Sometimes, you don’t have to leave town to escape the ordinary. In fact, you don’t even need a car to unwind at a Nordic-style spa and then relax over craft cocktails at a chic bar. Both spots, and many other roadtrip-worthy destinations along Ottawa’s Wellington Street West, are easily accessible from the O-Train.
First off, a word about the neighbourhood. Some people call it Hintonburg. Others call it Wellington West. Some call it both, with the dividing line somewhere around Parkdale Avenue. I’m just going to call it Wellington Street West, as the whole street between Somerset Street West and Island Park Drive is one long stretch of interesting things to see, do and eat.
To put yourself in a laid-back frame of mind, start with a visit to Uppliva Sauna and Steam (1140 Wellington St. W.). Located on the lower level of a 1925 red-brick building that was once a home for single mothers, Uppliva is a surprisingly tranquil retreat on one of downtown’s busiest streets.
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If you sometimes feel overwhelmed by sprawling Nordic-style spas, you’ll enjoy the intimate vibe of Uppliva, which has a maximum capacity of 16 people. Instead of a dizzying array of hot, cold and relaxation choices to navigate, there’s just one steam room, one sauna, one cold-plunge pool, several cold showers, a good assortment of lounge chairs and hammocks, a woodstove, and a patio. Massages and facials are available for an extra fee.
Uppliva provides citrus water and herbal tea and sells kombucha and non-alcoholic cocktails. However, it doesn’t serve food, so if all that steaming and plunging has made you hungry, you’ll need to towel off, get dressed and venture onto Wellington in search of sustenance.
Fortunately, you’ll find no shortage of choices, including grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers and other comfort foods at The Third (1017 Wellington St. W.); wood-fired pizzas and more at Tennessy Willems (1082 Wellington St. W.); and Newfoundland-meets-Ottawa dishes like lobster poutine at Petit Bill’s Bistro (1293 Wellington St. W.).
One of the most inventive restaurants in the neighbourhood is Bar Lupulus (1242 Wellington St. W.). Just about every dish on the menu had me reaching surreptitiously for my phone on my recent visit, so I could Google such terms as gochugaru (Korean red chili flakes) and togarashi pangritata (breadcrumbs fried with a Japanese spice blend).
Fermentation plays a big role here, whether it’s fermented elderflower honey with the sunchokes or fermented corn mousse with the panna cotta. And even normally predictable dishes such as pasta are far from ordinary; anolini is stuffed with huitlacoche and fermented corn, then topped with roasted red pepper mole, coffee oil and fresh lime.
As I wasn’t super hungry when I dropped in on a sweltering summer evening, I happily tucked into an excellent charcuterie and cheese plate, accompanied by sourdough crackers, pickles and fruit preserves. It was the perfect thing to nibble at the bar while I people-watched. Even on a Tuesday evening, the place was hopping. If you plan to visit on a weekend, I’d strongly advise making a reservation.
While Bar Lupulus has an extensive domestic and international beer list, as well as a selection of wines, I was tempted by the intriguing cocktails and mocktails. I eventually decided on one called Al Mac’s Airways, a concoction of gin, lemon, crème de violet, maraschino liqueur and cordial. It was as delicious as it sounded.
Award-winning Ottawa travel writer Laura Byrne Paquet shares her sightseeing tips for Eastern Ontario and beyond on her website, Ottawa Road Trips.
