Trip taken July 28 to 31, 2024; page added August 4, 2024
When Jean and I first talked about doing a short trip during this late summer week off, I had proposed visiting nearby Goderich and area. But Jean expressed more interest in visiting the Ottawa region, and I had no particular objections to that. Goderich might have been doable with a two-night stay, but with the longer drive to Ottawa, a three-night trip made more sense.
We were going to be away from Sunday to Wednesday. We had considered visiting some wineries in the Outaouais, Quebec region while in those parts. But those wineries are quite small, and many of them are open only on weekends. I did find one that was open daily, but Jean wasn’t entirely convinced about spending part of a day driving one hour from Ottawa and one hour back just to visit that single spot—especially as there didn’t seem to be a whole lot else to do in those small towns.
Instead, we visited an Ontario winery on the way in to Ottawa: KIN Vineyards, in Carp. It is the northernmost winery in Ontario.
It was a very hot and sunny and rather humid day, and KIN was very busy (but we did have a reservation). KIN does everything outdoors, and I—perhaps unwisely, as it was less shady—chose to sit under an umbrella in the vineyard rather than at tables under a big tent. (Though maybe heat would have been retained more there? Who knows.)
Our server explained the wine ordering system: she would take orders for food and full glasses of wine, but if we wanted a tasting flight of three wines, we had to go order that at the bar. Seemed a bit odd, but I guess that’s how they managed people there just for tastings with those also have a light meal.
We did start with a flight each, then afterward had a glass each with the food.
KIN grows only two types of grapes on their northern plots here: Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. The rest of their wines, they make from grapes they purchase from Niagara sources. So we made sure to try the resident Pinot Noir and two types of Chardonnay, one a skin-contact natural ferment, and the other more refined. Then a variety Niagara grape options.
All the wines were decent, but it was the local Pinot Noir and the refined Chardonnay that ended up being our two favourites of the bunch, and we left with a bottle each of those. The food was just so-so; I really enjoyed my salad with balsamic dress (’twas a salad kind of day), but the olives were really over-heated, and the charcuterie board selections of meat and cheese weren’t particularly outstanding.
In Ottawa proper, we stayed at Sonder Rideau. The parking lot was a bit confusing to figure out (and would have been too tight for me to navigate with the car), but other than that, we really liked it there. It was a whole apartment in a great downtown location. We had a full kitchen with dishes, so we ended up eating some breakfasts, lunches, and snacks right there, and there was a living room with a TV with a ROKU streaming box, and a comfortable King bed… And relatively speaking, not that expensive!
That first night, after getting gelato at the venerable gelateria Piccolo Grande, we did some walking around, and Jean took this cool shot:
The second day was hot and sunny and humid. Before it got too bad out, we wanted to go on a longer walk in the Ottawa downtown and around the river. That was made quite challenging with all the construction they were doing. We eventually found a path (well, mostly Jean figured it out) and walked about 8 km, I think, into Gatineau and back to Ottawa downtown.
We then visited the Market. I’d read that they didn’t have as many outdoor vendors as before, and that was true, but there were still enough that we were able to buy ourselves some nice fruit, cheese, and vegetables. Couldn’t find any bagels, though! That shop had closed, We also stopped at a cupcake shop for cool drinks and homemade popsicles (though the cupcakes looked fantastic also).
We dropped our loot off at the hotel, rested there a bit, then headed to a nearby Farm Boy for bagels and a few other items. We also visited Ottawa native coffee shop Bridgehead for iced coffee.
Dinner that night was at Arlo Restaurant, which has been named one of the best in Canada. They have built a beautiful patio out back, under trees, which was a very popular choice with this night’s diners, including ourselves. Arlo’s menu is smallish, and changes frequently to match what’s freshest. They have a really nice wine menu, with many items by the glass, and the service was excellent.
Food was indeed primo. We started with oysters. I then had a lobster-based appetizer while Jean had beef carpacio. Our mains were pork with fries and vegetable for Jean, and maitake (that’s type of mushroom) with other vegetables for me. Dessert (unpictured) was the most interesting and gourmet-ish jello-based dessert we’ve ever had. I don’t think the jello came in a box!
Day 3, it was hot and sunny and humid! That morning, we drove to Rockcliffe Park to do some hiking there. The tree shade and proximity to water made it feel cooler than the previous day’s urban walk, and it is a really nice park.
We had trouble finding the “rockeries” that were supposed to be in this area, so we asked someone walking his dog aobut them. He informed us that the “rockeries” were actually located about 2 km outside Rockcliffe Park, near a residential neighbourhood. The one he lived in. He offered to point us in the right direction on his walk back home.
We took him up on that, though once we left him and were finally nearly there, we concluded that it was probably more walking than we wanted to do in the heat and just turned back instead.
We then drove just a little further, near the airport, to visit the Canada Aviation and Space Museum. Which definitely had more of an emphasis on aviation than space. It had displays of lots of cool historical planes, like the original type invented by the Wright Brothers, and those used during various world wars. There was an interesting section on the Avro Arrow, featuring the largest pieces of this doomed airplane in existence. And though I also most missed it, there was also a pretty good section on Gander Airport’s role in 9/11, and how that inspired the musical Come From Away.
We headed back to the hotel and relaxed there for the remainder of the afternoon. Dinner that night was at Fairouz Cafe, in the Market. They do a sharing plates kind of thing, featuring Middle Eastern food, with a twist.
The truffle babaganoush with in-house pita was delivered first, and my goodness, that was nice! Best babaganoush I’ve ever had (not that there’s a lot of competition there). But having actual shaved truffle on top of eggplant is really a wow.
Then several other items arrived together. The stuffed-crust duck confit flatbread was every bit as delicious as one would hope. The halloumi was this day served with dates, figs, and cappuccino cream, a fantastic somewhat sweet contrast to the salty cheese. And the Brussels sprouts (gotta eat your veggies!) were enhanced with tahini, sunflower, and pomegranate.
It was quite a busy night on their patio, but the servers still did a good job of helping us each find a couple glasses of wine to accompany this riot of flavours. And given our light lunch, we still had room for dessert (shared)…
This was an “Ashta Brulée”, featuring rose cream, saffron mangoes, hibiscus mint fluid gel, popcorn, and sesame. It was so interesting in look and texture—and also tasted delicious!
But that was all the Ottawa-ing we had time for. We drove home the next day, which was rainy, hot, and humid.
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