will be near a Farm Boy so the trip wouldn't be completely wasted...

I've gotten fresh vanilla beans there (3 different varieties the last time I was in). They have a great selection of salsas and hot sauces too.

Q-Tonic is available here! $2.99 per bottle.

I bought "Serious truffle brie triple cream" today.
This cheese is so good!!!
Cow's milk, right amount of salt, hint of truffle, creamy and it melts in your mouth but not heavy at all. This is store's original cheese. I will use this for my macaron!!

Wife got me a gift card and I finally got a chance to wander in. I found their cheese selection to be excellent and unique (compared to say farmboy). They had a number of cheeses from Neil's Yard, which I have not seen in Ottawa before. I bought some stinking bishop as well as a smoked blue cheese. I sampled a number of others - the cheese guy there was very nice and helpful. Fantastic addition to Kanata - really sucks for my wallet.

The croissants here are baked from frozen and are pretty good -- light, moist, chewy, fairly flaky. Not quite Art Is In Bakery or Bread & Sons Bakery good, but certainly better than you find in most bakeries. The one in this photo was $2 at the coffee counter.

The really cool thing is that they are also available for purchase in their frozen state (product of France). This means you can bake them at home for an extra special morning meal without having to first drag yourself to a bakery at an ungodly hour! And they have chocolatines too.