CapitalDining.ca

Chef Steve Mitton and manager Paddy Whelan, both formerly of Social Restaurant on Sussex, have branched out on their own. Their new venture is called, plainly, Murray Street, and they have transformed the once pink and laced premises of the departed Bistro 115 into a buff dining room of manly appeal. They've torn out worn carpet and laid down dark wood. They've covered the forest green and dusty rose colour scheme with blacks, browns and olive greens. The leafy patio and its furnishings have been spruced up and can now be counted among Ottawa's prettiest al fresco dining rooms. Antlers and snouts and swine art abound, inside and out. A big goofy picture of Mitton and Whelan hangs over the bar and meat slicer (at the ready to slice up some elk).

The logo of Murray Street is a stylized M in a boar's body. The staff wear logo-bearing black tees decorated with definitions - of wine, of charcuterie - half in earnest, half in fun. There seems no shortage of those T-shirt wearing people. As you travel through the dining room, past the charcuterie bar, down the narrow hall that passes the kitchen, and into the oasis of patio, pond and arboured grapevine, you are greeted and grinned at along the way. Service at every meal here has been well paced, knowledgeable and friendly.

The soul of Murray Street is meat. In addition to the menu of wild game terrines and craft salamis, soft moulded head cheese, and some of the finest specimens of Upper and Lower Canadian cheeses, the balance of the menu remains chiefly carnivorous.

There is always a fish dish though - beer-battered BC halibut, wild Ontario perch, local White Bass, grilled and served with Newfoundland mussels and cast iron fried potatoes. And there is always a nod - just one, mind - to the vegetarians. (I've had a yummy dish of al dente wheat berries with smoked King Eryngii mushrooms and wilted kale slick with truffle oil; beside it, a wilted Savoy cabbage leaf wrapping a mixture of curried quinoa, grilled corn and roast cauliflower in a pool of coconut curry sauce.)

A salad of roasted and pickled beets, with spiced pecans and a honey-yoghurt dressing is a fine, seasonal starter. Or you could begin with some heft: pork belly, cooked in birch syrup and glazed with rhubarb, served with pickled mushrooms and nuts.

A price tag as large as you will find for wieners and beans means the casserole has some living up to do, but the wieners are lamb chorizo sausages, made in-house, served with Great Northern white beans fashioned into a pretty salad and some fresh clams. Once you've eaten your fill, you won't squawk at the price.

Grass-fed short ribs, the sumptuous meat off the bone, are slow cooked and fabulous. With them come chanterelle mushrooms and a rich, meaty jus that moistens the hand cut spaetzle. My only quibble with the plate of pork that stars the 10-week-old milk-fed piglets from St Canut Farms - is with a dry loin. The rest is very fine - the smoked confit leg the bacon, the homemade apple jelly and the rich wedge of scalloped potato with its crispy top, balanced with a bit of steamed spinach.

If you didn't want to commit to a full meal, a selection from the charcuterie menu and a glass of beer is an option. I've gone that route with an ambrosial duck liver mousse, slices of chewy Kielbasa from the Elk Ranch, a hunk of 7-year cheddar from Pine River Farm, a wet, delicate piece of smoked salmon, and a vegetarian terrine of goat cheese thick with mushrooms and golden raisins, layered with grated veggies and a little crunch of sea salt, the whole wrapped in a Napa cabbage leaf. Try it with the cranberry orange preserve. The condiments tantalize - gherkins and olives, seedy mustard and pickled onions, sun dried tomatoes drenched in green oil and a cloth basket of Art-is-in-Bakery bread, some fresh and some baked into crisp thin toast. Makes a fine, light supper.

To drink: freshly squeezed juices, an intriguing cocktail list (Boar's milk martini, anyone?) artisan beers on tap, and a short but well chosen wine list.

To end: local raspberries and Pure Gelato ice cream with an almond tuile; a lemon bavarain with a ginger cookie crust and a crown of meringue; chocolate pudding with a Chinese soup spoon of ginger orange marmalade. All good.

As I was getting ready to leave Murray Street after a late lunch of macaroni and cheese, Rene Rodriguez wandered in from Navarra, his new restaurant across the street. He and Steve Mitton had a beer and a pulled pork sandwich together. They chatted about local greens. Had they tried this, and what about that? It was a nice moment, these are two young men with already impressive track records, each with his own new venture, excited about what mark they may make on the culinary landscape of an increasingly tasty city.

It's easy to like Murray Street.

Cuisine: Canadian
Cost: $$$: Starters, $7 to $14; main dishes, $18 to $25

Hours: Daily from 11:30am to midnight

Features: Late dining, Patio dining, Wine list worth noting.
Accessibility: steps to entrance; washrooms downstairs.

110 Murray Street, Ottawa, ON
613-562-7244
website

The beginning and the end work well at Nostra. You start with a greeting that is enthusiastic, service that is warm and welcoming and an atmosphere that is homey. You end, if you like amaretto in your tiramisu, with a slab of the house recipe, along with a first class cappuccino (brewed by Caffé Nostra co-owner and uber-blond hostess Tina Fata).

The room itself is perfectly agreeable. They've taken an elderly space on Preston Street and pretty much gutted it. The result is a bright and colourful dining room where sepia photos of Italian architecture hang on cream, mustard and burgundy walls and the tiled floors are covered with cherry stained tables. There's an upholstered bench the length of one wall that brings the disparate colours of the room together. I like the wall of iridescent glass tiles that fronts the semi open kitchen and bar. I like the marble counters. And despite the Preston Street construction that spews clouds of dust everywhere, I appreciate the fact that the picture windows are spotless.

But beyond these few comforts, there's little else I like very much about this new restaurant. To Ottawa diners on the prowl for a good new eatery, Nostra has a ways to go.

I rarely suffer from culinary fatigue, but middling Italian-ish eateries with their photofit menus and lacklustre food made from ingredients that don't seem top notch, and are assembled in a obvious line of shortcuts, is wearing. For starters, five visits here have confirmed that - with the notable exception of a spicy tomato pesto soup - Nostra's soups have no depth and little flavour, and I suspect soup base boosts the broth. The tortellini that float in the chicken stock are tough and stiff. The onion soup is dull, the parmesan cheese is pre-grated and chalky. The mussels are fishy to the point of intolerable. The Caesar is pedestrian. The grilled shrimp appetizer, with tomatoes and hot peppers on undressed greens, is agreeable enough, but only just.

The pasta special one day - grilled peppers, mushroom, zucchini, garlic, goat cheese - is strangely bland, and the cheese is forgotten. The pasta Nostra is fettucine in a cream sauce, with grilled chicken, mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes is pleasant enough, but nothing I would ever rush back for. Pasta "alla Franco" unites spaghetti with pancetta and garlic and oil, but the pasta is overcooked and a bit gummy (and tastes like it was cooked well ahead and rewarmed.) A pounded chicken breast is tender meat, nicely cooked, but its wine and lemon sauce is medicinal tasting, and the broccoli and red pepper escorts are tired and unseasoned. Veal comes with a decent fettucine Alfredo, but the meat is underseared, underpounded and chewy.

Coffee and tiramisu restore my mood.

When the quality of the cooking matches that of the coffee and the ever-charming service I'll be back to celebrate. In the meantime, just like the construction crews on Preston Street, Nostra has some work to do.

Cuisine: Italian
Cost: $$: Starters, $5 to $12; main dishes, $15 to $30

Hours: Open for lunch, Monday to Friday; dinner Monday to Staturday

Features: Patio dining.
Accessibility: steps to entrance; washrooms downstairs.

357 Preston St., Ottawa, ON
613-321-4612
website

Pulling into Wakefield, I marvel at how effortless it is to escape Ottawa, drive through a pastoral landscape of handsome hills, and be on the patio of a country village restaurant in thirty minutes. Ain't it grand.

Chez Eric is the restaurant. Not a grand place, to be sure, but quite sweet, inside and out. The patio is rustic, the setting leafy, our table wobbles just the right degree (we thought) but our server is on her knees straightening things out within seconds. The evening so happens to be splendid. Postcard stuff. The outside temperature is perfect, the light soft, the breeze gentle. The bugs are keeping to themselves.

We order wine from a short, kindly priced list. Some of us order Boréale Noire, a craft Quebec beer. Two little blond cherubs, the children of fellow diners from a neighbouring table, are playing hide and go seek in the garden, dodging Chef Che as he wanders the rows, plucking edible flowers for our salad.

I'm in the sort of summer-sun-drugged mood to find no fault whatsoever; prepared to stretch the truth, if need be, or at least to overlook the little things that don't quite work. But that particular night, on Chez Eric's patio, everything worked. The service, the food, the feel - all grand. (A second evening, inside, closer to the fish tank and to walls of local art, we enjoy all but the service, which has taken on an arrogant indifference we can't quite overlook.)

Driving from Ottawa Chez Eric is on your left as you enter Wakefield, before you hit the river and the rails. It is a wobbly old house with a tall garden and a side patio on which a motley collection of rocking tables are available for a short, sweet time. Eric is the name of the goldfish that swims beside the bar. There have been a few Erics over the years, I'm told; just as there have been a few owners of the Erics over the years. The latest owner of Chez Eric - the restaurant, garden, patio (and of the latest Eric-the-fish) - is actually named Che Chartrand, a chef who used to be found at Par-fyum and, before that, at Beckta. Che has left the city behind to run a country restaurant in Wakefield that didn't even need a name change to give him top billing.

The blackboard menu changes regularly and is commendably short. After a bowl of soup - a delicious smoked tomato one night - you might steer toward the house terrines. One fashioned with caribou meat comes with a pearl onion chutney. A quail and bison terrine has a roasted pear centre. Fruit and flowers garnish the plates. Golden beets and goat feta team up in a tasty way. Candied kumquats, leafy sprouts, grated red beets and a walnut vinaigrette garnish Boston lettuce. And how about splurging on plump, chewy-soft escargots paired with bacon in a cream sauce slicked with truffle oil spilling out of a buttery vol au vent? Main courses go both hot and cold. Hot: gnocchi with beef, couscous with duck, roast chicken and green beans, striped bass done up fish and chips style, pasta with local mushrooms. Cold: a main course goat cheese salad, and a dinner plate of more of that well made terrine and well-dressed greens. Duck stands alone. Chartrand cures, smokes and roasts a magret (breast) and you've never tasted better. Slices of the ruby meat arrive with a dried cherry sauce and a pile of Puy lentils with black trumpet mushrooms. Another night the duck is paired with couscous, sweetened with currants and golden raisins, preserved lemons and almonds. Fingers of striped bass are moist inside their crisp, ungreasy tempura coat. They come with fingerling fries and sugar peas dipped in more tempura - the fish and chips and fresh peas (does it get any better?) stacked like logs of wood, with a side of the house tartare sauce and some cabbage slaw.

A caramel nut tart was the best of the roundup of OK desserts. (Chocolate cake a bit dry, cheesecake ho hum.) I'd forego them next time round and order up a plate of local cheeses with candied nuts.

Cuisine: Canadian
Cost: $$$: Main dishes, $15 to $24

Hours: Open every day but Tuesday

Features: Patio dining.
Accessibility: Steps to entrance, washrooms upstairs.

28 Valley Drive, Wakefield, Quebec
819-469-3747