Fairouz Cafe
15 Clarence St., 613-422-7700,
fairouz.ca
Open:
Wednesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday
Prices:
mains $18 to $25, Middle Eastern feast $125
As a fan of fine dining, I was a bit glum when I learned in early September that Fairouz, the upscale Middle Eastern restaurant on Somerset Street West, would close. At least its plan was to change rather than shut for good. In mid-October, the business re-launched as Fairouz Cafe, a more relaxed eatery in the ByWard Market.
After Fairouz opened in the spring of 2016, I was very keen on its sophisticated but boldly flavoured dishes that ambitiously channelled chef Walid El-Tawel’s Palestinian roots. Nor was I alone. A year after it opened, Fairouz made it onto the Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list — an achievement that acknowledged its refined setting and service as well as the quality on its plates.
But amid this year’s COVID-19-based disruptions, Fairouz’s owners decided their best move to weather the pandemic was to relocate to the west end of Clarence Street while, in the words of co-owner Tony Garcia, “casualizing” their food and orienting the cafe more to takeout and delivery.
I wondered: Does Ottawa, one of the universe’s hotspots for shawarma, really need another place that serves meat in pita bread?
That cynical take, I discovered last Sunday, does a serious disservice to the new Fairouz Cafe. We brought home its Middle Eastern feast ($125) and felt like we were eating the best meat in pita bread in the city, augmented by some fantastically flavourful house-made condiments.
Opening chef El-Tawel is no longer part of the Fairouz team, having taken a position this spring with the high-end kitchen supply store Chef’s Paradise. However, overseeing the cafe’s kitchen is Justin Laferriere, who was El-Tawel’s sous chef and was with the restaurant since it opened.
So, after eating our consistently delicious dinner, I should not have been that surprised to note the clear connections between my extravagant dinners at Fairouz four years ago and the takeout fare that delighted us in my dining room. (We could have eaten in the cafe, whose dining area opened last Saturday, following the loosening of Ottawa’s pandemic restrictions. But our plans to eat at home had already been made.)
The components of the cafe’s Middle Eastern feast were familiar but strikingly elevated. That was true not only of its lean and tender beef kebabs, succulent pulled lamb and surprisingly moist chunks of chicken, but also of the house-made pita bread, dips, side dishes and garnishes that came with them.
The feast’s hearty dips — a chunky muhammara of cashew, red pepper and pomegranate, hummus that was rich and paprika-topped, labneh (strained yogurt) dusted with za’atar (wild thyme) — would have been familiar to Fairouz regulars. I see that my summer 2016 review of the restaurant lauded them too, as well as other Fairouz staple items that remain on the cafe’s menu.
We were also grateful for a smokey pilaf of al dente freekeh, an eggplant-based relish with some mellow heat to it, and plenty of deeply charred tomatoes, cipollini onions and shishito peppers. Even the cafe’s garlic sauce and marinated olives, flecked with chili and lightly bitter ajwain seeds, seemed several cuts above the usual.
To take a bigger tour of the cafe’s menu, we additionally ordered the fried cauliflower side dish ($13) and the eggplant mashi main course ($22). Both were hits. The cauliflower was fortified with tahini and refreshing pomegranate seeds, while the eggplant dish stuffed its star with onion, garlic and tomatoes and topped it with toothsome green lentils and marinated red onions.
For dessert, there were slices of sumptuous, pistachio-topped chocolate cake, made extra-moist and complex with the addition of tahini.
The four of us tucked into all that we ordered, satiating ourselves but still leaving enough food behind to feed us the next day for lunch. Couples or singletons could opt for any of the feast’s components a la carte.
Perhaps the best we can ask for in this crazy year is to affirm continuity and growth despite the pandemic’s staggering setbacks. Fairouz Cafe shows us how that’s done.