The Empire Grill, The Empire Strikes Flat.

The Empire Grill has been a staple in the Ottawa Market for years.  It was arguably the first "Hipster" type place in the area that catered to the burgeoning Foodie and martini swilling "I work on the Hill" types.

I have enjoyed many a glass of red at the stylish bar that had undergone a renovation a few years ago in an attempt to freshen its look with the trendy scene giving birth to multiple competitors.  One main advantage of the Empire is location and patio size.  Located at 47 Clarence St. in the Market, the name Empire is fitting due to its dominance over most other smaller patios who do not enjoy the same southern exposure prolonging the enjoyment of the precious Ottawa summer sun.

A chilly afternoon of shopping and hungry for a better than diner lunch we opted for the Empire. Promptly and politely seated, the place was empty save a group of ten or so in the private room and one afternoon cocktail indulger at the bar.  The restaurant is clean with white unfolded, unpressed table cloths and cloth napkins, which I like and the embossed cutlery adorned with the restaurants name proudly displayed on them were spotless.  Our servers, polite and well groomed made sure that our water glasses were never empty and wine was offered appropriately not pushy.

As an app. both my guest and I opted for the wild mushroom broth, the soup of the day.  It arrived lukewarm, not hot and the servers attention to not spilling it all over the sides needed some help.  I like a clean plate and the food where it is supposed to be, in the plate or bowl.  The "broth" was not a exactly a broth but also had a good amount of cremini mushroom pieces in it, clearly not "wild" even though they are available year round from BC, Europe and the States.  The soup had three disadvantages as far as I am concerned, one it wasn't hot enough, two it was very salty and three I like mushroom flavour but not mushroom texture so the presence of the mushroom bits left me uninspired and did not enjoy it.

My main was the shaved steak sandwich on ciabatta with jus and fries.  Again, cold and served sloppy without much concern for presentation (see below).  My guest's salad with goat cheese and grilled chicken, I was told, was a standard salad with goat cheese and grilled chicken that you can get just about everywhere. Maybe because it was very quiet the attention to our plates did not get the same attention they would have coming from a frantic kitchen trying to keep up with a machine gun like spray of chits and the staff were focused on prep for the evening service?

Finally I have to say we were seated near the window close to the bridge into the large area in the back.  This area is also where the kitchen's pass is and server's station.  The conversation between the kitchen staff, servers and bartender must have been taken from the script of "How to constantly gripe and complain about your job, shifts and colleagues who don't pull their weight".  Not the kind of discourse one wants to hear while dining, but the attitudes and demeanour clearly came through in the product's we received.

I will enjoy the Empire's patio in the upcoming summer with its ambiance, cocktails, pretty people and advantageous position in the market setting, but for now this experience has left me with a disappointed impression that only the taste of a good broth will be able to remove.

613-241-1343 info@empiregrill.com

Simple Holiday Treat

Looking for a simple dish to "WOW" your guests give this 15 minute elegant dish a shot.

It really couldn't be easier, the ingredients are simple to find in any grocery store and are as follows:

2 Uber-Fresh Salmon filets, about 3-4 lbs each (from a fish shop);

2 cups course salt, I like Kosher for this;

2 cups brown sugar, I use Turbinado it has a less sweet more molasses flavour to it;

1/4 cup of white pepper;

1/2 of a fresh ground nut meg; 

2 oz. vodka, vermouth, absinth or any clear alcohol you like, but nothing sweet;

1 good sized bunch of fresh dill.

Mix all dry ingredients together, that's the cure.  Coat one side of the salmon with a generous layer.  Cover with all the fresh dill.  Sprinkle a liberal amount of the cure on the other salmon filet.  Splash your alcohol of choice over the filet with the dill on it and then flip the salmon with the cure on to the one with the dill, head to head, tail to tail in a glass dish.  Cover with Saran wrap.  Place a flat object on top of the filets and weigh down with 4 large cans.  After 48 hours in the fridge remove from the container, rinse ingredients off with very cold water and pat dry.  Slice paper thin on the bias and serve on thin wafers or rye bread and add a sauce made of sour cream, dill, lemon juice and grainy mustard.  Enjoy

Roasted Chestnuts and Fire Smoked Garlic

Not sure what I am going to do with them but I"m really sure it will be pretty darn good whatever it is.  Quite frankly, pretty good right off the fire with a touch of sea salt.

Fatboy's Southern Smokehouse, Ottawa mmmmmmeat

So, as previously stated I am a hard-core carni-vore.  Watching the construction of this joint over the past few months had me salivating with anticipation of a traditional southern BBQ joint in the heart of the Market.  

In Ottawa we are blessed with the annual Rib Fest that fills the streets of the business district with thick plumes of hickory goodness and a plethora of baby backs, wings, pulled pork and pools of smokey sauces, but sadly in never lasts long enough and quietly makes is way out of town to its next destination.

Walking down Murray St. on this cold afternoon while making our way to an inaugural visit to F.S.S. the unmistakable scent of hickory filled our lungs and seemed to remove the chill from our bones.  

The place is deceptively large, unexpected from the outside as the new restaurant had replaced a rather unassuming florist shop.  The interior is all "roadhouse" with motorcycle and beer promotions adorning the walls and bathrooms.  Thankfully there are not an overwhelming amount of distracting tv's hanging from the ceiling.  As a Harley rider myself I did find the bathroom sinks interesting, you'll have to go in to see what I mean.  

Service was quick, knowledgeable, polite and very pleasant.  

The menu was by comparison to other pub-ish/tex-mex types  simple, they seem to know their niche and are not going outside the concept with offerings from every corner of the earth.  

Every table had a good selection of three in house made sauces ranging from sweet BBQ, a whole grain mustard based and a "red neck" that had a really good, not blow your head off heat balanced with sweetness.  

We sampled four dishes in all (and one really good Belgian beer).  First, pulled BBQ pork poutine.  The pork, undeniably the super star here.  Smokey, warm, flavorful, moist and I can go on.  Resting on top quality cheese curds, well cooked fries and a house made gravy pulled together from the drippings of the meats slowly cooking in the smoker.  How do you go wrong with that? I'd also point out the American size portions, very generous.  

I ordered wings to try out the sauces.  The wings are served bare, they were well cooked and pleasantly non-greasy.  The sauces, I would have taken a bath in if they'd let me, delicious were all three.  They have an amazing product with these, I am not sure if they bottle it for sale or not, but hope so.

A beet salad served with the smoked chicken was divine. We agreed that this may have been the best chicken we've had (see pork description above). 

The last item we sampled was the fried green tomato app.  I make these myself at home in the summer and have had them down south too. I would say this was the only item we were not fond of.  The batter was too thick and the slice of tomato could have been more generous.  Batter to tomato ratio was about 75-25 so really could only taste batter.  I would suggest a more tempura style batter to lighten them up a bit.  On the positive side they were served with a zingy remoulade that was very good.

I am going back to F.S.S. as there was too much promise in the rest of the menu items not to try.  If you're in the mood for a southern smoky delicious hearty experience F.S.S. should be tried.  They are very new, less than two weeks I believe so I'd suggest going soon because once the word get's out I suspect "by reservation only" might be the only way to get a seat here.

34 Murray St. just off of Sussex.

Kid Friendly Shortbread Cookie Recipe. FaLALALALA

Want to keep the little darlings amused during this hectic time, here's a super simple shortbread cookie recipe easy enough for the kiddies.  You are going to need a digital scale or conversion calculator, but that's as tough as it'll be.

Ingredients: 250g of butter, 100g castor sugar, 250g plain flour and 1 x tsp pure vanilla extract.  If you have vanilla sugar (and who doesn't) you can use that and skip the vanilla extract.
Special Gear: Electric mixer, Cookie cutters and digital scale
Preheat the oven to 180c or 350f
Cream the butter and the sugar together with a mixer until fluffy
Add the vanilla extract or the aforementioned vanilla sugar, sieve in the flour and mix well, but don't over mix they'll be tough.
Remove the mixture from the bowl and roll out until it’s about 1cm thick
Cut out shapes and place onto a baking tray
Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until they just begin to harden
Sprinkle a little sugar or decorative seasonal sprinkles over the top, leave to cool (if you can) and enjoy!

Sushi Delivery, KAMPAI

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Well I never thought that I'd get decent sushi from a delivery service in Ottawa but WOW, did I get a surprise.  www.ottawadeliverysushi.com was a long shot but for the convenience I thought I'd give it a shot.  First good sign when they called me back to confirm the order and tell me precisely what time my order would arrive (and it arrived almost to the minute of the quote) is that this is a Japanese owned service.

The order took about an hour and a half because I was told they are made to order, good to know.  

The Sashimi platter's, freshness was as good if not better than any sit down Sushi joint in this City (pictured above) and the Sushi tray below was neatly assembled with fresh sticky rice and with just a touch of wasabi holding it all together and a side of seaweed salad, mmm.  Miso soup was pretty standard, I usually throw in a few things just to dance it up a bit but for only $1 what can you expect?  What arrived was more than enough for two people and for less that $40 delivered you can't go wrong with this service.  Keep in mind they are only open weekdays 12:00pm to 10:00pm, Fri 12:00pm to 10:30pm, Sat 12:30pm to 10:00pm Sun 3:00 to 8:30pm so if a late night Sushi bender is what you have in mind, order early.

Shortest Lunch Blog Ever...

The Prescott Hotel on Preston, Meatball Sandwich.  Nuff said.