Photo: Jon Lomow

Sarah Allen outside the Manx; Jaime Stunt inside OZ

by Jon Lomow

“Today I used liquid nitrogen for the last time for likely a long time. So long, bubbly steamy liquid!”

That was @Sarah_J_Allen’s last tweet during her tenure as Chef de Cuisine for Atelier, 540 Rochester St. Allen recently left Atelier — Ottawa’s much-revered fine food chemistry lab — for a spot on the Manx Pub’s kitchen roster. The decision may have left a few people scratching their heads — but not Allen.

The Manx is Ottawa’s favourite basement pub. It has been both the drinking hole and the hangover remedy for Ottawa musicians/artists and Ottawa bon vivants for a couple decades. The Manx is well known for its excellent food, but it’s a very different kind of excellent than Atelier.

Allen says after working exclusively in fine dining establishments for her entire career, she wanted a change. She uses Timothy Taylor’s book, Stanley Park, to explain her decision: According to Taylor there are two gangs/types of chefs — crips and bloods. The crips are the fine-dining chefs with little thought for culinary tradition, who push the boundaries of cuisine often just to push them. The bloods respect nostalgia, ethnic roots of cuisines and tradition. The bloods make food for the masses, according to Taylor’s protagonist.

Allen: “I’m trying to figure out if I’m a blood or crip.”

She’s been brought on to fill the void left after the departure of long-time Manx brunch chef and wah-pedal rider Shawn Jam Hill. So brunch is now her domain — along with head chef Jarrah Thomas of course. But she’s slow to discuss too much about what she has in mind, except maybe the absence of liquid nitrogen.

Rediscover weekend brunch at the Manx and find out how Sarah Allen fares as a Blood.

Get brunch faced

If you don’t remember Saturday night, there’s a new place to go Sunday afternoon.

OZ Kafe, of whose Korean “Seoul Food” I recently touted the taste benefits,” starts serving its “hangover brunch” this Sunday.

For those who can’t make it in time for traditional brunch hours, OZ — across the street from the Manx — is now serving brunch from 2:30 to 9 p.m. every Sunday (yes, brunch until 9 p.m.). It will be a delicious mix of things to cure your hangover and things to give you a new one. Free Gatorade on tap for the former; pitchers of Caesar for the latter — and alcoholic coffees for both at once. And of course, expect fantastic food.

I think this might be an Ottawa staple and it hasn’t even started yet.

Kelp #613streetfood success!

Speaking of drunken hangover drunkenness, thanks to everyone that attended the Kelp Records Flea & Food Market, co-presented by The Wig, this past Saturday. It was a huge success, and will I hope be repeated. Thanks to the food vendors for cooking up a tasty portrait of street food potential in this city, and thanks to all the eaters who showed the ample demand for it.

Follow me on @jlomow for #613streetfood updates, and sign the petition if you haven’t already done so.