Earlier this afternoon Rosemary Vaughan (@ottambassador) of Ottawa Tourism tweeted a link to her blog (OTTambassador's Blog) where she embedded the following video.

OTTAWA - Summer in 30,000 Frames from NiWoTa on Vimeo.

The video was produced by NiWoTa, a "Creative Collective" that is based in Toronto. It is a great time-lapse collage of summer in Ottawa, compressed into 2 minutes 15 seconds.

52 seconds into the video, significant footage filmed at the Manor Park location (363 St-Laurent Boulevard) of Ottawa's Works Burger appears. It shows employees of our city's home grown "gourmet" burger chain, assembling and serving burgers and sides. Featured are the "Tower-o-Rings" ($9.41) and a "Hold the Phone Burger" ($11.31), which is topped with Peanut Butter, Cream Cheese, and Monterey Jack. Click here for our experience at that location. We recommend the Glebe location (580 Bank Street).

Thing is, Ottawa has many eateries besides the Works. Several are in the video. Here is a non-exhaustive list I have compiled.

• At 12 seconds, we see the giant vertical rotisseries of Shawarma Palace (464 Rideau), our recommend for the best chicken shawarma plate in the city.
• At 16 seconds, we see the ByWard Market farmers' market.
• At 46 seconds, we see Auld Dubliner (62 William Street) and Pour House (also 62 William Street), both pubs.
• At 49 seconds, we see Dunn's (220 Elgin Street), home of smoked meat poutine.
• At 50 seconds, we see Highlander's Pub (115 Rideau St), known to hold scotch tastings.
• At 51 seconds, there is footage of a patio from a restaurant in the ByWard Market I can't seem to pin point. If you know what the eatery is across the street or which eatery the patio belongs to, please leave me a comment.
• At 1 minute 12 seconds, we see the iconic Beaver Tails (69 George Street).
• At 1 minute 21 seconds, we see the 2009 Sparks Street Chicken & Rib Cook-Off.

I should note that Claudie Petrilli (@claudiapetrilli) of Swing Dynamite (a Swing Dancing School) tells me that the Pour House serves some great butter chicken.

Hats off to the NiWoTa Creative Collective. Great vid!

Update: The tweep behind the Works Burger's twitter account (@worksburger) identified the location where the footage was shot.

In Ottawa, when you ask locals where to get a decent burger, you will likely be directed to one of two old favourites or a newcomer: The Works, Chez Lucien or Famous Frenchy's respectively.

The relative newcomer, Famous Frenchy's opened its doors several months ago and Ottawa Citizen's food editor Ron Eade pounced on it pretty quickly.

Ron Eade's Heart Attack Grill
In his writeup, he referred to Famous Frenchy's by the name of an American burger chain whose restaurants earned some notoriety for serving "excess", the Heart Attack Grill (HAG). The Heart Attack Grill's owner and operator, Jon Basso, would later call Eade on infringement on his trademark from Twitter.

@doublebypass (Jul 25, 11:38 AM)
@RonEade You are publishing trademarks which are registered in US and Canada. Contact me immediately jon@heartattackgrill.com Jon Basso

@DoubleBypass Doctor Jon (Jul 25, 12:04 PM)
Up at 7am to the charming news that yet another ... media concern is violating my trademarks, oh well back to court, it's getting old.

Clearly, foodiePrints' a "Palin" blog entry on the chain was mistaken when my then research turned up that the Heart Attack Grill had closed its doors.

Regarding Famous Frenchy's, friends of mine have visited it, telling me that the burgers are quite good, but you would best bring a defibrillator with you. They also tell me it is a great place to take a "guy" to on his birthday.

We at foodiePrints have visited Chez Lucien several times before, finding both the burgers and service are best at the beginning of evening service, just before the night time rush. Though, I have to admit there is no other eatery in the city with the same ambiance. It is a popular destination.

Regarding the Works, there is a chain of restaurants in Ottawa. My better half, her sister, and I thoroughly enjoyed our first off-the-menu burger experience at the Works' Bank Street location in the Glebe. We also enjoy Westfest burgers from the Works' Richmond Road Location in Westboro during the annual summer festival.

However, I later discovered that the various Works locations are independently run and do not all offer the same quality of food or service. Admittedly, it is difficult to replicate the qualities that gave the Works its reputation in all its location, but each should come close.

Such wasn't the case when I went to the Works' Manor Park location on the Friday evening before the Victoria Day weekend with friends. This would be their first visit and I advised them to try another location before dismissing chain entirely.

Firstly, the service was atrocious. While we understood that a 4 person table at the busy location was difficult to come by, sticking us outside in the makeshift terrace (2 tables on the sidewalk) during dusk in the summer-time only ensured that we got close encounters of the mosquito kind. Then, promising us an inside table when space permits, literally forgetting us outside, and then telling us that we have to be re-queued with other arriving parties just adds insult to injury. Had you no space, tell us so and we would have gone elsewhere.

Secondly, the food we were served had my friends questioning why I spoke so highly of the chain. Our plates of sweet potato fries were served mostly cold, lukewarm at best.

Soggy Sweet Potato Fries

The tower of greasy onion rings did not please the crowd.

Greasy Onion Rings

My friend's "Hail Mary" ($12.94) burger sported an over cooked beef pattie and an egg that was taller than it was wide. I actually had to stop and think about how the cook managed to produce a pimple of a fried egg. Inside, the yolk looked almost chalky.

Overcooked Fried Egg

My "Peppercorn Broiler" ($12.52) burger's pattie had a nice layer of charcoal on top of what resembled an already good sear. It had me wonder if it had been pre-cooked and then re-seared. Needless to say, it too was overcooked, its internal heat literally liquefying the lettuce in my burger.

My Burger

Lifeless Pattie

The buns also came cold. Every other time I have eaten burgers from the Works, the buns came toasted.

Cold Bun

Total: $32.16 (after taxes, before tip, and including an Iced Tea ($2.99))

In future, I'm sticking to what I feel should be the Works' flagship location, the Glebe establishment. There, my guests and I are treated well, and our burgers demonstrate how the Works earned its reputation.

Particulars:
The Works
363 St-Laurent Boulevard
(613)748-0406

More after the jump...

This year, I arranged vacation days around the Mother's Day weekend to ensure that there was ample time to celebrate the mothers in my life: mine, my better half's, and her godmother. Best of all, I would have a day to recover afterward. Having a four day weekend and a long list of tasks to accomplish, we rented a car, picking it up Friday morning. Between chasing from one end of the city to the other, foodies both, we indulged in visiting several eateries, normally difficult to get to without a car.

Whalesbone Sustainable Fish and Oyster Supply
For lunch on the Friday, we went to The Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster and Fish Supply, located 504-A Kent Street.

Front

Side Signage
There, we encountered Chef/Manager Kate Klenavic in her characteristic toque, which she seems to be always wearing in her pictures.

What makes the Whalesbone Supply sustainable? According to its handouts, it is committed to sourcing shell-fish and fin-fish from suppliers who practice sustainable farming and fishing. While their product list is small, their targeted species reflect, among other factors, the following:

• populations abundant enough to sustain fisheries
• preference to hook & line caught fish over trawling
• preference to on-shore farmed fish over open water
• preference to string and rack farmed shellfish over ground culture
• minimized catch of non-targeted species
• protection of spawning grounds, sea beds, and kelp beds
• sustainable management initiatives

Together, purchasing sustainable fish from Whalebone Supply ensures that fisheries remain healthy, less species go extinct, the food chain is preserved, "by catch" is reduced, and damage to the natural habitat of fish and other marine life is preserved. They are also honest about their fish being shipped to Ottawa frozen when not in season.

Between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, Fridays and Saturdays, Whalesbone Supply sells their "Famous Brown Bag Lunches", made from available stock. Because of unfortunate weather patterns in Western Canada, leading up to the day of our visit, the bag lunches were restricted to yellow perch and mackerel from Lake Erie and sockeye salmon from Alaska.

Lunch Board

Jenn had the Perch Dog Sandwich (cost: $5.50)

Perch Dog

Cross Section
Think incredibly fresh tasting, lightly floured, and pan fried fillet of perch in a soft kaiser (with toasted sesame seeds). It was accompanied by lightly pickled onions, shredded lettuce, and homemade mayonnaise. The bite I took was amazing, balancing crispy freshly cooked fish with crunchy lettuce, fatty mayonnaise, and bright pickled onions. The onions reminded us of sauerkraut.

I had the hot smoked salmon sandwich (cost: $6.50)

Hot Smoked Salmon Sandwich

Cross Section
When the Whalesbone Supply opened, the father of one of the co-founders found that he had a hot smoker that he wasn't using and offered it to the establishment. It is now located at the rear of the building. The result: Whalesbone Supply produces some really nice hot smoked sustainable fish, which they sell to a steady stream of customers. Hot smoking fish means that it is lightly cured and cooked in smoke that has not been cooled. As such, the fish is not preserved and will need to be refrigerated to prevent spoilage. Textures different to cold smoked fish are produced, but hot smoking adds a wonderful smoky flavour.

Case in point, the hot smoked salmon. Think gently flaked fish that came from smoker to plate, in a soft kaiser. It was accompanied with a sour cream sauce, lightly caramelized onions, and capers. This take on the classic cold smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers was great. The same balance is achieved between savory, smoky, and bright flavours, all carried by the fat in the sour cream. But, there is added sweetness and texture from the onions. Yum!

Total: $20.00 including 2 drinks, taxes, and tip. This is quite the bargain, considering that the fish came straight from the supplier.

Speaking of drinks, Jenn and I purchased two types of ginger ale, a more traditional canned Schweppes and a much more full flavoured Stewart's Ginger Beer.

Stewart's Ginger Beer
Stewart's didn't carry the strong and searing punch of ginger like the Jamaican ginger beer I tried at the Ottawa Bagel Shop. It was also less sweet than the Schweppes.

Please do not confuse the Whalesbone Sustainable Fish and Oyster Supply with the Whalesbone Restaurant on Bank Street.

Whalesbone Restaurant
Both are affiliated, but one is a supplier. The other is reputedly the go to place for fish and seafood in Ottawa. Further, the Whalesbone Supply has no seating area. Bag lunches are strictly takeout, made to order, and, if 10 or more will be purchased at any one time, they require prior warning by phone.

The Works
After having accomplished Friday's errands, Jenn and I took her sister Jazzie for dinner at, what I feel is the flagship location of locally owned "The Works" burger chain. Its Glebe location on 580 Bank Street is the oldest of the 5 establishments. The others are located in Kanata, Orleans, Manor Park, and Westboro. I believe the Glebe location is where the "legend" was born and it serves as the example for the others. As such, while Jenn and I have had Westfest burgers from the Westboro location, we decided to have our first authentic "The Works" experience in the Glebe.

A description follows after the jump:

More after the jump...