OTTAWA – Excellent changes to one of Canada’s top hotels. And a new wine and food experience across the river.
I’ve been in Ottawa several times in the past few years, and it keeps surprising me. I’ve written a good deal about how Edmonton and Saskatoon are Canadian cities on the rise, but I think the same thing can be said for our nation’s capital, where it seems the food scene has been growing stronger by the day.
It almost goes without saying that the Fairmont Chateau Laurier is one of the top places to lay your head in Canada, a majestic building that oozes history and charm and offers simply spectacular views of the Rideau Canal and Parliament Hill.
It was outstanding when I visited a couple years ago, and it’s even better now. The Fairmont Gold floor rooms are bright and modern and equipped with everything you need.
Fairmont Gold customers have their own check-in and check-out desk on the fourth floor, along with a lovely lounge that offers a terrific hot breakfast buffet (great eggs and homemade jam for the croissants and bread) and evening appetizers with an honour bar for alcoholic drinks. Tea, coffee, juices and soft drinks are available all day and they also can lend you an iPad to use in the lounge.
Zoe’s Bar at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa.
Fairmont Gold guests also get free WI-Fi at the hotel. Small secret here: if you sign up for the Fairmont Presidents’ Club points program, which doesn’t cost a nickel, you’ll also get free Wi-Fi at Fairmont hotels around the world. No reason not to do it!
The main floor bar and lounge, Zoe’s, has been given a terrific facelift. They’ve kept the marble floors and marble bar and the chandeliers, but the space has been opened up to give it a wonderful, bright feel and a fresh look. The menu offers up a series of great options, including a deconstructed falafel, a fabulous beet and greens salad, marvellous beef tartare served on a slightly charred piece of bread (great contrast) and a marvellous charcuterie board with something called “torched cheddar.” They take a good piece of aged Cheddar and soak it in local honey for 24 hours, then put it on a cedarn plank and set it on fire. The cheese takes on a lovely smokiness and a slightly hard crust that’s a wonderful treat.
A terrific beet salad with greens at Zoe’s, located at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The food was very good. The drinks were stellar. My friend had a wonderful cocktail called the Forest Forager with mushroom-infused rye, maple syrup, bitters and a layer of fog that swirled all around the drink like a senator’s speech on the floor of Parliament. I had The Statesman, with C. C. 100% Rye Whiskey, Maple Syrup, Islay Single Malt Scotch, Fresh Lemon, House Bitters and Cedar Smoke. Multi-layered, powerful and one of the best cocktails I’ve had in the long-time.
The hotel has been around since 1912. Just a bit newer is Soif Wine Bar, across the river in Gatineau, a terrific spot run by the gregarious Veronique Rivest.
Rivest, a Quebec-born wine expert who serves as Air Canada’s sommelier, is one of the world’s top wine experts. She could easily be snobbish about it and gush forth about wines that taste of South African rose petals grown on the west side of Table Mountain or the superb terroir of a particular vineyard in Burgundy.
Instead, she’s fresh and fun and engaging and utterly down-to-earth. She almost certainly knows all those fancy wine terms that can drive average consumers crazy, but she doesn’t seem to like them much.
Veronique Rivest runs Soif Wine Bar in Gatineau, Quebec and is the Air Canada sommelier. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“Sometimes I listen to myself and other wine professionals and I’m like ‘What in the hell are you saying, is anyone getting this,’” she told journalists on a wine and food journey at her Soif Wine Bar in Gatineau last Thursday, just across the river from Ottawa. It’s a beautiful, lively place that serves excellent food and surprising wines from around the globe.
“I dislike the fact that we’re pushing people away with these kinds of (comments),” the bubbly (pardon the pun) Rivest tells us. “When I look at people listening (to some sommeliers) and see that lost look on their face and worse, because the impression is that they feel dumb. Which is the worst thing ever. Because it’s not an exact science. Nobody is right or wrong in this.
“I say to people, ‘It’s okay to like what you like. Because when some critic says, ‘Oh, this wine is horrible,’ they say to themselves, ‘Oh, I can’t have it anymore?’”
Our taste buds do change when we fly at 30,000 feet. But Rivest doesn’t think it’s as big a difference as some wine experts suggest. To her, the way a wine tastes has more to do with where you and who you are with than anything else.
“You can have a Chateau Cheval Blanc 1947 or one of the classic wines of the world, but if you have with it someone you really don’t like you’re not going to find it that great,” she said. “You can have a $25 bottle of wine with someone you love and under the right circumstances and it’s tastes like paradise.”
Tasting wines at Soif Wine Bar in Gatineau. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Rivest explained that the wines she chooses for Air Canada’s business class on both domestic and international routes (they’re changed roughly every three months) are all about bottles that have a sense of place and wines with balance.
“To me the number one quality of a wine is harmony. If a wine is harmonious it’s easier to drink and better with food. If the tannins are sticking out or acidity is sticking or sugar is sticking out, that creates something that’s not as balanced, and it’s less likely to go with a wide range of foods.”
Meals in Air Canada’s Signature Service and at their Signature Suite (there’s one in Toronto and another coming in Vancouver) were created by renowned Canadian chef David Hawksworth. Rivest said she made a point of trying his food so she could find out what wines worked best.
Air Canada’s Andrew McFarlane, Airport Product Design Manager, told TravelPulse Canada that having a great wine program is part of the airline’s goal of cracking the top 10 airlines in the world. Air Canada has been rated best in North America by Skytrax in seven of the last nine years, but McFarlane said the airline came 30th in the world overall last year. That’s still pretty impressive when you consider there are something like 200 airlines on the planet, but McFarlane said Air Canada is aiming high.
Last year’s launch of the Signature Suite and the company’s Signature Service in the air were “strong signals that we’re moving towards that top-ten goal,” he said. “It was a massive enhancement for us. We also made lounge upgrades, improved our security lanes and check-in aisles and made other enhancements.
Sommelier Veronique Rivest with Andrew McFarlane of Air Canada. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“We made a huge investment in our 787’s and now with the 737’s,” he said. “Our inflight entertainment and Wi-Fi have been major improvements. The intention is that people will have their own personal accounts, Spotify or Netflix, and they’ll be able to sign in on the plane and stream the videos they want. That’s the end goal.”
Asked what areas need improving, McFarlane said the airline wants to focus more on economy passengers.
“There’s been a major focus on high-value customers and business,” he said, but economy class is an area where they could certainly make some changes. That also goes for Air Canada rouge, he said.
Last Thursday’s event featured remarkable pairings of wine and food at Soif, which means “Thirst” in French. Among the great dishes were grilled endive with porcini butter, apple and blue cheese, which was paired with a wonderful Fume Blanc Rosomel Vineyard Beamsville Bench 2016, Hidden Bench, from Ontario. Another great pairing was a mushroom ragout with duck gizzards, bacon, chicken liver mousse, sorghum and red currants, served with a Conca de Barbara El Mentider 2016 Succes Vinicola from Spain, a luscious but not overpowering red.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: My flight to Ottawa and my lunch and wine-tasting event were paid for by Air Canada. My dinner and cocktails and my night at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier were paid for by the hotel. Neither party approved or was given a copy of my comments prior to their publication.
