Ottawa in one word?

We love this video!

Courtesy of Ottawa Tourism:

What key word comes to mind when you think of our city?

Must follow: Ottawa seen 365 ways in 365 days

“Ottawa seen 365 ways in 365 days is the result of a personal challenge to discover the city of Ottawa through photography. Everyday for 365 days, I will upload a picture of Ottawa shot from a new and hopefully exciting location.”

Are you following? 

Here are a few of our favourites: 

49 – Prince of Wales Railway Bridge as seen from a Centretown

47 – Running Horses as seen on Sussex Street

33 – Inukshuk at Sundown as seen from Remic Rapids

27 – Planes as seen in the Ottawa Aviation Museum

Visit ottawaphotochallenge.blogspot.ca and follow @Ottawa_365 for more from this wonderful project.

Beautiful Ottawa sunsets shared on Twitter

Thanks for the photos last night, tweeps!

@lonelyskirt

@lifelessOttawa

@lifelessOttawa

@LindsayMMcPhee

@ltottawa

You put our quick snap to shame! Want to share your photos of Ottawa? Tweet us at @ltottawa or e-mail us at ltottawa@gmail.com. 

Giveaway: Win two tickets to tomorrow night’s Chamber Players of Canada Christmas concert!

‘Tis the season for giveaways here at Local Tourist!

Tuesday night is the opening performance of the Chamber Players of Canada’s 2011-2012 concert series and Local Tourist Ottawa wants you to be there so we can absorb the Christmas spirit vicariously through your experience.

The folks over at the Chamber Players of Canada kindly donated two tickets to tomorrow’s festive affair, and we’re raring to give them away to a lucky Local Tourist reader.

Soprano Monica Whicher (pictured) will be singing alongside other talented musicians from the Chamber Players of Canada group

Here’s an excerpt of the Saturday story the Ottawa Citizen wrote about the concert…

Other pieces in the concert will include Torelli’s chamber arrangement of his Concerto in G minor “Christmas,” Dvorak’s Bagatelles, Victor Herbert’s March of the Toys, Fritz Kreisler’s Midnight Bells and Toy Soldiers March and Frederic Cowen’s Four English Dances in the Olden Style.

It’s the kind of mix of familiar and lesser-known pieces that audiences have responded to enthusiastically at the ensemble’s previous two Christmas concerts, which have drawn capacity crowds to Dominion-Chalmers Church.

So how do you win? Well, it’s simple.

We all have our favourite holiday songs – what’s yours? Let us know in the comments below or by tweeting us @LTOttawa. We’ll mix up the names and announce the lucky winners tomorrow afternoon.

For those who want the formal details, here you are:

What: Christmas with the Chamber Players of Canada concert
When: Tuesday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Dominion-Chalmers United Church, 355 Cooper St.

Good luck to all!

Got it made in the O Double T: Video uses cool beats to boast about Ottawa

While we fully believe that Ottawa is home to some pretty rich culture, it’s perhaps not best known for its stellar hip-hop scene.

But home-grown talent Peter Joynt (aka The Joynt) may be changing that with his recent rap-style ode to Ottawa entitled Capcity. Shot at various landmarks around town by our friend Paul Galipeau, the four-minute music video pays tribute to all the stuff that proves “we got it made in the O-Double-T.”

Check out the video here:

Our favourite line might be: “Some people say it ain’t all that great / but c’mon man, why don’t you give me a break / I don’t believe it because it got no base/ I say get out of town like the Scotiabank Place.”

Thanks for proving those naysayers wrong, guys! We love it!

Shopping for a cause: Exploring Ottawa’s sustainable fashion scene

Michelina Teti (Twitter) is a fourth-year journalism and gender studies student at Carleton University. Originally from Brampton, Ont, she’s a huge fan of a great yin yoga class, horrible television and hanging out with a pile of magazines in the traditional print form. She’s also Starbucks and agenda obsessed.

It’s the perfect weather for window-shopping.

Maureen Dickson and Malorie Bertrand

Maureen Dickson, a sustainability consultant and co-founder of Slow Fashion Forward, and EF Magazine editor-in-chief, Malorie Bertrand, joined together recently to create Fashion on Display, Ottawa’s first-ever boutique tour. The event has been going on since October 6, but doesn’t end until the 20^th, so don’t worry, there is still plenty of time to peruse the streets of Ottawa!

The tour matches locally owned eco-fashion boutiques, vintage shops and thrift stores with a local artist who then creates a window display for the shop that spreads a message. The cause behind the event is to promote conscientious consumption. 

During the tour, locals are invited to visit each location, admire the displays and learn about the shop’s sustainable brands. 

Both Dickson and Bertrand are hoping the event sparks some debate in Ottawa about the eco-fashion options in the city. The tour also promotes the great local shops that do provide sustainable choices for customers. 

It was only a few years ago that Dickson used to shop just like the rest, tempted by the latest fashion trends and cheap retail prices. She’d buy at stores like H&M and Zara, and she’d shop a lot. 

Dickson gained new perspective and shopping habits during her time in Sweden, where she graduated with a master’s degree in strategic sustainability.

Now, when it comes to her clothes, Dickson is eco-conscious.

For those interested in sustainable fashion, the girls recommend shopping at second-hand stores and consignment shops. They also suggest having a clothing trade with your friends.

It’s when you need a piece of clothing that will last a lifetime that you should buy new and high quality, Dickson says.

Bertrand says her best finds are from thrift shops.

Her latest highlight? She recently went thrift shopping in the states and bought 20 things for $12! She boasts that she always gets compliments on those types of steals.

“At the end of the day we are all individuals and we all want our own sense of style as well. I find this so much more rewarding and satisfying,” Dickson says. “I’ve always loved rummaging for things and finding things that are unique that nobody else has.” 

As for me, my shopping trip down Dalhousie was a complete success. I found three new shops, all local and unique, and even bought a pair of earrings!

Here’s a sneak peak for you: I’m not going to tell you where the photos shown below are from – it’s your job to check the shops out for yourself. All I will say is these three shops were very close to each other, and visiting them could be a great little walk-and-talk kind of coffee date with a girlfriend.

Visit your Ottawa locals, shop at some great boutiques and learn a little bit at the same time.

Enjoy!

Sounds like a great way to combine shopping AND design (two of our favourite things). Well, Michelina has presented a challenge: do you recognize any of the window displays in the pictures above? Let us know – we’re curious too!

Being rendered unmovable by the moveable feast (a delicious night of food, wine and Little Italy exploration)

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is also a contributing editor for Local Tourist Ottawa.

My Thursday evening ended with me lying in a crumpled mess on the couch with a blanket covering my stomach.

Click the image to go to the La Vendemmia website

No, I wasn’t stricken by some horrible disease, nor was I worn down from a four-day alcohol-induced bender. Rather, my state was the result of six courses of delicious food consumed within a short, four hours. It was the result of the La Vendemmia festival’s moveable feast.

Full, I may have been, but miserable, I was not. Now that you’ve heard how my evening ended, let me tell you how it began.

It’s 5:30 p.m. I rush out of class and jump on my bike, peddling towards Little Italy faster than the speed of light. My destination: moveable feast, the opening event of the neighbourhood’s La Vendemmia festival. The name of the festival – now in its fifteenth year – translates to mean “the harvest.” It is the perfect title for a weekend that is to be filled with food and fun.

For those still gawking at the name “moveable feast,” well, it’s exactly what it sounds like. If anyone has been to any of the Ottawa Dishcrawl events or read my posts about them, they are what I liken last night’s event to be. Except with wine. Lots and lots of gourmet wine, all perfectly paired thanks to the talented sommeliers at Savvy Grapes. This was the seventh year for the moveable feast.

The night was a chance for the 100 attendees to try the culinary gems of the Little Italy neighbourhood. It was also the opportunity to celebrate the diversity of the area – both the Italian and international cuisine housed off Preston Street. Since all 100 of us couldn’t very well storm each and every restaurant one at a time, we were split into a dozen groups, each led by one very qualified Little Italy expert.

Appetizers at Sala San Marco

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the night, but was completely sold by the idea of stuffing my face full of absolutely everything. The evening started at Sala San Marco, a banquet and conference centre just past Preston and Gladstone. Here, I was excited to meet up with Katy Watts, another Ottawa blogger who had decided to write about the event. Someone else who had a mutual desire to eat lots of food. Perfect.

At Sala San Marco were met with appetizers and flutes of (delicious) sparkling wine. It was these initial appetizers that paved the way for my night of gluttony. It’s bad, but I think I use my age and the fact that I’m a student as an excuse to eat way too much food. Be it seconds, thirds or, heaven forbid, fourths, I shamelessly stuffed my face full of smoked salmon-topped bread and deep fried risotto balls. Katy joined me on all counts, and we circled the appetizer table like hungry piranhas.

Giovanni's Ristorante was our first formal stop of the night

After enjoying the fare at Sala San Marco, my group headed over to Giovanni’s Ristorante, a Little Italy gem that was apparently once a local haunt for Mr. Trudeau. Under low light, the nine of us were ushered to our table and promptly served glasses of our second wine of the evening, a 2010 MURELLE Trebbiano D’Abruzzo D.O.C. Our meal arrived in the form of a too-neat-to-eat piece of chicken stuffed with mozzarella and prosciutto and served with a white wine sauce. My wine glass was refilled and I used crispy, warm-on-the-inside bread to soak up the savoury sauce. It was bliss.

Our second stop of the night was our international location. Each group on the moveable feast went to two traditional Italian restaurants and one international place. We went to The Lindenhof a 37-year-old restaurant serving German cuisine. Here we met Alison, the women who bought the restaurant two years ago. Alison was very hospitable and sat with us through our entire meal, chatting about the food, wine and atmosphere of the location.

The Lindenhof: (top left) Alison explains the wine choice, (top bottom) a piece of the flammkuchen

On the subject of food, our dish at The Lindenhof was definitely my favourite of the night.

Here, we had flammkuchen, a harvest pizza that literally translates to mean “flame cake or flame tarte.” The Alsatian (technically French) dish was a thin crust pizza covered with a special smoked cheese, caramelized onions and bacon. It was to die for and there was so much of it. To accompany the flammkuchen was another white wine, a 2010 Riesling from the Niagara Peninsula. Alison told us that “prost” was the German word for toast, and so we all shouted the phrase and clinked glasses. Danke schön (thank you very much, in German) to Alison for the delicious course.

My three courses at La Favorita

Our last stop was La Favorita restaurant. At this point in the night, I was already half keeled over while walking, and felt like my stomach was being pulled towards the ground by the sheer power of gravity. Things were not looking up. Despite my lack of appetite, La Favorita had plenty of food to offer us, and three out of my six courses came from this final location. To start, we had an artichoke, tomato, red onion and hazelnut salad. For the record, artichokes in salads are a revelation. For the main dish, we got a seafood linguine that I was shamefully not able to even nearly finish. For dessert, we had a variety of pastries, bites of which got passed around the table so everyone could share their unique tastes. Two types of wine accompanied the meal – one red (2009 Italian Bar Bera Q) and one white (2010 unoaked chardonnay, again from the Niagara Peninsula).

My moveable feast group at La Favorita

After doing my best to pick away at the three courses (which were good, although painfully filling), it was time to go. Kicking myself for biking, I peddled my bloated, insanely full self home and collapsed on the couch. The night ended with a big glass of water, stretchy pajama pants and sleep.

The moveable feast had accomplished its ironic goal, and made me incapable of moving by the end of the night.

A huge thank you goes out to my group leader, Preston Street BIA executive director Lori Mellor for leading a successful tour. The La Vendemmia festival is happening all weekend in Little Italy and there’s something for everyone, from the classic wine and food events to art displays aplenty. Maybe I’ll see you there.

Did any of you attend the moveable feast? Could you still walk afterwards? Local Tourist’s very own Jessey and Amy will be heading to the wine show on Sunday – we hope to see you there!

Charles Crosbie’s wrap-up of this weekend’s Taste of Wellington West festival

Charles Crosbie (blog/Twitter) moved from Toronto to the Hintonburg area after discovering it three years ago. He is an occasional blogger and the founder of Clout, a boutique marketing firm on Wellington West. 

This year’s Taste of Wellington West festival was a great success, as evident by a turnout that seemed to dwarf prior years: some of this year’s new attractions, alongside participation of 35 of the area’s amazing cafes and restaurants, drew a large amount of happy visitors to Hintonburg.

The classic car show was one of the main components of Saturday's festival

Crowds along Wellington West were elbow-to-elbow in many hot spots, chatting in line-ups and enjoying everything the area’s local shops had to offer. In addition, more than 50 local businesses took part in sharing and showcasing their offerings at this year’s festival, holding sidewalk sales and gatherings.

A few of the most notable participating local eateries were area newcomers. Alpha Soul‘s amazing samplings drew in visitors who stayed on their patio for an afternoon pint of delicious Kichesippi Beer; Isobel’s Cupcakes and Cookies, which opens in October, handed out samplings of their beautiful baked goods; Burnt Butter Italian Kitchen had the hungry gathered by the dozens outside; and, wood-fired pizza joint Tennessy Willems also had line-ups down the block to try their gourmet goods.

Hip hop at the Hintonburger

Hintonburger, the area’s year-old, rustic burger trailer near Somerset, had a winning setup: amazing live hip hop music and samplings of their homemade corn-dogs brought in a large crowd. They also (smartly) had additional picnic tables set up in their lot to allow visitors to stop by for one of their famous burgers while listening to the live tunes.

Cozy’s Restaurant, which has been under new management for just one week, was re-introducing itself to locals and making a great first impression on newcomers by giving away delicious samplings of their homemade pizzas. Regular favourites like the amazing Absinthe had lines around the block to sample their fare. Bridgehead was buzzing with visitors who were able to sample their red berry rooibos iced tea.

Area bars and taverns, such as The Royal Oak, Carleton Tavern and The Elmdale (which had a killer blues band in the adjacent parking lot) were also flooded with visitors.

Buskers at the weekend festival

Alongside the amazing eats and drinks this year, the festival offered some great new sights and activities for the day. Attractions like the kids play area in my office’s parking lot at Rosemount Avenue that sported a humungous bouncy-castle, street performers along the strip, live acts at various venues and a bike parade were all hugely popular.

One of the highlights of this year’s attractions was the classic car show component that was arranged in association with one of the coolest shops in the city, Fabgear 64. All kinds of antique and vintage rides lined Wellington West, including Fabgear owner Bob’s own beautiful cars, 1940′s business coupes, mid-sixties muscle cars like a Mustang GT 350 and cute mid-century compacts.

The streets of Wellington West were lined with classic cars like this one

The organizers crafted the perfect recipe of a great event. Visitors were able to enjoy a diverse and entertaining afternoon while being exposed to some of the amazing offerings – old and new – that have made Hintonburg one of the hottest up-and-coming areas of the city.

Thanks for letting us know about Saturday’s ongoings, Charles. We’re hungry now… Did any of you go to Wellington West for the weekend’s festivities? 

Sights and sounds from the first monthly Urban Craft show

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is also a contributing editor for Local Tourist Ottawa.

There are few things in life that I love as much as food and cupcakes. One of them is crafts. With this in mind, you can only imagine my excitement when I found out last month that a new craft show was launching in the Ottawa. As one of the organizers Krista Leben says, Urban Craft is a chance to show off fresh and modern finds from some of the city’s best independent businesses. Being one who enjoys shopping local, I trekked over to the Great Canadian Theatre Co. this past Saturday to see what crafty creativity was being hosted within. 

Below, an inside look into the success that was the first-ever Urban Craft show. Hopefully you like what you see and will head out and support the local craft community at monthly shows in the future. 

The next Urban Craft show is being held at the GCTC on Saturday, October 1. We hope to see you there! You never know what goodies you’ll find…

Parliament Hill Yoga: “All you have to do is breathe”

Melissa Dick recently became a city-dwelling Ottawan after growing up in the beautiful countryside of Gatineau, QC. She studies geography, works for a social justice organization, makes silkscreen prints for t-shirts, enjoys watching her garden grow and is on the continuous look out for the best rosemary-goat cheese croissant in town.

During the summer, most of my lunch breaks are spent sitting in Confederation Park reading a book and enjoying the sun, meeting a friend for a picnic lunch, or scurrying around doing little errands. However on Wednesdays – and I mean each and every single Wednesday in the summer – I head to Parliament Hill over my lunch hour, yoga mat tucked under my arm. Walking up Metcalfe, I often find myself among a swarm of other yoga-mat holders. Where are we all headed? To Parliament Hill Yoga, of course!

Parliament Hill Yoga on Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Parliament Hill Yoga is a free outdoor event held on the front lawn of Parliament Hill every Wednesday from 12 to 1 p.m. over the summer months. It is facilitated by lululemon athletica in the Rideau Centre, whose friendly staff bring mats to lend to newcomers and arrange for the most talented yoga instructors to guide the sessions every week. They strive to bring new instructors to the Hill every Wednesday, providing the opportunity for attendees to experience different routines and types of yoga every time they attend. 

The event has been organized by lululemon Rideau Centre for the past five years. I discovered it in summer 2010 while walking around trying to get circulation back in my legs after sitting at my desk all morning. I remember being slightly shocked at the sight of it: hundreds of men and women, of every shape and size, kids and toddlers, all doing sun salutations in front of the beautiful Parliament buildings, laughing and moving into different yoga positions as guided by the energetic instructor. From that moment onwards, I knew this would be my place every Wednesday at lunch: stretching and breathing deeply on Parliament Hill. 

The event is held rain or shine and is only cancelled in cases of particularly nasty weather. Everyone is welcome and the participation of each individual is celebrated. As yoga instructor Ichih Wang said this past week during some balancing poses, “We don’t have walls here, so pick someone’s head in front of you and focus on that to keep your balance!” Sometimes there are even groups of children on field trips who attend Parliament Hill Yoga, doing sun salutations for their first time and giggling as they try not to fall over during a balancing pose. There are many employees from the downtown core, such as myself, who venture out of their air-conditioned office buildings for some yoga time in the sun. There are elderly people, families and even babies who get to enjoy some upside-down time while their mother or father expertly holds them as they follow the movements.

Instructor Ichih Wang at Parliament Hill Yoga

To give you a sense of what a yoga session on Parliament Hill is like, here is a summary of my own experience from this past Wednesday . A striking 502 people attended on this day, where Ichih led us through an energizing power yoga sequence. The sky was slightly overcast and a light breeze blew over the Parliament Hill lawn. It was the perfect weather for outdoor yoga. Ichih had organized for a speaker system to be set up so it was easy for everyone to hear and follow her directions. I brought a colleague from work who does yoga regularly but whom had never experienced Parliament Hill Yoga before. She was amazed at the sheer number of people present, and who continued to arrive even as the session started.

Ichih led us through a challenging set of 100’s after the initial relaxation pose, which left us all laughing and clutching our abdominals. As someone who sometimes gives up once my muscles start to burn, it’s definitely motivating to know that 501 people around me are feeling the exact same thing and are pushing though! Ichih continued with a modified sun salutation series, a handful of balancing poses, some seated stretching exercises and then the relaxing savasna, or corpse pose, to wrap up the routine.  She joked throughout the session and was clearly enjoying leading the immense group: “Stretch a little higher, now bend a little lower. Just like the elevator in your office!” The refreshing breeze seemed to sweep through the crowd at perfect moments, like when we were holding a pose for a bit longer or when the repeated sun salutations started to heat us up.  During the final relaxation pose, Ichih calmly said over the speaker system, “Now, all you have to do is breathe.” What better way to finish an enjoyable outdoor yoga session than with the reassurance that all you have to do is breathe? Simple as pie, and oh-so relaxing.  

Speaking to some other attendees after the yoga session, I learned why other people love Parliament Hill Yoga. “It’s like skating on the canal, but without the cold and the ice! It’s open to everyone, and so accessible,” one man, who had learned about Parliament Hill Yoga through his daughter, told me. A woman told me with a smile, “I love it because I can easily bring other people, like my boyfriend, who never does yoga.” The underlying thread that seemed to unite everyone I spoke to was the sense of community that Parliament Hill Yoga creates. It was the fact that the event asks nothing of you and leaves you feeling energetic, relaxed and refreshed, and also that it’s outside! I spoke with Ichih as people rolled up their mats and the Hill started to empty out, and she noted how Parliament Hill Yoga encourages the idea that yoga can be done anywhere and that there are no limitations. “Anyone can do it. I love it because it creates this amazing sense of community and peace that everyone can feel a part of, even if you came on your own,” she said. 

So whether you are a yoga guru capable of pretzel-poses and standing on your head, or are new to yoga and have no idea what “namaste” means, I encourage you to check out Parliament Hill Yoga on an upcoming Wednesday. Bring friends, family or coworkers and don’t be intimidated if the instructor leads you through some “Om” chants – with everyone pitching in it feels like you’re part of a sea of subtle and soft sound (and no one will notice if you’re off key!). In my opinion, yoga under the open sky with a large number of people is an experience that transcends any type of yoga that takes place in a studio. And to be able to do it over my lunch hour, outdoors, three blocks from work and free of charge? It doesn’t get any better than this.

Plus, it’s always funny to see tourists standing there, as dumbstruck as I was when I saw Parliament Hill Yoga for the first time, perhaps thinking to themselves, “So this is what Ottawans do in their free time!”

Great pictures and post Melissa – thanks for sharing your experiences with us! For more information about Parliament Hill Yoga, check out lululemon atheltica Rideau Centre’s Facebook page or events website. Will you be heading over the PHY next Wednesday? If so, we might see you there…