CheapEats Ottawa restaurant guide blog

Vintages Value List November 26, 2011

Season’s Greetings!

This is the 2nd last Vintages release before Christmas and the holiday wines are hitting the shelves.  That is not great news for you bargain hunters as the big guns tend to come out at this time of year and big guns = big $$$.  We still managed to taste a few great wines in the value range and we are even including some exceptional wines above the value threshold because they are fantastic and a bargain at the > $25 price point.  Besides – it’s pretty darn stressful this time of year and you deserve to pamper yourself with some extra special libations OR they will certainly make a generous gift for someone.

SPARKLING WINE

53215 Belcanto de Bellusi Extra Dry Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCg (Veneto, Italy) $17.95

A decent little sparkly number here.  It is ever-so-sweet with some oomph on the end.  A great evening starter …

Vintages Value List Release October 29 2011

HI!

The busy-ness continues and we had to engage in some speed tasting this week. We slurped and spit at a ferocious pace and it was hard because there are some real gems in this release at a great price!

 

White Wine

37648 ZENATO PINOT GRIGIO 2010 (VENETO) $13.95

Quite flavorful, features white pear, floral notes, mineral and crisp refreshing acidity following through on a generous finish.

158501 SNOQUALMIE NAKED CHARDONNAY 2009 (WASHINGTON STATE) $15.95

This Washington number is organic, sporting flavors of fresh ripe peach and some graphite, it is off dry and has an oily mouth feel. Pair with mildly spicy dishes.

Giveaway: Fielding Wine & Private Tour for 6

When the folks representing Fielding Estate Winery asked if I would be interested in giving away 2 bottles of wine and a private tour & tasting for 6 at their vineyard to you guys, I said “Hell yes!” 

You may remember that Fielding was one of the wines mentioned in our Quaffing Locally post earlier this year, so we were delighted to share some of their wine with you!

Since the Fielding Wines are great paired with food:

To enter: just tell me your favourite place to enjoy a glass of Ontario wine with dinner in the comments below.  I’d love to hear what you order too, that’ll get you a second entry in the draw!

Draw: will be held Wednesday Nov 2nd after 5pm.  The winner will be announced and contacted to arrange delivery of their prize pack.

You must be 19+ years old to win this contest.

Some more information about the prize:

Vintages Value List Release October 15, 2011

Hello Fellow Tipplers!
Hope you are all doing well and embracing the change of season – whatever that means to you!  For us, it means a pretty busy work schedule as we amp up for the busy holiday season here at the LCBO and we get back into the swing of things when people stop taking summer vacation and meetings are full and the ensuing task list fuller!  This preamble will be short and sweet, but we thoroughly appreciated being able to taste these past two weeks and there are some beauties on offer this weekend in Vintages :

SPARKLING WINE

163634 OYSTER BAY BRUT SPARKLING CUVÉE (NEW ZEALAND) $21.95
Made from 100% chardonnay this sparkler is packed with flavours of ripe peach, bitter peach pit on the mid-palate and lively acidity.  Fresh, lively and quenchable with anything. 

Hello & Goodbye to Nyssa

 

It seems right to finally introduce you to Nyssa so you can say goodbye.

Yes, while it feels like only yesterday that Nyssa joined us to start her internship, it’s already her last day.  Now to be fair it was an exceptionally short internship, but Nyssa got a lot done.

Who are you and where are you from?
I am Nyssa Tilford. I am, I guess, from Vancouver. But have been living in Toronto for the last 3 years.

What do you do at Plethora Press?
I post Photo of the Week and see if any of the restaurants have closed down and if they have I do a Red Pen Update. And I’m working on a secret project.

New Offices, Lots of Friends.

We are delighted to announce that Plethora Press has new office space. Unfortunately it’s in Toronto.  We’ve moved the head office of Plethora Press into Camaraderie, a great co-working space in the St. Lawrence Market area of Toronto.  Camaraderie has just opened up a couple of dedicated office spaces and we were one of the lucky few companies to be able to get one of them. 

Along with the guys at EventMobi, Tamajii and the great group of freelancers, consultants and entrepreneurs that work out of Camaraderie, we had an office warming party on Wednesday night.

Photographer and friend Pat Anderson was kind enough to take some photos of the brave souls who said “Feh!” to the tornado warnings to come and help us break in our new office space.

Note: Pat also snuck in a photo of my cocktail recipe for the evening. I wonder what other confidential material she photographed… hmmm.

New Red Pen Updates

Here are new Red Pen Updates:

Closed:

Pho Thang Luong (page 81)

Cuppedia (page 44)

To see a complete list of all Red Pen Updates click here.

Nyssa Joins The Team

We have a new intern for August, Nyssa Tilford. She has only been working with us for 2 weeks, but she's already getting stuff done in a big way.  In fact, she has taken on a project that has been waiting for someone just like her to come along.  More on that in Sept.

More about Nyssa in her intro post next week.

Welcome to the team Nyssa!

Poll: Deep Fried Potato Goodness!

Inspired by this week’s Photo of the Week, we decided it’s time for a little poll action again.

So,  Best Fries and Best Poutine in the National Capital Region.  What do you think?

The Double Decker Bus

CheapEats Ottawa photo of the week is The Double Decker Bus, Manotick by Emily

The double decker bus is iconically British and poutine (the specialty of the Double Decker Bus) is iconically Canadian.  Kind of a cool and fun little spot to get a bit of our iconic history... or at least iconic lunch. 

Besides in a recent Best Fries In Town poll that the guys at CTV ran, the Double Decker Bus actually beat S&G Fries who has been leading the pack for years.

• Double Decker Bus (Main St. Manotick) (39 %)
• S&G Fries (1845 Carling Avenue) (35 %)
• Wes's Chip Truck (198 Madawaska Blvd. Arnprior) (12 %)
• Fritomania (2442 Saint Joseph Blvd. Orleans) (7 %)
• Glen's Chip Truck (Richmond Road/Island Park) (6 %)

Thanks Emily for getting the conversation about best fries and best poutine rolling again.

Add your own photo to CheapEats Ottawa Flickr Group and it could be our next Photo of the Week.