Ottawa restaurant group Northern Hospitality is in the process of opening five new restaurants over the course of five months, including a steakhouse in the ByWard Market and a trio of eateries in the Beechwood Avenue area.
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Ottawa restaurant group Northern Hospitality is in the process of opening five new restaurants over the course of five months, including a steakhouse in the ByWard Market and a trio of eateries in the Beechwood Avenue area.
On Thursday, Northern Hospitality owner Tony Garcia told OBJ that he and his partner Hussain Rahal have spent the past several months running around the city putting the finishing touches on each of their new ventures.
“I’ll be taking a vacation at the end of June and I will be unreachable by everybody in the world,” Garcia joked.
Northern Hospitality is behind well-known local eateries including Edinburger and Schoolhouse Pizza. Its Middle Eastern restaurant Fairouz Cafe was also notable, operating in the ByWard Market for 10 years before Garcia and Rahal made the decision to close it this past April.
“We decided it wasn’t the right fit for the Market,” said Garcia. “Everybody was asking, why close a successful restaurant? Fairouz had a very big, 120-seat patio and it wasn’t a place where people went, ‘Hey, let’s get a plate of hummus and a meat platter on the patio.’ We needed something that was more friendly to typical tourists making their way through the Market.”
Now, the space has been taken over by Sussex and Co., a steakhouse that Garcia calls the company’s new flagship restaurant. Located in a heritage building at 15 Clarence St., Garcia said it’s the first of the group’s restaurants to bring aboard an executive chef and sommelier. The space has been decorated with velvet drapes and candle lighting.
“The only thing (guests will) recognize is the walls,” he said. “We were really excited to bring something that’s dark, with good music, loud music, a good ambiance, good vibe. We got a cocktail mixologist from New York to do our cocktail list and it’s all really well executed.”
There is also a small side patio called Burger Bar that offers affordable quick bites like burgers, fries and beers.
Though there’s still work to be done to get the patio ready for summer, Garcia said the restaurant is up and running. “We believe in the ByWard Market very much,” he said. “Sometimes people think poorly of it, but it’s an incredible place.”
Also, Garcia said that if any Fairouz Cafe lovers were disappointed by its closure, there may be good news coming. “We were always full, until we closed,” he said. “So we will be reopening later in a different part of town.”
