“another struggling-artist-who-has-to-work-in-restaurant story”
bytownegrl: Classic case—an up-and-coming artist who has to work as a barista to pay for his brushes and paints. At least the Eden Street kitchen manager allows the poor guy to display his work on the walls. But I’ve never seen a sold sticker on any of the paintings, not even the one in the room to the right of the front lobby that features multiple shades of gloomy blacks and murky greys that the artist calls “Sunlight Dancing on a Sparkling Pond”.
“they need to hire more staff or something”
amuse douche: Waitress offered me wine and I said I’d prefer a beer and she said get it yourself out of the meat locker in the basement. Was a bit miffed but then waiter offered me a frosty cold glass out of the freezer.
calendar note: The Eden Street Café & Salmon Smokehouse hosted dinner on September 17, 2016. Read reviewer comments below:
“lovely evening at E.S.C. with friends”
zimbe: Poured rain all day today (horrible!) so it was nice to get out of the house and meet some friends for dinner at the Eden Street Café & Salmon Smokehouse. Vases on every table featuring freshly-cut chive flowers, nice touch. Poached Salmon (thought I ordered BBQ'd but whatever), side order of Broccoli Salad, choice of desserts. Things threatened to get out of hand at end of evening when one of the guests got mad and threw his wine glass on the floor but the E.S.C. staff calmed him down and cleaned up—no one was hurt (owners wanted to call their lawyer until kitchen manager pointed out that guest who broke wine glass IS Eden Street’s lawyer).
“let’s stay on topic, people (moderator)”
foodhippo moderator: Listen up peeps. Forum rules pretty clear that we’re here to talk food, service and ambience… not religion—but since we’re on the subject, allow me to segue back to the subject of restaurants by saying that as well as the thing about raindrops, Buddhists believe that life is subject to "much suffering and uncertainty"… which sounds a lot like what customers have been saying lately about dining at Vive la bouffe! O.K., so now that we’re back on the subject of restaurants, does anyone want to comment on Eden Street’s kitchen? Was it clean, well-organized, well-appointed… that sort of thing…
“okay back to subject at hand”
garcon: Kitchen at E.S.C. a crazy amalgam of Primitive Pre-Industrial (no rice-cooker because of chef’s fear of electricity, brick in oven to ward off evil spirits, Salmon-Smoker in garage made out of old coffee cans—the list goes on) and Hyper-Modern which, if you need an example, look no further than the E61 Grouphead Steady State Thermosiphoning Espresso Machine on the counter, or the 18-helical-gear Wine-Bottle Opener, whose physical form is so completely discordant with its function that it usually takes two or three dinner guests, along with the E.S.C. sommelier, to figure out how to open a bottle of wine (after that’s consumed, of course, it takes the help of four or five guests to open the next bottle, and on it goes…). If this is where ‘modern’ kitchen technology is heading, no wonder E.S.C. is clinging so desperately to some of its archaic but familiar pre-Paleolithic ways.
“hey on the subject of that super awesome expreso machine”
rattlesn8: Okay, so the Eden Street barista held us in awe, talking about how good his new E61 Grouphead Steady State Thermosiphoning Expreso Machine is, but then when a few of us excitedly tried to order an expreso to go with dessert we were told we could only order tea. Then why tell us how good the %#!?# expreso is!!!
On December 10, the Eden Street Café & Salmon Smokehouse hosted a birthday gala for Eden Street’s Kitchen Manager. Read reviewer comments below:
foodhippo moderator Okay everyone. Let’s get it out in the open and deal with the ‘hippo in the room’: the foodhippo reviewer himself (or 'herself' or better yet, ’themselves’—*see note below).
The other night at the Eden Street Café Birthday Gala, ’they’ were treated as a pariah by some restaurant owners (understandably), and lionized by others, i.e., those owners who are desperate to boost their poor ratings.
Neither option was pleasant from our hippo’s (hippos’) perspective. Pariahs are fish with sharp teeth that can tear the flesh off any aquatic animal in seconds, and lions love to eat hippos (more slowly but in larger mouthfuls).
Indeed, our poor foodhippo reviewer(s) has/have never felt more uncomfortable than he/she/they was/were the other night, to a point, in fact, where he/she/they wasn’t/weren’t even sure he/she/they could write any reviews of the evening’s ‘events and incidents’. Luckily, the next morning, he (let’s just save some time here and go with he) felt a bit better, and managed to remember enough of what happened the night before to post a few new reviews (see below, starting with Fabian90):
*The foodhippo reviewer, in pursuit of anonymity, avoids binary pronouns and in future would like to be referred to as ‘they’ or, in person, ‘youse’.
"short-staffed was the problem"
ginkobiloba So they overbooked, not a big deal. And they were short-staffed—one of the waiters had to book off sick part way through the evening—he only re-emerged (from I don’t know where) at the very end of the night to breathe germs on some customers as they were leaving.
"could've been worse"
balaboo_1 Most Westboro restaurants get what, eight, nine, ten customers a night? Eden Street had forty last night so no wonder staff was run off they’re feet. And just so you know food would have been even later if the chef hadn’t saved some time by not even trying to bbq the salmon. She knew the propane would run out so skipped the usual confusion and running around and just poached it.
"had to laugh"
Zoboomafoo Yah west coast poet was good, but what about the banker from Toronto—had too much to drink and ended up buying most of the barista’s paintings! Barista (also the artist-in-residence and Eden waiter) celebrated by drinking two coca-colas in a row, felt sick to his stomach and had to go and lie down. Which is why they were short-staffed LOL.
On Saturday Feb. 4 The Eden Street Café & Salmon Smokehouse treated 12 customers to a lively night of food and frivolity. Read reviewer comments below:
“rowdy night at Eden Street”
wincer2002: eden Street waiter deliberitly poured water onto lap of customer seated to his right (yes he was sitting at table with customers like he always does). Someone said he he herd waiter say that he wanted ES to get a bad review well HERE IT IS! How does this place stay in business when it's own staff is trying to sabatauge it??!
"wht did u expect?"
giddy4food: Remember waiter is also an artist (unpredictable, unstable) and is also just out of rehab give him a break. To comment on the food which is why we're hear—very good salmon (zesty mexican spice on top chef must have learned at cooking conference she just attended in Mexico), roasted vegetables and green salad. One poor customer ordered a coffee to go with his dessert, waiter and waitress just laughed.
“standing up for human rights”
borderliner: was impressed that one of the customers at Eden Street last night went down to Washington DC to take part in the Women's March. Other customers attended rallies here in Ottawa to protest Trump's attacks on human rights and now his travel ban. I know this site is for food not politics but before foodhippo moderator steps in just want to say 'Hey-hey, ho-ho, Donald Trump has got to go'!
“what the actual fuck?”
theconundrumist: Was also impressed by everyone's dedication to freedom and equality, until customer next to me started boasting about also attending an anti-Trump, anti-travel-ban rally because (if I understood him correctly) he belongs to a group called Bouffers Without Borders (there's a goofy description of this dubious organization at the bottom of the foodhippo homepage) and he says it's crucial that members like him are able to go anywhere in the world and cook what they want, when they want it, so borders have to be open. Wtf!??! And then I find out he's the only member of this absurd alliance. I think Eden Street should start vetting its customers (ʘ_ʘ)
"chicken was herbed all right"
madamTuTu: Very enjoyable evening last nite, a Sunday nite (May 21 2017) at Eden Street, even the chef from bouffe! (who closed his kitchen in order to eat here tonite) was uncharacteristically relaxed and calm. So I have to ask—was the Herbed Chicken rolled in crushed marijuana leaves before being bbq'd.? Kinda smelled like it. Tasted very good though and as I say it was a very enjoyable, laid-back evening.
"Culinary Imperialism still rampant in Westboro"
BEatin'88: Do these privileged Westboro restaurants think they're ABOVE THE LAW?!!? On our way to Fratelli last night (yes, this place is culinarily accredited to serve pizza thank god), my wife and I drove past the Eden Street Café & Salmon Smokehouse, expecting to see (after the dramatic raids earlier this week) all the lights out and a big padlock on the entrance (La Bufala was closed, we'd noticed on the drive over, and so was Vive la bouffe and Pålegg, so at least some local eateries are complying with the law). But Eden was open for business!!! We poked our heads inside to ask what was on the menu and were told Guacamole as an app followed by BBQ'd Salmon. Oh, and on the side—French Beans. Hello??!! I asked one of the chefs where the ingredients came from and she very cheekily said 'Produce Depot', knowing full well that the avos are from Mexico and the bean recipe, if not the beans themselves, from France. When I asked her if they had permission from the Hereditary Chiefs' Council of the Haida Gwaii to serve salmon, she looked at me blankly, as if she thought I was an idiot.
It's 2018, people. Long past time for this degrading practice of Culinary Appropriation to end!
"Sexploitation at local Westboro restaurants"
WeCanDoIt'87: Ate hear at Eden Street last night and saw the waiter constantly touching the waitress's shoulder and hugging her without warning, sometimes surprising her from behind. She kept telling him to do his job, but this guy was persistent. When she was setting the table I urged her to call the police but she just looked at me quizzically as if she was so used to it she didn't even notice it anymore. So disheartening, when the #I,AsWell and #MeToo movements need to here more stories like this. Food was okay btw, there were smoked almonds but where was the smoked salmon FFS?!?!"