By Norman Moyer
In October, Fairouz Cafe opened its doors to business at 15 Clarence Street. For residents of Lowertown this was happy and surprising news. Over the years, the Market has lost many of its restaurants that offered a fine-dining experience. Most of our restaurants have adopted a simpler, pub-style menu. And while all businesses in the Market are suffering mightily from the effects of COVID, restaurants that expect their patrons to linger over meals appear to be suffering the most.
Why, we wondered, would such a good restaurant with an established presence on Somerset Street want to move to the Market now? The Echo decided to meet with Tony Garcia, the man behind Fairouz Cafe, to get the answers.
ECHO: Why did you choose to move at this time to the ByWard Market area, and Clarence Street in particular?
Tony: Well, I grew up in Ottawa in a family that knew the restaurant industry very well. I have seen ByWard go up and down as a culinary hot stop in Ottawa. Twenty years ago, ByWard was booming with good, small, innovative restaurants. Then the bars began to expand and they gradually took over most of the space. But I know that these things are cyclical. The basic demand for a great restaurant experience still exists in ByWard. COVID is going to be hard on a lot of the bars. Space will open up for new businesses and I think that fine dining will come back to Clarence Street. I wanted to be at the head of that wave.
When the gorgeous 19th century building at 13-15 Clarence became available, I could not resist. We have a large patio right on the Tin House Courtyard, and more space in our kitchen so we can offer take-out and delivery. Finally let me emphasize how important it is for Fairouz Cafe that we have easy access to high quality locally grown foods. We are very encouraged that Ottawa Markets is determined to ensure that we have a thriving farmers’ market in ByWard. We will certainly be one of their big customers.
Echo: What kind of restaurant will Fairouz be? Will it change from your style on Somerset?
Tony Garcia: We will still be a high quality, Middle Eastern-inspired, restaurant. We want to appeal to local residents, to people who work in the area, to people from other neighbourhoods, and to tourists. Our dinner menu and service, which will re-open November 7th, will be very similar to what we did on Somerset. But we are going beyond that with a cafe/takeout format that will be open all day long. People can come in the morning for pastries and coffee, at lunch for flatbreads, dips and sandwiches, and in the evening for the takeout version of our dinner menu. We also have a good selection of wines for sale that you can’t find at the LCBO, and our sommelier, Brittany Martin, will be happy to discuss wine choices with our clients.
Echo. How are you working now, during the COVID shutdown?
Tony: As of November 7th we will be able to re-open for indoor dining. We are open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. for takeout food, and our wines and beers can be purchased on-site. We will be ready to expand our capacity for dining as soon as it is safe to do so.
Echo: Thank you Tony. We invite all of our readers to try out Fairouz. Tasting is believing!