Tags: Gottingen Street, new restaurants, openings, pizza, Image
Tags: openings, restaurants, bars, brunch
Glitter Bean Cafe is the newest cooperative cafe to hit Halifax, started by the same baristas who worked at the Smiling Goat.
“It’s a model that we think empowers workers, it’s also a model we think shares the workload and minimizes hierarchy,” says Charlie Huntley, vice-president of the cooperative and a barista.
The idea to start their own cafe was talked about between the workers at the Smiling Goat for years, but after the 5896 Spring Garden Road location (which was formerly a Just Us!) closed in April, its staff decided to make it a reality.
“We signed an agreement with Just Us! for a reduced rent if we carry their coffee, and some funding from our union, and we found some personal funding as well,” says Huntley. “So we were able to pull it off financially which was a major component we were missing before now.”
Glitter Bean is set to be the first queer themed cafe in the city.
“It’s explicitly queer but not exclusively queer,” says Huntley. “It centres on queerness and a queer aesthetic and queer workers and queer customers, but also we want it to be open and welcoming and make other people feel safe as well.”
“Having a queer cafe in the city is important because there are very few queer spaces in Halifax at the moment,” says Huntley. “A cafe is an establishment where younger folks, folks who are underage and queer, can go. It’s also just important to build queer community and have a space where queer folks an feel safe and feel represented and feel reflected in the workforce at the business.”
Glitter Bean plans to open by the second week of July, but the date has not been finalized.
“We wear queerness on our sleeves," says Huntley, "it just made sense for us to open a cafe that aligned with our values and aesthetics.”
Owner Steve Caryi, a US-based businessperson, saw a market for a southern-style eatery in HRM. Caryi owns Halifax real estate company ComVest Commercial and currently lives in Florida, but he’s originally from the south. “All the bars down there have that kind of theme to them and he loves that, so he wanted to do one here,” says marketing spokesperson Amber Lise. “There’s not one like it.”
Lise describes the soon-to-open restaurant as a place with a casual vibe, but high-end food. The menu is still getting finalized. Diners should expect steak, fried chicken, fajitas and other southern fare.
Tags: Ruby's Rhinestone Reception & Lounge, Steve Caryi, food and drink, Halifax restaurants, Image
“So far, we are getting very good feedback,” says Yoon, who has owned several restaurants in Toronto. After travelling to other parts of the country, he realized he wanted to live on the east coast.
“I still wanted to do the same thing—I want to to the same thing for the rest of my life,” he explains.
Yoon left for Moncton three years ago and opened an eatery there. While living in New Brunswick, he made frequent visits to Halifax, liked the city and “tried lots of good restaurants” here. While he noticed plenty of places to get sushi or Korean food, he felt the city could benefit from a ramen joint. Yoon has included ramen on his menus before, but this is the first time he is focusing on the dish specifically.
For now, Buta has a selection of tonkotsu, tantanmen and nagasaki champon ramen: all pork-based. Appetizers include spicy edamame, shrimp and octopus. “Once my chef gets trained and used to these menus, what I’m planning is to introduce more—I have so many different ideas and options,” says Yoon. Namely, he plans to expand the offerings to include vegetarian ramen.
So far, Yoon has no qualms about leaving big city life behind.
“Here, I just want to be more happy. Concentrated on what I’m doing instead of worrying about paying rent,” he says. “Here I can be more relaxed—and if I’m relaxed, then my staff’s all relaxed and happy. I think customers come in and enjoy and have a good time.”
Tags: Buta Ramen, ramen, food and drink, Halifax restaurants, Image
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“We just want to bring something new and fun to Halifax,” says Catherine Luo, regional manager of the Sushi Nami restaurant family. After over a decade of opening sushi and Japanese restaurants across the city, the downtown location of Sushi Nami Royale—which has moved from its Dresden Row home to 1458 Queen Street—will open September 1, with a little something extra up its sleeve.
In addition to the dishes and fishes the restaurant is known for, the location will operate as an izakaya restaurant, dishing up Japanese bar food that’s designed to be shared and consumed with with beer and sake.
“We want to let people know what izakaya is, and how to izakaya,” says Luo. The restaurant will have a new look along with the new izakaya menu—with snacks like chicken wings, skewers and lobster sashimi— which will target the after work crowd. Luo says when it comes to izakaya, it’s all about the atmosphere and the energy, which Sushi Nami hopes to provide. “Even if you’re by yourself, you don’t feel like you’re by yourself,” she says. “We hope to let people know why izakaya is so popular.”
Tags: sushi, Japanese, Sushi Nami Royale, Image
“I always loved brewing beer,” says MacKay. “I have some friends here in the city that brew quite a bit as well, so that was always a nice thing to get together—a nice social thing.”
MacKay got more serious about making beer after participating in one of Good Robot’s homebrew tap takeovers last summer. He created a peanut butter stout for the occasion, inspired by Nutty Uncle Peanut Butter Stout from Dead Frog Brewery in British Columbia. MacKay’s version was a hit.
“It went over really, really, well. So then I started to think about it on a different level.”
MacKay decided to pursue brewing as a full-time gig. He’s teaming up with Matt Scott and Jon Saunders—both Nova Scotians who had left the province for work, but wanted to come back.
MacKay’s first instinct was to start a brewery in his hometown of Antigonish, but “logistically, it just doesn’t work for us uproot and move there.” Instead, they went with Bedford, where both Scott and Saunders are from.
“We’re all, obviously, huge fans of beer, so the idea of coming home was really appealing,” says MacKay. “And starting a brewery—I don’t know how that can’t be appealing.”
The team looked at upwards of 20 different locations until they found one that suited their needs, settling on Rocky Lake.
For Off Track’s first set of beers, MacKay is leaning to the light side: A pale ale, an American wheat beer and a Kölsch. He’s also bringing back the peanut butter stout for those who may have missed it at GRBCo. From there, the brewery will be rolling out experimental recipes through a smaller, half-barrel system. “Whatever catches on” has the potential to be part of Off Tracks permanent rotation, says MacKay.
He hopes that, as time goes on, Off Track will become a staple business in Bedford.
“You know where The Chickenburger is, you know where Finbar’s—the original—is. Everyone knows those spots, that’s Bedford,” says MacKay. “We want to be Bedford’s brewery.”
Off Track is expected to open in early October.
Tags: Bedford, beer, brewing, craft beer, Nova Scotia Craft Beer, Image
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