Hintonburg Foodies Walking Tour

If you don't know I live in Mechanicsville ... but we don't like to call it Mechanicsville because of the bad rap historically this neighbourhood had.  When I bought my house, there was a crack house on my block, a drug dealer right across the street and it was a frequent stroll for working women!  I've heard my neighbourhood called the 'white ghetto' (WTF??  as if there is a ghetto in Ottawa, let alone a white one ... but whatever dude!).  Anyway, thanks to a very solid neighbourhood watch, some neighbourhood gentrification, some really great neighbours who watch out for one another and our properties we really have cleaned up the LeBreton/Arlington/Booth/Louisa quarter.  But we still don't call ourselves Mechanicsville.  I usually say LeBreton Flats but since I'm literally right on the borderline of Hintonburg, when the desire suits, I easily slide between one or the other.

This weekend in Ottawa, "Jane's Walks" were taking place through the city.  My sister, Bonnie and I went on the "Hintonburg Foodies" walking tour which was organized and hosted by volunteers from "Apt613" (a whats happening/events guide/what's good in the City blog).  What could be a better way to spend a couple of hours on a beautiful Saturday afternoon walking around this great neighbourhood that has so much to offer, finding out about some new restaurants that I've not yet been to, one that I had not even heard of, and reinforcing some really good superstar favourites?  Sounds good to me.  Just a note for what to expect:  this tour was designed as a 'get out and find out where to eat' in your neighbourhood as opposed to 'lets go out and eat at these places right now' tour.

We began at one of, if not the best, bakeries in this City ... or possibly any City:  Art-Is-In. 

Art-Is-In is located in the City Centre industrial strip mall (near Preston/Somerset/Albert).  I really don't even want to talk about Art-Is-In because if you don't already know about it ... I think you're a lost cause!  There is so much news coverage, blogs, internet traffic on this place and its owner.  If you don't know, you must be hiding under a rock or (gasp) living in suburbia, never venturing into the "CITY" gasp!  Seriously ... if that describes you just stop reading right now.  Get outta my blog!

Anyway ... back to Art-Is-In.  Even before they had their own space, they supplied bread to restaurants and shops across the city.  Now that they have the store and cafe space, to call Art-Is-In a "bakery" is really a misnomer.  They are doing lunches, brunches, pastries, bread, bread oh so much delicious bread.  It is a great experience but if you are going on the weekend, be prepared to stand in line and if you are not there early, be prepared for some things to be sold out!

This is Kevin Mathleson, the brainchild behind Art-Is-In.  I love you Kevin!  He was watching the crowd assemble outside his shop before the tour even began.  As if Art-Is-In wasn't busy enough before, the assembling crowd of 75-100 people will undoubtedly produce some new customers who had never been there before.  You just have to eat ANYTHING Art-Is-In once, and you will be a convert/die hard regular!

Even though the crowd was growing, Bonnie and I arrived early enough to have time to get some sustenance for our (anticipated 1.5 hour) walk. I chose the chocolate, toasted almond cookie and a chocolate croissant.  Bonnie chose the same cookie and a raspberry berliner.  NOOOO, I don't have photos.  WE ATE THEM, we didn't pose them!!!!  LOL.  Actually, halfway through the walking tour, I was noshing on my cookie (gotta keep the strength up!) and two people on the tour actually asked me where I got the cookie from.  Uhhh, duh!  Art-Is-In!!!!  If you start your tour at the best bakery in the city ... you have to take advantage!!  There is no way I could be standing outside Art-Is-In and not think to get myself a little something yummy yum yum!

Anyway, finally ready to begin the tour, our host from Apt613 introduced us to the head of bread production (I think her name was Ashley but sadly I didn't also have a note pad with me).  Flour on her pants, clearly she gets right into her job!  I didn't actually notice, but Bonnie pointed out that she had noticeable burns on her forearms ... a definite hazard of the job.  Having worked in a kitchen for a few years in my younger days, I can totally sympathize.

She was enthusiastic and informative.  She described their Dynamite bread (trust me its dynamite).  I love the potato, caramelized onion and fresh dill.  Its my favourite, but I wouldn't throw any Art-Is-In loaf of bread outta bed for making crumbs!  Ahahahahahaha!

Time to go.  We trudged up the hill and onto Wellington Street.  As I mentioned, this was a big group but everyone was considerate and we waited till everyone arrived till the next presentation started.
We were told that we were on our way to a 'taco truck'.  And I have no idea where we could possibly be going; I could not think of a taco truck along the nearby stretch of Wellington.

Sure enough, Taco Lot was right there on Wellington ... right next to the former "Hintonburger' location and, last time I was there ... it was still a used car lot!

And guess what they serve at Taco Lot?  Tacos!!!  And if you ask the owner what else they make, he'll tell you tacos!  You can place your order here for beef, pork, chicken, fish and/or seafood and vegetarian tacos.

Jon, the owner is telling us that the Taco Lot has been open for a month now.  And he believes that their 'grand opening' was taking place right at that moment with 100 people standing in their lot!  Certainly a whole lot more people who didn't know about this place, now do ... and if the Taco Lot was not busy enough before (I heard rumours of them running out of certain flavours) they sure will be now.

As I said before, Taco Lot is right next door to the former location of Hintonburger (which moved down the street in January to the old, closed down KFC location.  More on that later).  But the old Hintonburger is not abandoned.  Not at all.  The old Hintonburger location is now called SuzyQ Doughnuts.  Bonnie and I added a couple of stops of our own and this was the first unscheduled location that we added to our walking tour.

You'll notice there is a line up out the door and it seems it stayed this way the entire day.  We popped in, just to check it out when we were on our way home, and even though they were almost completely sold out and only minutes from closing for the day ... you would not believe the mammoth size of these donuts and the flavours ... out of this world.  Just as an example:  Pomegranate/White Chocolate, Raspberry Sugar, Maple Bacon, Spicy Chocolate.  This ain't Tim Hortons!  We will be back to pick up one, or two or half a dozen ... soon.

Ok.  Onward.  But because our group is so big, we decide to split into two groups so that there is space for everyone to be able to hear the chef/owner/speaker at all locations.  For our group, the next stop is the Hintoburg Public House.  Since I saw this place, about 2 months ago I've been wanting to check it out.  But I have a serious mental deficiency when it comes to choosing a place to eat.  I am CONSTANTLY seeing and/or hearing about new, hip, cool, different places ... but then when I actually want to go out to eat, I can NEVER think of any of these places and I always end up going to the same old places.  Not that there is anything wrong with tried and true; where you know what you like and what you are going to get ... but you'll miss out on so much by not getting out there to something new ... something which could turn out to be my new favourite thing to eat or my new favourite place to go!

The Hintonburg Public House has been open since last December.  We met with the owner, Summer who informed us that the menu changes monthly and she now is able to update it on the website so you can check it out before going.  She described her menu as comfort food not just regular pub fare.

Directly to the left of the Hintonburg Public House you will see Isobel's Cupcakes & Cookies.  They have recently relocated from their former location in Beechwood.  If you choose well at Isobel's you will LOVE their cupcakes but if you choose badly you will be sadly disappointed, feeling like there is a film of grease coating your mouth.  Even though they claim to use all butter and no lard in their butter cream frosting it just doesn't seem like it.  And then, to the left of Isobel's you will see another new restaurant 10fourteen.  They don't seem to have a website yet but the foodie blogs indicate that it  is a Tapas restaurant.

An interesting point of note, Summer told us that prior to opening the Hintonburg Public House, she owned the Urban Pear in the Glebe.  Last summer, David, the chef from Urban Pear moved into one of the apartment's upstairs from Bonnie.  He has, from time to time, dropped off a little treat for Bonnie ... a little something that he has made.  Although this was not a 'tasting' tour, we were provided with grilled cheese sandwiches courtesy of Hintonburg Public House.  This was the only place that actually brought out little treats.  And they were grabbed up and gobbled up FAST!

I didn't get a chance to get one, but they looked very good and some of the other tour-goers, said they were indeed quite tasty. Besides, I still had my cookie to munch on, so I was OK.  The Hintonburg Public House features many craft brewed beers, and it has received great feedback a nice neighbourhood place to relax and enjoy these craft beers.

Ok.  Ready to move on.  Our group assembles for the next location

We are headed to Tennessy Willems a wood fired oven pizza joint that gets rave reviews.

We met with the chef who has been with the restaurant since it opened.  He stressed their use of local seasonal ingredients.  For example, they are currently featuring a fiddlehead pie.  They only make thin crust 'neopolitan' style pizzas.  The wood burning oven heats to about 600*F.  If you are planning on coming for dinner, he suggests making a reservation.

A fun fact that we learned:  The restaurant is named after the owner's two children:  Tennessy and Willem.  Many of the tour-goers in our group have been to Tennessy Willems before and everyone loves the relaxed casual atmosphere, the family atmosphere, oh and the really great food.

Our next location was Back Lane Cafe, just across the street a bit west of Tennessy Willems.  I had never heard of this place before.  We met with the owner at, where else the back lane beside the restaurant! 

The owner spoke more about the neighbourhood and the importance of the location and the people.  They cook by wood oven which is so hot that the next morning they are able to bake their bread in the still hot oven, the following morning. Apparently this place is known for its bread, and if you come here to eat, you will have baskets of it on the table.

We were off.  On our way to the next location, Bonnie and I made our second unscheduled stop and took a peak into Burnt Butter Italian Kitchen, which is almost directly across the street from Back Lane Cafe.  Interestingly, Bonnie just won a gift certificate to Burnt Butter so she'll be heading over there to check it out soon. Her friend absolutely loves it.  The menu changes frequently and they have weekly specials which are posted on their website.

Next, we head across the street to Hintonburger at the new location, the old KFC.  Oneof the owners that met with us, told us about the community debate going on about what to do with the bucket.  The choices are to leave it up, as is ... supporters of this point of view say its a neighbourhood icon and everyone knows and recognizes it.  Others would like to see it taken down, its an eyesore and doesn't fit in with the new, hip, vibrant neighbourhood rejuvenation.  Or, thirdly, to change it into a bucket of poutine.  I vote for this option.

When asked how many burgers they are making, the owner told us it was probably about 1500 a month but this seemed remarkably low to us.  They are closed Mondays so based on 26 days a month serving burgers that is less than 60 burgers a day.  It just doesn't seem high enough for how busy they are, ALL the time!  I think he maybe wasn't prepared for this question and just guessed but wasn't really in the ballpark!

The new location allows for more seating indoors and outside and also allows some appropriate space for ordering ... not like the old trailer where you could only fit about 8 people in the whole place.  It also provides some later opening hours.  There will be a new sign but the remainder of the outside of the building will pretty much stay the same.

Oh the food?  You wanna know about the burgers?  GO THERE!  SERIOUSLY!  These burgers are great!  And burgers really are all they really do.  With or without cheese/bacon.  Vegetarian burgers.  Hot dogs, onion rings.  And oh yeah:  FRIES.  Hand cut and absolutely delicious.  Here is a picture I took a year ago but never got around to blogging.  ENJOY this view:

We let the owner know how much we love their food.  They certainly appreciate their repeat customers and regulars and the owner that we talked to could not have been a nicer guy.

One last stop on our walking tour ... all the way over to the Foolish Chicken on Holland Avenue.  Its a decent walk over to Holland from where we were on Wellington but a beautiful day.  We walked past some other Hintonburg landmark restaurants, and some new ones, on our way ... there is Absinthe, The Cake Shop (relocated from the suburbs) the Table (vegetarian) and Allium (soooo good).  Bonnie and I peeked into both The Cake Shop (very large and beautiful but frankly a little too picture perfect for me, if you know what I mean, but not based on tasting anything ... yet!) and The Table (smelled delicious but I actually wanted to check out the price of a beautiful stained glass Celtic knot art piece that was for sale).  Actually it was when I was having dinner about a year ago at Allium when I first noticed the Foolish Chicken, it is just a couple of doors down.

The Foolish Chicken is all about chicken and ribs.  They prepare the ribs using a dry rub then slowly braise them.  Prior to serving they are heated and sauced on the grill.  The owner talked more about their desserts than their mains.  His wife is the pastry chef and she has won competitions for her cheesecake.  It was late afternoon by the time we arrived at Foolish Chicken and there were several customers entering for both a sit down dinner and take-out.

It was a busy but interesting and informative day.  I am definitely going to use this page to remind myself of places to eat next time I want to go.   Thanks to the volunteers from Jane's Walk and Apt613 for organizing and leading this great tour!