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July 29, 2011 7:19 pm

Desert for Dinner Dishcrawl Ottawa

On July 26, 61 foodies met up at 6:30pm met up at a secret location to start a night filled with only deserts. With the group ready for desert we handed out different colored button to split up the group into thirds. All three teams set out on their ways to start the night at different locations. The Pink team headed off to the French Baker, while the Blue team headed to B.Goods – a bakery and the Green Team made their way to Sweet Art.

At the French Baker, Xavier spoke to the teams. The French Baker put together a perfect assortment of French desserts to represent his popular Murray Street bakery. On the menu was a mini chocolatine (because they are the French baker), a raspberry macaron and a Palais Royal which is a chocolate hazelnut French cake.

Meanwhile, the blue team met up with Brad Campeau, the owner and baker of B.Goods -a bakery. Brad welcomed each and every person to his very large food truck! This bakery on wheels was our special surprise on the Dishcrawl since he is not located in the ByWard so no one could have possibly guessed he would be dishing out sweets at our event. He sells his goods at numerous locations around town and can also be found at most festivals. On the Dishcrawl menu were spelt molasses ginger and spelt oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Everyone got to try both kinds and also got a tour of his truck where all the culinary magic happens.

The third group’s first stop was a Vietnamese restaurant on Dalhousie that serves traditional Vietnamese cuisine as well as the most exquisite desserts you might ever get the chance to try. Sweet Art owner An and his wife, the talented pastry chef, Nga Luu were both present the night of the Dishcrawl to showcase a piece of edible art of their own creation. Her desserts are European inspired and range in all shapes, sizes and flavours. On the Dishcrawl menu was a duo that consisted of a chocolate pate with roasted pecans and a lime passion fruit granite.

You would think the group would be all sugared out by this point, but with hunger in their bellies and a severe sweet tooth, each group made their way to 2 other locations: Glitz Cupcake & Co., and Piccolo Grande.

Vanessa D’Amours-Chenier is the owner of Glitz Cupcake & Co. a wildly raved about cupcake shop on Murray Street. She serves up multiple different cupcake and cake pop flavours from her storefront six days a week. She also does custom orders for person consumption and large events. On the Dishcrawl menu were 10 different flavours to choose from and everyone got two. Flavours included Vanilla with vanilla buttercream, Chocolate with chocolate buttercream, Blueberry, White chocolate raspberry, Boston cream, Carrot, Pink lemonade, Tiramisu, Red Velvet and Dark chocolate strawberry.

The fifth stop on our crawl was Piccolo Grande. Piccolo Grande is an adorable and deliciously air conditioned gelato shop on Murray street. They regularly offer 36 different flavors, that they make in house, which include both fruit based sorbets as well as milk based creamy gelatos! They also have a wide selection of candy and beverages at the shop as well as a freezer cart that can be rented for special events. Each Dishcrawler got a cup full of whichever gelato flavour their hearts desired.

And finally, once all three teams had rotated through the 5 locations, we gathered everyone and made our way to the final location the Courtyard Restaurant. This gem located in the picturesque courtyard between George Street and York Street is home to Executive Chef Michael Hay who cooks “contemporary cuisine with flair”. The restaurant also boasts a very talented pastry Chef by the name of Quinn Davis. Quinn put together an exceptional desert for our Dishcrawlers that was inspired by a childhood favourite; The Rocket Popsicle. On the menu was a Vanilla pound cake with blueberries, lemon snow, three flavours of gelato – blueberry, aloe and raspberry-cherry, basil namelaka, strawberry-rhubarb coulis and white chocolate pearls. It was fantastic.