RATINAUD FRENCH CUISINE + GOTTINGEN EATS + Q LOFTS
Q&A WITH ANTHONY BOURDAIN
Exclusive interview with this November's special guest
NOVA SCOTIAN CRAFT BEER 8 pages of glorious beer content!
CYCLESMITH ON AGRICOLA
Mini event guide on page 36
Fred Connors
From his cozy North End neighbourhood to the streets of New York City
Autumn 2014
Our cycling friends move to new digs
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LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
Contents Issue Number 11, Volume 3 - Autumn 2014
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Local Discoveries
A look at some amazing finds from last quarter.
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Community Builders
Features on Lia Rinaldo and Michael Howell of Devour, and Alliance Francaise.
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Cover Story
Our cover feature on the North End's very own Fred Connors.
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Ratinaud French Cuisine A look at one of Halifax's brightest food retailers and dinner destinations.
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Nova Scotian Craft Beer
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An 8 page, four part feature on Nova Scotia's glorious craft beer.
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Q Lofts
Perfectly meshing sustainability with style.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
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Jelly Shelf, 1999, oil on canvas, 55.9 x 71.1 cm. Collection Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Photo: Ned Pratt, St. John’s
MARY PRATT PRESENTED BY
October 3 - October 10, 2014 October 11, 2014 - February 25, 2015
MeMbers Only AdMissiOn GenerAl AdMissiOn
artgalleryofnovascotia.ca
artgalleryns
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@artgalleryns
Editor's Message
A Curated Experience.
W
ow, what a summer! It arrived late this year, but when it finally showed up, it did so in style. For me, most of the summer was spent preparing for August, which just happens to be the month this magazine hosts Sausage Fest, a ten-day local food festival. This August I also found myself hosting some guests from out west—good friends who’d taken the time to travel here and who were looking to experience the best our region has to offer, not unlike all of the folks who come here each summer, actually. In the case of my visitors, they had access to a guide (yours truly) who was both qualified and eager to deliver an authentic Nova Scotian experience. A curated experience where only the best food is served, the best drink is poured and the best places are visited. And that’s what we did for fourteen days. Most of their visit was spent in Halifax, as they wisely rented an Airbnb space in the north end just on the edge of downtown. Because of this, they found themselves easily able to enjoy what is one of Canada’s most walkable cities, with a gorgeous waterfront and fantastic heritage buildings in the core. A lot of restaurants, bars, galleries and more were also within walking distance from their condo, and for the full fourteen days, the novelty never seemed to wear off for them. To help make their visit the best possible, I actually used a few aces I had up my sleeve. The first was Sausage Fest, which, with thirty-two participants this year, meant that there were a lot of things to try and pop-up events to attend. I also had two lists at our disposal which we’d produced in previous issues of this magazine: “Halifax’s Best 25 Local Eateries” and “Nova Scotia’s Best 25 Local Eateries” (found in the Spring 2014 and Summer 2014 issues, respectively). In the end, we visited 18 out of the 50. The result? They now love Halifax, but they also love Lunenburg and the Annapolis Valley as well, as these towns were also part of their curated experience. But what about all of those other folks who came here this summer? How did they make out? Did they fall in love? Did our local entrepreneurs give them reasons to love this place, or did they simply take their money? It’s an important question that isn’t asked hardly enough, especially when you consider how important these guests truly are. On our end, we’re acutely aware of this, which is why you will see us go even further in delivering a curated experience. There are so many great folks who are delivering quality experiences each day, and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to put them on a pedestal, but we’ve also decided to play a role in ensuring our guests have the best experience possible.
Alexander Henden Editor in Chief
There is no other place in Canada that enjoys the potential we have right here. Our magazine is a celebration of those who are making good on the promise of a bright future, and the meaningful experiences they make available to all of us. We publish five issues per year focused on a number of themes that make being and living in Nova Scotia so special. Starting this winter, we’ll focus on the trajectory of urban Halifax, aiming to put our journey forward into context. In spring we’ll celebrate the Nova Scotian road trip with wine and travel content. In early summer we’ll celebrate life in Halifax, and in late summer we’ll explore the vibrant communities that make Halifax what it is, along with a fun focus on our local craft beer scene. In fall it’s all about our eclectic mix of retailers and the joy that is Nova Scotia’s autumn harvest. In all, our editorial program covers a full spectrum of life in our great region curated to focus on those experiences that make our home shine. Our mission to connect people with exceptional experiences doesn’t end at five issues per year. We also host events throughout the year where our readers have the opportunity to join in the celebration, providing an opportunity for them to meet our local entrepreneurs whose products they enjoy, and to build real relationships with these inspiring community leaders. At Local Connections Halifax, we aim to cover the whole journey that is Nova Scotia. And we invite YOU to come along for the ride.
For all inquiries, email: magazine@localconnections.ca
f LocalConnectionsHalifax l ConnectionsHFX
Our Contributors
Local Connections Halifax is a curated guide to Nova Scotia—the best things to do, eat, and drink; exceptional local makers and retailers; places to live and the communities they’re part of; and the people who are helping to take our region to new heights.
LOLA AUGUSTINE BROWN Our senior features writer. 19 years freelance experience including work for the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Canadian Living, Canadian Family, Today's Parent, Fashion, and Flare.
SCOTT MACDONALD Animation designer with over 12 years experience, full time animation designer at DHX Media Halifax, freelance illustrator, character designer, artist, animator, cartoonist, walker, cyclist and dog Owner.
SIMON THIBAULT Halifax-based journalist and writer. His work focuses on the culture and politics of food, as well as LGBTQ issues.
ALISON DELORY Halifax-based journalist, author and editor. She teaches writing part-time at Mount Saint Vincent University and was recently named a Progress Women of Excellence 2014 recipient for communications and public affairs.
RODNEY HABIB
LIA RINALDO
RILEY SMITH
Senior food writer, blogger, food enthusiast, and events veteran. One half of Devour! The Film Food Fest and our resident expert on all things delicious.
Chief photographer and world traveller. Riley has photographed many a Coast cover, as well as all of ours. Our main man since day one.
Award winning pet nutrition blogger, podcast/radio show host, magazine writer, local pet health shop owner, and more importantly, a pet parent and advocate.
TIFFANY THORNTON
KATHLEEN HIGGINS
PHIL OTTO
CHRIS DEWAAL
ALEXANDER HENDEN
Toronto born, Nova Scotia raised. Honours graduate from King's College, and freelancer for The Coast, Tidings, Visual Arts News, and Pink Noise. Our go-to A&E girl.
CEO and Senior Brand Strategist at Revolve Branding.
Entrepreneur, farmer, butcher, public speaker, and champion of not only “local food” but a “local mindset”.
Founder, Creative Director, and frontman for Local Connections Halifax.
LINDSAY BURNS
JORDAN WHITEHOUSE
EMILY FORREST
MICHELLE DOUCETTE
Small business consultant, marketing mind, travel enthusiast, local supporter, animal snuggler, food lover, optimist & proud Nova Scotian.
Freelance journalist and communications consultant who's work has been featured in such publications as Atlantic Business Magazine, Progress, Halifax Magazine and The Coast.
Local enthusiast and owner of Local Tasting Tours. Playwright, performer, and producer of the Local Tasting Tours podcast on iTunes.
Lifestyle and portrait photographer based in Halifax. Rides a lime green vintage Vespa. Organizes her social life around local foodie events.
Nova Scotia based entertainment journalist, and freelance writer loves watching the written word evolve. She covers music, travel, and theatre for a number of publications.
WE'RE HIRING!
TRACY PHILLIPPI
BRENDEN SOMMERHALDER
Craft beer writer, Certified Beer Judge, Ladies Beer League founder, Canadian Brewing Awards organizer, and home brewing dabbler. An all around crusader for local craft beer & lover of fine cheese!
Came from away and proud to be here. Curious about how our community works. Comms guy, craft beer enjoyer, social geek, local booster, and boss at Halifax Bloggers.
With some ambitious plans in the works for 2015, we've come to realise that we will require someone special to provide sales support for our growing publication. All candidates should know who we are and what we do, have a solid sales background with some connections, have a service-focused approach to sales, and want to work with a very talented roster of individuals who share an enthusiasm for our great region. If this sounds like you, contact us at:
magazine@localconnections.ca
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
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Local DISCOVERIES
Made in Halifax Energy Bar If you're in the market for an energy bar, but don't want processed ingredients and would like something locally made, Bandha Bar is your ticket. From humble beginnings selling out of Halifax Yoga, Bandha Bars can now be purchased at over 30 locations in Nova Scotia and PEI.
Local Fish at Local Source Market
bandhabar.com
Back in August, sustainable local seafood found its way into the North End when friend of the magazine Hana Nelson set up shop in Local Source Market on Agricola Street. Her new business, Afishionda Fish Mongers, is certainly a great spot for seafood lovers who want the best, freshest, and most sustainable fish available.
facebook.com/AFISHionadoHalifax
Home Decor Meets Gottingen Street
If working with high quality fabrics is your thing, you might want to check out Patch Halifax. This new fabric boutique specializes in fabrics and supplies, but they actually offer much more than that. Patch Halifax offers classes, equipment rentals, and expert advice if you need it.
With all the restaurant openings recently, it's nice to see something different open on Gottingen Street. The Independent Mercantile Company is Wendy Friedman's latest venture, and it's certainly a welcome addition to the neighbourhood. IMC specializes in home decor, barware, gifts, occasional furniture, and more. It's a great use of the old Futon Store space, and worth taking the time to check out.
2571 Robie Street, Halifax 路 patchhalifax.com
facebook.com/IndieMercantile
New Fabric Shop on Robie Street
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LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
The Ice Cream Club Hardcore Dee Dee's Ice Cream fans (us) now have reason to celebrate. Beginning this December, Dee Dee's Ice Cream will be running an ice cream club, where members can purchase 3 litres of select ice cream for just 33 bucks (a 25% savings over the 500ml tubs). Two flavours will be available each month, with one being chosen from the core line-up, and the other being a seasonal flavour selected by the Queen of Ice Cream herself. The timing of this program seems spot on, as we (at the magazine) typically order large batches of ice cream around Christmas. The Ice Cream Club will operate using reusable containers, which will have a one-time $8 deposit. Ice Cream pick-ups will tentatively take place on the first Monday of every month, and until May. If this sounds like your cup of tea, contact Dee Dee's at:
info@deedees.ca
THURSDAY JANUARY 15, 2015
Craft Beer Event in January 2015 Local Connections Halifax is returning to The Halifax Club for its second annual Craft Beer and Local Food Celebration on January 15, 2015. Early bird tickets are already sold out, and it won't be too long before all tickets are gone.
localconnections.ca/events
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Final Results of Halifax's 50 Best Retailers Postponed A New Lunch Destination in Downtown Back in August, our friends at Scanway Catering opened the doors to their new retail space, and rooftop patio (seasonal). It's still a catering company, and you can still order catering for your event, but you can also now sit down and enjoy what we will safely say is one of the best lunches in town. Big sandwiches, fabulous pizzas, fresh salads, and boozy milkshakes? Yes. And if you're not in the mood for lunch, how about some gelato or delectable pastries? Or better yet, how about some housemade donuts made by the sugar man himself? Giddyup cowboy!
1567 Grafton Street · scanwaycatering.com
Our intention was to publish a list of Halifax's 50 Best Local Retailers in this issue, but we've come to realize just how difficult it is to produce such a list. It isn't that there aren't 50 retailers worthy of listing, as some suggested to us when we started, it's actually that there are much more than 50 that deserve to make the cut. So, for the next few weeks, we'll review the final 15 spots (35 have been decided), and release the list on our blog for November 1st, which should be just in time for holiday shopping season.
localconnections.ca/blog
Winning Sausages
Door Open at The Carrot It seems like we've been waiting forever, but today the doors to The Carrot Community Grocer are now open. This is exciting news for Gottingen Street. As was explained to us during our tour, there's still lots of behind-the-scenes work being done, as The Carrot is actively establishing accounts with local sellers, which will help them fill the shelves with more local product.
2063 Gottingen Street · thecarrot.coop
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LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
This summer, in partnership with Premium Nova Scotia Pork, we hosted a sausage making competition where participating restaurants and retailers had access to 5 pounds of premium pork, and were charged with the task of making the best sausage possible. In total, there were 15 participants, all of whom impressed us with their creativity, but in the end two chefs prevailed. Congratulations to Chef Ray Bear of Scanway (Mild Thai) and Chef Tim Andresen of Morris East (Cherry Tequila). For next year's competition, we'll set it up so everyone can try the winning sausages during Sausage Fest.
LIVE ART DANCE PRESENTS Usually Beauty Fails Frédérick Gravel Dec. 4-6, 2014 info/tix: liveartdance.ca
CECILIA CONCERTS PRESENTS Quartet LaCorde Choi, Limaye, Kolosov, Marmen Mar. 15, 2015 info/tix: CeciliaConcerts.ca
JULESCHAMBERLAIN.CA
9028176007 AGENTIMMOBILIER/REALTOR ®
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LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
From Dirt to Dish Chris DeWaal f getawayfarmbutchershops l meatmongers
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t's a really good time of year to be a fan of local food. The quality and quantity of available ingredients are at their peak, and we have the privilege of being able to cook many of our favourite recipes with our favourite ingredients while supporting local producers. At this time of year it is very easy to forget that in addition to all of our favorites, many of our local farms are necessarily producing ingredients that are far less popular as part of crop and livestock rotations that play an important role in the health of our land and soil. Local agriculture cannot just result in tomatoes, tenderloins and chicken breasts if it is to be sustainable. There are a whole host of grains, produce and cuts of meat that are byproducts of our most popular and favourite ingredients. If we are to truly champion local food, we are going to need to find ways to embrace the notion that the landscape must dictate our menu, and not the other way around. Take, for example, the lovely pork tenderloin. This ubiquitous cut of meat appears in a staggering number of restaurant menus, cookbooks and online recipe sites, and it is a perennial favourite of home cooks and professional chefs alike. Yet did you know that an entire 300-pound pig yields only about 4 pounds of pork tenderloin? That leaves roughly 216 pounds of pig carcass to be used before another 4 pounds of pork tenderloin make their appearance. The same can be said of a whole host of other cuts, such as chicken breasts. Consumer demand for chicken breast is so strong that some chickens are bred strictly for
breast size, and other factors, such as taste, fall by the wayside. Here in Nova Scotia, however, there is a kickback against this type of privileged eating. Both professional chefs and home cooks are embracing many of the obscure and secondary cuts, and in doing so are rediscovering the joys of what have traditionally been the secrets of the peasant cook. French classics like coq au vin and beef bourguignon have their roots in the peasantry learning to use the entirety of the landscape to eat well, and we are rediscovering some of the same joys in our food today. Another shining example of care for the landscape is sustainable vegetable production. Local vegetable champion Greg Gerrits of Elmridge Farm will tell you that at any given time, around 40% of his farmland will be growing crops that have nothing to do with vegetables. Instead they are playing host to a whole variety of plants that are there with the sole purpose of taking care of the soil. Grains like rye, barley, buckwheat, oats and spelt all have a role to play as part of crop rotations aimed at maintaining healthy dirt and yet are in little demand as ingredients for food. Imagine the difference to the economics of a vegetable farmer if the crops that he necessarily must grow for the health of the soil were to suddenly be in demand as ingredients for food. And imagine how amazing and diverse our cuisine could be if we learned to cook with these ancient and noble ingredients. Again, local food comes back to local relationships. We in Nova Scotia are in the unique position of being able to
participate in our local food landscape by creating demand for things that are necessary for the health of the farm. In Dan Barber's book The Third Plate he talks about the lessons he learned as his relationships with farms and farmers deepened. In it he writes, “The greatest lesson came with the realization that good food cannot be reduced to single ingredients, it requires a web of relationships to support it.” Nova Scotian food can be the best food because we have access to such an amazing web of relationships. We are of such a scale here that we can actually have healthy relationships between the rural and the urban, between producer and consumer. What must now come out of these relationships is an understanding that the dish must take direction from the dirt, and not the other way around. When we let the needs of the landscape influence our cooking, we play a part in fostering healthy farmland, healthy farms and healthy food, all of which lead to a healthy Nova Scotia. █
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
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SEVEN LAKES EXIT
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LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
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East Coast Stories Emily Forrest f localtastingtours l LocalTasteTrs
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visitor on one of our food tours this summer asked me, “What do you think makes Halifax distinctive?” I was stuck for a moment. How do you sum that up in one sentence? Then it came to me: Our stories set us apart. It’s our stories that have been so important to us since the beginning. Those stories go way back. The Acadians, Aboriginal people, Scots and so many others passed down tales from generation to generation, hoping to preserve the essence of who they were and hold onto values and traditions. Those stories took shape in words, but also in song, craft, recipes and skills. Today, we continue to tell our stories at our theatre and film festivals, our events, and celebrations of history. Our east coast stories speak to the rest of the world, and they say: This is who we are—and why.
Looking at Halifax today, I see our stories all around me. We tell our stories through our food. I see this immediately on the menu at 2 Doors Down when I spot the cod-podge or the old fashioned meat pies made from Nova Scotia grass-fed Getaway Farm beef. But there are hundreds of menus in this city which tell the stories of the families from all over the globe who chose Halifax as their home. These stories are served up on our plates. We tell our stories of the sea in so many different ways. Many a student arriving from Ontario is quickly initiated with a night of Celtic favourites and Stan Rogers tunes at the pub. Walk into Jennifer’s of Nova Scotia on Spring Garden Road, and our sea stories are told through starfish and sand dollar jewellery, fisherman-knit sweaters, and stained glass scenes of laundry drying on a windy coastal clothesline.
Here in Halifax we have a chance to hear the stories of our emerging local artists, some of whom are still finding their voice. At Argyle Fine Art, there’s a playful element in this narrative; mixed in with famous coastal landscapes and carved Maritime songbirds, we might come upon a lobster crafted from a discarded sneaker or a squirrel reading in a tiny library. At Inkwell Boutique, the story of how we celebrate each other’s milestones is displayed on incredibly unique handmade cards by local artists. At J&R Grimsmo, our story is told through a local clothing line that’s developed over time based on what Halifax customers are looking for. At The Loop, we can touch the story of our climate in a skein of yarn with distinct shades and textures— and even learn the name of the sheep who donated her coat to the cause (mine was Ophelia). Our stories have often been about making do with what we have. Step into Kept in Dartmouth and this story is told in repurposed goods: creative pieces from driftwood and local stones, gorgeous cutting boards from collected mill end-pieces, dog toys and mats from sturdy fisherman’s rope, bags from recycled materials. Our Maritime story of giving back to the community is evident here, too, in the woven baskets by mother-daughter team at Feline Groovy, or the handmade goods from social enterprise All-Ways-Us. To wander in a shop like this is to hear a million voices. We’ve still got a lot of stories to tell. Let’s keep finding new ways to tell them. █
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
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LUNCHES TO GO
Artisanal Breads FAMOUS
CAKES
PASTRIES
FRESH
Allfrom made
scratch
ft 16
1567 Grafton St. • 425-0683 • scanwaycatering.com
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
COFFEE
Time to Change Your Pet’s Diet? Rodney Habib f PlanetPawsPetEssentials l PlanetPawsNS
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an you guess where the majority of pet parents in HRM buy their pet food? You guessed it: the grocery store, along with the rest of their household needs. Want to guess what the main ingredient used in processed grocery store pet food is? Good ol’ fashion corn! Yes, delicious, healthy corn packed with antioxidants, high concentrations of lutein and zeaxanthin and ... (insert the sound of screeching tires) So long to the olden days, and hello to today and the over 90% of corn that is genetically modified! Now without getting into the massive debate over GMO foods, let us focus on another problem concerning corn, and that is the uncontrollable amount of mold (called mycotoxins) it comes along with. Mycotoxins are a naturally occurring poison that can cause serious illness, or even death, if consumed. The mold can cause organ damage and wreak havoc on the immune system. There can’t be mold in the corn found in the food you buy from the grocery stores or even the veterinarians’ office, right? In 2013, the US farmers were plagued by mycotoxins, such as aflatoxins, in their corn and other grains, which made their way into the bags of pet food. In an article posted by Reuters.com, the grains were so unsellable due to the high levels of mycotoxins that the FDA had to raise the bar on the allowable levels to ease the loss of the farmers. (Keep in mind 85% of pet food sold in Canada comes from the US). Meaning pet food manufacturers are using (with 100% permission) corn with
mycotoxins at 20 ppb (parts per billion) in their pet foods! According to the Pet Food Industry’s Dr. Max Hawkins: “In a survey conducted around the world, 965 samples of grains, ingredients and feeds (including dog food) showed 98% contamination with one or more mycotoxins, 93% contamination with two or more and 39% contamination with more than five mycotoxins.” Recently, a Hong Kong study caught several manufacturers red-handed with bags of pet food contaminated with higher than normal levels of these aflatoxins! When one of the largest pet food manufacturers in the world was interviewed about why this mold was in their pet food, they scratched their heads while replying that “the carcinogen was an ‘unavoidable natural contaminant’ found in grains such as corn, barley and rice.” WHAT KIND OF COMFORTING ANSWER IS THAT!? So I know I mentioned I wasn’t going to talk about GMOs but let me leave you with this quick study: According to mercola.com, GMO corn is lacking in a ton of nutrients compared
good ol’ fashion unaltered corn. • Calcium: GMO corn = 14 ppm / NonGMO corn = 6,130 ppm (437 times more) • Magnesium: GMO corn = 2 ppm/ NonGMO corn = 113 ppm (56 times more) • Manganese: GMO corn = 2 ppm / Non-GMO corn = 14 ppm (7 times more) “GMO corn was also found to contain 13 ppm of glyphosate, compared to zero in non-GMO corn. […] The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “safe” level for glyphosate in American water supplies is 0.7 ppm. In Europe, the maximum allowable level in water is 0.2 ppm. Organ damage in animals has occurred at levels as low as 0.1 ppm... At 13 ppm, GMO corn contains more than 18 times the “safe” level of glyphosate set by the EPA.” Although some may say the levels of mold are low, millions of pets are forced to eat the same type of food forever, and long-term exposure can seriously destroy your pet! If there was ever a time to switch foods, and you have been contemplating a diet change for your furry friend, the time may be now! █
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
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Community BUILDERS
Lia Rinaldo & Michael Howell Article by: Jordan Whitehouse · Photo: Riley Smith
Can the duo behind Devour! The Food Film Fest turn the annual feast for the eyes into the Sundance of food films?
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t’s been almost a year since the last Devour! The Food Film Festival, but Lia Rinaldo, the event’s managing director, still remembers a piece of advice she received there like it was yesterday. “It was at one of our dinners in Wolfville, and one of our industry guests just said to me: ‘Keep it small. Keep it exceptional. Keep it connected.’ Since then we’ve been gauging everything we do against that little phrase.” We’ll find out soon if it lives up to that phrase this year, but on paper all signs point to yes. The five-day festival (November 12-16) is packed with fifty-five new food and wine films, fifteen panels and workshops hosted by pros like New York magazine food critic Gael Greene and Emmy awardwinning executive producer Michael Steed, and special events that include international and regional chefs
teaming up to create meals inspired by feature films. There will also be a threenight food truck rally, three different tasting tours and a film awards brunch juried by Thomas Struck, the curator of the Berlin Film Festival’s Culinary Cinema program. And as you likely heard, they’ll also have Anthony Bourdain on hand to kick things off at the opening gala, where more than a dozen chefs will serve up a Nova Scotian feast. Afterwards, Bourdain will introduce his favourite food film, Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman. On the surface, inviting the coolest chef in the world doesn’t seem to fit with that “keeping it small” part, but if you’ve seen Bourdain in person or on television, you know how he can use his New Jersey charm to personalize any food experience. “Bourdain was at the top of our list from the beginning
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
because he’s a journalist, a writer, a chef and a TV personality,” says Rinaldo. “He crosses every one of our niches, plus he’s authentic and engaging. Yes, it will be a crazy night but I think he can still make it intimate for people.” Besides, no matter how huge the feature guest is, with a population of about 4,200 and a downtown that’s only about four blocks long, Wolfville can only allow a festival to get so big. In a way, it’s similar to Park City, Utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival—minus the slopes, of course. Granted, Sundance is one of the largest independent film festivals in the world, but Park City’s small size (about 7,800 people) keeps things intimate. And like Sundance did in the 80s and 90s, Devour can grow because of the theatre space still available in town, mostly at Acadia University. Rinaldo and Chef Michael Howell,
the executive director and founder of the festival, don’t shy away from the Sundance comparison, by the way. “I firmly believe and have touted for more than a decade that Wolfville is the culinary and cultural epicentre of eastern Canada,” says Howell, a former actor and director, and the current co-chair of Slow Food Canada. “Our vision to make this the place for the Sundance of food films is our driving force, and hopefully in five years’ time we’ll be there.” So far, they seem to be on the right track. When Howell launched the festival in 2009 as the leader of Slow Food Nova Scotia, it was called the “Slow Motion Food Film Fest” and it attracted about 1,000 people. In 2011, they doubled the attendance and the number of screenings, and then in 2013, when Rinaldo left her position as festival director of the Atlantic Film Festival to join Devour full time, they doubled those attendance numbers once again. This year, they expect over 8,000 visitors. Whether you buy into the Sundance comparison or not, however, we can likely all agree on one thing: without the rich agricultural industry that surrounds Wolfville and supplies the town’s thriving culinary industry, Devour wouldn’t be possible. Those winemakers and farmers and cheese makers and brewers are a big part of why Wolfville even exists, says Howell. “I operated my restaurant [Tempest] here for ten years, and farmers and producers brought the produce to the back door. That nearness to the food is what we want people to see and appreciate when they come here.” Above all else, though, what they want is pretty simple: “A lot of full, happy people leaving town at the end of their visit to the festival,” says Rinaldo. Howell agrees. “I hope they feel full emotionally and they full and satisfied physically. But I also hope that that they go away full of thought about food, the food system, where their food comes from and how food impacts our lives on a daily basis.” █
DEVOUR! MILESTONES 2009 Created by Michael Howell, The first edition of the Slow Motion Food Film Fest takes place in November in Wolfville.
early 2011 Lia & Michael meet, form a fast friendship and begin conspiring….
2011
Fall in love
The second edition of the Slow Motion Food Film Fest takes place in November doubling attendance to 2,000.
with your glasses again.
late 2012
We offer a wide range of unique eyewear and quality sunglasses.
Michael sells his restaurant after a decade and Lia leaves her post as Festival Director at the Atlantic Film Festival after 22 years; they decide to throw their energy full-time into building the festival. .
453-6100. New Patients Welcome. Complete eye exams in a comfortable setting. Appointments Monday to Saturday.
5550 KAYE STREET (across from Hydrostone Mkt.)
Early 2013 The two form a business, hit the ground running to fundraise, build an advisory board full of cinema, culinary & industry heavyweights and rebrand. Devour! The Food Film Fest is born.
late 2013 The third edition of the new Devour! The Food Film Fest takes place, the audience doubles once again to 4,000 attendees and the Hollywood Reporter coins Wolfville Canada’s Secret Foodie Destination.
2014 Devour! announces Anthony Bourdain will open the 4th festival and has curated his favorite food film of all time as the Opening Night Gala, Eat Drink Man Woman.
5883 spring garden road | saege.ca
Community BUILDERS
Alliance Française Article by: Jordan Whitehouse · Photo: Michelle Doucette
More than a French language school
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t’s fitting that Amélie Lorphèvre invites me for a coffee at Julien’s in The Hydrostone to talk about Alliance Francaise d’Halifax (AFH). The wafts of warm French pastries set a nice olfactory tone for a conversation about a French language and cultural centre, of course, but consider the two buildings we’re sitting between as well. AFH got its start on the second floor of the shop to the left, and then in the 1980s moved into the two-story building on the right. If these walls could talk, they’d speak French and tell you how important AFH has been to this community and the more than 850 people who learn French here every year. They’d also tell you how important the move next door was to reaching even more people interested in French culture. “Before the move, we focussed on teaching adult French classes only, and mainly for government employees,” says Lorphèvre, AFH’s
program director, “but now we have lots of different programs. And yes, we are a language school and provide classes, but we’re also a cultural hub and a resource centre.” The non-profit’s list of in-class and online language courses and programs is way too long to cite here, so let’s just put it this way: whatever your age or skill level, you’ll find a class here, and if you’re looking for French language certification, they’ve got you covered. The resource centre Lorphèvre mentioned is packed with French language books, music and movies, and now includes an online component with 90,000 documents available for a $20 per year fee (no cost for registered AFH students). They also try to organize a free cultural activity in the city every week for anyone wanting to speak French. Past ones have included wine nights at Obladee, and future ones may include coffee and talk nights here at Julien’s.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
All of it is meant to give students and, frankly, anyone who comes in contact with AFH an immersive experience with the French language. “Our offerings are all in French from the very beginning,” says Lorphèvre, “and one reason is that sometimes we have people who don’t speak English, so there is no point translating things in English.” But the biggest reason is that it’s easier to learn the language this way. “We’re doing this coffee and talk night here, for example, because a girl from Quebec will be working here taking orders and conversing in French. So with immersion, you have to use it [the language], and that’s the best way to improve.” The fortunate offshoot of including the Halifax community in that immersion—whether through cultural nights or participation in events like Halifax Pride, for instance—is that it helps AFH dispel the myth that they are a French organization. “We aren’t,”
says Lorphèvre. “We are Canadian. We have no relation with the French government, but because of the name, people think we do. We have people working here from Canada, the Netherlands, Malaysia; our team is very multicultural.” This isn’t to say AFH has no relationship with France, however. In fact, they have a very important one with Alliance Française Champagne, where students of any skill level can learn French in the bubbly city during one- or two-week programs. And new this year is “Bon Voyage”—“my baby,” says Lorphèvre—which is a draw for a chance to win a trip to Alliance Française Champagne to study French and immerse oneself in French society for a week. Airfare, accommodations and classes are included. Any student registered in a 10-week class between September and May can submit a ballot, and the draw happens in May. Back here at Julien’s, my coffee is getting cold and Lorphèvre is keen to give me a tour of AFH. But before we head over, I’m keen to ask her one last question: When someone finishes an AFH program—whether it’s an intense course or a just laidback cultural night—what does she hope that person takes away from the experience? She thinks for a moment before looking next door and then back at me. “The French language is international,” she says, “so we do all of this not only to promote French culture, but Canadian culture, any French-speaking cultures. The hope is that understanding the language may help you to be openminded and discover many different things about these cultures and the world.” █
The Alliance Française Fundraising Gala 2014 will be held at the Olympic Center, 2304 Hunter Street in Halifax, Friday October 17 at 7:00 pm
Article by: Lola Augustine Brown · Photos: Riley Smith
Cover STORY
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Fred Connors
On the north end crusader’s vision for his community and taking his talents to the Big Apple
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f you’re from Halifax, you likely know who Fred Connors is because, love him or hate him, you sure as heck can’t avoid him. Whether you’ve had your hair cut by him, seen him dishing out advice on the wildly popular Canadian TV show X-Weighted (shown in 22 countries) or during his numerous appearances on the Marilyn Denis show, or followed his attempt to become mayor, you must encountered his commandeering presence in one way or another over the past decade. Considering that Connors actually gets a lot done for this city and cares enough to put himself out there for others time and time again, you might wonder where the hate comes from. “There is no spirit of true camaraderie here in Nova Scotia. That culture does not exist,” he says. “When I see friends who have done things that I would never be able to do, I am
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
so excited and happy that they did it. There would never be any sour grapes. People just think I am lucky, that I just have a golden horseshoe up my ass, but funnily enough the harder I work, the luckier I am.” And for the record, the haters don’t bother him one bit. “I have never let what other people think or say about me influence how I feel about myself, because chances are I don’t care about them at all,” he says. “And if I’ve spent no time thinking or caring about you, why would you waste your time thinking about what I’m doing?”
Fred Connors in a Nutshell Here’s what you should know about Fred Connors: He works harder than any human I’ve ever met. He helped lead
the renaissance of the city’s north end by buying up the old Scotia Bank building ten years ago that his Halifax empire is now based out of. After buying the property and setting up shop, he helped form the North End Business Association, which has driven growth in the area and worked with local non-profits to create initiatives that built some social capital in the community. “That is what I believed really changed the north end: this effort amongst local business owners that we had to invest in social capital to make this community change,” he says. “Otherwise, people would not be comfortable to this day coming up here if they still felt the threat of homelessness, drugs, the sex trade, violence.” These were obviously huge issues that needed to be dealt with. Along with his ever-supportive partner Joel David, Connors started working with organizations such as Stepping Stone, which provides outreach to sex workers, and created a breakfast program that fed kids from Uniacke Square. “That lasted five years and allowed us to deepen our relationship with the community through the parents of the kids who were using the program,” says Connors. He is currently on the boards of Family SOS, the North End Business Association, and he sits on many committees, always offering his services to the groups in the community that need help most. And Connors feels the love from those in the north end. “I was recently invited to speak at a celebration for Hope Blooms as a representative of this community,” he says, “so I went to the north branch library on a Thursday night that was filled with predominantly black families from Uniacke Square, and they welcomed a white middle-class gay guy of privilege to speak to the community. I did not feel like a visitor or spectator; I felt like I belonged, and I have earned my place in that community.” He loves the connection that he has with families in the north end. “I feel like I’m the goddamn King of Kensington. A lot of the work I do in terms of community work happens on Gottingen Street, and something that brings me a great deal of joy is that when I walk through Uniacke Square, there are young kids who always come up and greet me because they know me or I’ve had relationships with their older siblings. And at the same time, moms and grandmothers know me by name and thank me for my role in the community.” With all of this said, Connors very much enjoys the other community he is a part of in Halifax, the one where kids don’t need breakfast programs and people are willing to drop a couple of hundred dollars to get their hair cut and coloured in his salon chair. “On the other side of the coin, I’ve also had clients fly me out to their homes on private planes,” he says. “I fit in with that community, too. And it doesn’t mean that one side of me must be phony, just that I can fit in both. I’m not embarrassed about that.” These perks are something that Connors truly feels he deserves. “There is no shame in loving the trappings of your work, and when you work hard and reach a level of excellence, you get rewarded. If you aren’t being rewarded, you aren’t really excellent. People take note of excellence.”
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Back to Business The north end has in return been very good to Connors. FRED. celebrates its 10th anniversary this fall and has been incredibly successful because it brings a touch of luxury with every service provided, whether you’re going to get a haircut, a facial or to eat something tantalizingly delicious at the café there. Connors has had his own makeup line for years, and is now in the process of launching a signature line of hair care products, too. This year, Connors is pushing himself further than ever before and chasing a huge dream that will see us sharing him with another city. He is opening a new salon in New York City’s Lower East Side called “FRED. NYC.” It is a gamble, but Connors is comfortable with the risk and confident that this business will succeed as he splits his time between the two cities to serve his clients in both. Setting up in New York has been tough, because Connors has found that people aren’t particularly interested in relationshipbuilding the way they are here at home in Nova Scotia. In New York, it’s all about the cold hard cash, and Connors has had to drop the niceties and change the way he deals with people to get stuff done. “I literally have to call people and say, ‘What the f&%k is wrong with you people in New York City? Are you a bunch of idiots?’” he says. “Because when you call someone in NYC an idiot, they think, Oh, I should stop being an idiot, and then they get back to work. In Canada, if you call someone a f&@king idiot, they get all sensitive
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LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
and file a human rights complaint.” He has also stopped saying ‘thank you,’ because, he says, in America if you are too nice, it is hard to get anything done. Consequently, he is hoping that when Americans walk through the doors of his new salon, they’re going to love the fact that they get a Nova Scotian kind of service and levels of luxury that he says don’t seem to come with a haircut in New York, no matter how much people are paying. “We’re going to be that neighbourhood salon who is a little more expensive, very luxurious, and delivers the types of relationships and customer service that you don’t expect in that environment,” he says. “I’m setting up a salon where relationships matter.” Orchard Street, where his New York salon resides, is a gallery street, so Connors is keen to showcase artwork from Nova Scotia on the walls of his salon. “I’m taking works down from artists such as Michael Lewis so that our New York clients can understand not just Nova Scotia hospitality but also the talent that we have here,” he says.
Reflections on Home Those of us who respect Fred Connors are rightfully worried that he’ll love being in New York a little too much, but he has no plans to ditch Nova
Scotia. He loves his home province with a great passion, and is still committed to doing everything here as well as there. But he needs to work on growing his brand in a bigger market than Halifax. “The reality is that there are more economic opportunities in any other city than in our teeny tiny market. Part of the motivation isn’t just to extend our brand and to do more work in the beauty media, which I will be doing, but to be able to be in a market where there are more people spending more money,” he says. Connors notes that things are changing here (as we all know by observing our city, and as stated in the Ivany Report), and as there are fewer and fewer young professionals left in our city, his customer base has changed. He knows that making it in New York will help his business ventures here in Canada, though, which is a big part of his motivation for doing this. “If you’re successful in a bigger market, it makes people think you’re better than if you’re just more successful here. I fly to Toronto, the guest on the Marilyn Denis show regularly, because I have a huge amount of talent, and it’s worth them flying me there,” he says, noting that people here still don’t really get the significance of that. “There’s a standard for Nova Scotia where excellence is still mediocre, and if you leave Nova Scotia and become successful elsewhere, then you’re truly successful. That’s one of the things that I’ve been challenging my whole career,” he says. He is right. We have a hard time recognizing the talent and opportunities that are here in Nova Scotia. Thank goodness we have people like Fred Connors who continue to fight to raise our profile in whatever way that they can, wherever they are. █
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Ratinaud French Cuisine Article by: Lia Rinaldo · Photos: Riley Smith
A must visit culinary destination on gottingen street
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feel inclined to kick this article off by sharing a few lines from a sort-of love letter I wrote to Ratinaud in their aptly-named The Cure e-newsletter a couple of years ago: This, my friends, is an ode to artisanal meats on Gottingen Street. A sonnet for sausage and saucisson sec. A rhyme for rillette. A poem for pancetta, pâté and prosciutto. A love letter to a brilliant traditional French craft in a place that not all that long ago you couldn’t possibly imagine. “Could the north end of Halifax get any cooler?” said no one ever until recently. Is it possible one can find a little solace in an artisanal meat shop on Gottingen Street? The answer is yes! I, like many a Ratinaud regular, often find myself lingering around their counters humming and hawing over the selection, overwhelmed by what exactly to order when I most definitely do not have the time. But I’m making time for meat, and the clock is ticking for duck prosciutto. Sérieusement. Gottingen Street, one of the main entry points to Halifax and once a shopping and entertainment district in its own right. Think New York Dress Shop and the Vogue Cinema. Think about just how central it is in relation to every other part of the city—from Dartmouth to the north end to downtown to the south end. There’s even public transport plummeting right through it. And this is precisely why Frédéric Tandy chose it as LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
the location to open the city’s first retail artisanal charcuterie, Ratinaud French Cuisine, back in 2009. Although he admits the first years were tough trying to convince people to make the trek to one of the city’s most misinterpreted ’hoods. People used to be afraid to park their cars here. These days the only thing that could happen to your car is that you’ll get a ticket from an overzealous parking enforcement officer. Truth. Tandy has been cooking since the age of fifteen. A classicallytrained chef from France, he worked his way seasonally through Europe as a young man. A little over a decade ago, in one of those seasonal bumps, he found himself at the Keltic Lodge in Cape Breton like many a fresh-faced Frenchman in this town. After bouncing from coast to coast in Canada, he finally settled in Halifax, where outside of intensive shifts at some of the city’s busiest restaurants, he started selling his cured meats at the Dartmouth Farmers’ Market in 2005. He then shifted to the Historic Farmers’ Market and then the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market before zeroing in on the idea to open his own storefront. And behold, the shop. This is the kind of place you only find in big cities, that you would make an epic subway pilgrimage to get to. Refrigerated counters full of all kinds of artisanal cured meats and other delicacies: coppa, chorizo, prosciutto, pancetta and more; six kinds of sausages, pâtés and rillettes; the hands-
down best cheese selection in the city; and a plethora of other offerings ranging from house-made pickles to ready-to-eat items like croque-monsieur and stuffed brioche to chutneys and jams. Right out of the gate, Tandy gained a fiercely loyal and engaged customer base. Enter Tom Crilley. Although he’s West Island-born, we’ll refer to him as hailing from Montréal proper. He has years of successful graphic design experience behind him and an unsurpassed passion for perfecting stock. “Stock so good, you can just heat up a little cup to drink,” he says with a laugh. Stock so good and so readily at hand that he has sometimes helped out chefs in a squeeze, once supplying eight litres of duck stock at a moment’s notice for an event. Crilley is no slouch to his chef cohort. For as long as he can remember, he has had an insatiable interest in cooking, watching every PBS cooking show on offer as a kid. Just utter the words “Jacques Pépin” and he quivers. He did his time at a few unmentionable restaurant kitchens as a rite of passage in his teens, but alas, this was not going to be a clear career path. Designing a restaurant website or logo, yes. Perfecting a classic cooking method for a dinner party of friends, yes. Crilley moved to Halifax almost a decade ago for love, and his gal was well worth the relocation even though she professed not to cook when they first met. To him, this was the best kind of challenge, as he could woo with food. But alas, this isn’t their story; this is a boy meets boy story. Crilley and Tandy first met at the market, and the two struck up a friendship that soon had them cooking dinners together for friends. This tradition continues today through their business partnership. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of sitting at this table, sipping wine and watching the two of them take the piss out of each other’s cooking. It became clear that they would eventually find a way to work together. At the end of May 2012, Crilley began taking on some of the roles that Tandy didn’t have the time for, and, through his belief in product and place, a website, an engaged social media presence and a strengthening of the brand evolved. Tom admits that at first he was paid in sausages, but shortly thereafter he partnered in and finally joined the store full-time in April 2013. Time is such an important part of this whole equation. This business of making artisanal meats requires care, attention to detail. Every single step is done by hand—cutting, grinding, curing, smoking, aging—and I’m not sure you’re going to find better quality anywhere else. And sometimes they’re going to run out, but understand that’s a very good thing. Would you respect the meat if you had access to it all the time? Or are you happy when it shows up again, and you receive a call from the store because they remembered how much you love the merguez sausage, the spicy salami with fennel or the coldsmoked goose prosciutto? Customer service reigns supreme here, and this matters perhaps above all else. The first time I realized this was when I just asked the question, “Hey, would you guys order in some fresh burrata?” It happened just like that. This is the city’s best cheese counter. You might have a very meat-centric picture in
Food + DRINK your head if you’ve never darkened the door, but let me draw your attention to one of the pillars of Ratinaud: you will walk into this store and see cheese that you can’t get anywhere else in the city. In fact, the second it shows up anywhere else, it’s removed from their slate. The small but mighty team of staff meets a couple of times a month to study and educate themselves about the cheeses so that they can give you an informed opinion. The focus is largely on cheeses from Québec and France. As I write this, I am drooling over the idea of a couple favourites—the dreamiest blue cheese, Canadian Cheese Grand Prix Award-winner Bleu d’Elizabeth from Québec, the triple cream stunner from France Brillat Savarin, and the gorgeous orange flesh of the nutty, crunchy Mimolette. Époisses de Bourgogne is on my cheese bucket list. But I digress. There are over twenty times more products than the first year. Fresh bread, Pain à l’Ancienne, is baked daily in-house and is typically sold out by noon. By fostering great relationships with suppliers, the most amazing array of products show up in the shop: fresh truffles, wild foraged mushrooms, oysters, urchins, greens from the sea, parsley, asparagus, rocket and lettuce. And not surprisingly, their wholesale business is growing solely by word of mouth as some of the city’s and region’s best restaurants—Edna, Field Guide, The Nook, Front and Central (Wolfville), Lion & Bright, Jane’s, Indochine, The Stubborn Goat and Pictou Lodge Beachfront Resort, to name a few—are stocking their goods. I admit, it may be intimidating to check out the events page of their website and see their premiere piece—The Kitchen Table—show up sold out across the board for the whole season, but there’s a reason for that. Since they launched the concept, an ultimate chef’s table in the centre of their working kitchen, back in November 2012 they’ve never looked back and have almost never had an empty seat. They even built the table themselves.
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These intimate dinners for ten feature a set menu and run the gamut from rustic French to the classics to nouveau cuisine. Tandy laughs, as he does not consider himself much of a planner when it comes to these meals, but it appears his customers don’t mind. This kind of tasting menu is on trend with what’s happening in cities around the world. No questions asked, the chef is going to ensure that you’re eating seasonally, that you have quality, fresh, local products on your plate, and that there are a number of engaged producers, farmers and foragers waiting breathlessly in the wings. For Tandy, this is nothing new; this is how he grew up watching his grandparents cook. Everything was from the home or yard, foraged nearby or from the guy down the road. The challenge for him is to make sure he’s having fun while doing it, and with the demands of the business aside, there has to be an element of spontaneity and inspiration built in. It’s as simple as this: here are today’s ingredients right in front of you—now go. Tandy feels that their customer base has shifted since the very beginning, skewing a bit younger, along with the radical change in the neighbourhood itself. Homes in the surrounding area have been renovated, designer condos hover over the street, major network television studios call this part of the city their home, and a slew of like-minded businesses have popped up, which include Edna, Field Guide, The Nook, The Food Wolf and many more. They both laugh about their own in-store, early warning system as new customers step into the kitchen door by mistake almost daily. Either way, the street is becoming a destination, and for food no less. The Ratinaud boys are full of the spirit of entrepreneurship, and they’re so good and passionate about what they do, it’s no wonder they are making such a name for themselves. Halifax is lucky to have Ratinaud, and Ratinaud, in turn, truly belongs to Halifax. █
Food + DRINK
Gottingen Eats Article by: Simon Thibault · Photos: Riley Smith
Fostering a sense of community one bite at a time
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common word one continually hears in urban planning circles is “community.” It’s an easy word to say and use, but it’s another thing to put it into practical applications, let alone a business model. But a few people on the southern tip of Gottingen Street not only talk the talk, they walk the walk—or cook the food, so to speak. Jenna Moers was raised in Halifax’s north end. She was also steeped in the restaurant game at an early age, watching her mother Jane Wright, of Jane’s on the Common, get up early every morning. But more than that, she watched her mother create a culinary hub in a part of the city that many people tended to ignore. After having lived in Montreal for a few years, she came back to her hometown around the time her mom was closing her own restaurant. Wright was planning on continuing her catering and takeaway business from her commercial kitchen on Gottingen Street, and was unsure whether or not she would open up a restaurant again. After a bit of thinking, planning, and some heart to heart mother/daughter talks, Moers decided to stake her own claim in Halifax’s food scene by opening Edna. LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
“I like to call us a causal neighbourhood bistro that focuses on good quality comfort food with panache,” she says of her eatery. Moers was a big fan of how most of the neighbourhoods in her former home of Montreal each had their own character and their own neighbourhood joint. With Edna, she wanted to recreate the same feeling. “I wanted customers to feel a joie de vivre when they walked in and ate here,” she says. “You could walk and bump into your neighbours and business owners, and being part of that really inspired me. It’s about being part of that neighbourhood, and offering people a fun option where they could grab a glass of wine and a dinner without having to leave the neighbourhood.” It’s a modus operandi that many of the people who do business in this neighbourhood follow: work—and eat—where you live. And in the case of The Nook’s Mark Pavloski and Katie Roux, it just makes sense. The duo have been living in the north end for about five years now, and were inspired by all of the new businesses popping up in the area, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit they saw creeping up around them. “It was inspiring to see that happen, and we wanted to jump on the excitement of all the
action that was happening,” says Roux. In November of 2013, the duo opened The Nook, a licenced coffeeshop. Like Moers, they were excited about creating spaces where people from within the community could mix. “It’s cool to have a public space that you create in your own neighbourhood because you live there,” says Roux. “We wanted to make a spot here and be able to provide a community meeting space, a place where people can mingle in community spaces, where people can mingle. That’s what makes a neighbourhood.” From a business perspective, up-and-coming neighbourhoods often offer potential entrepreneurs a way to start a business they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It’s one of the things that helped Dan Vorstermans and Ceilidh Sutherland open up Field Guide. “Rent is still cheap in this neighbourhood, which is a huge thing when you’re first starting out,” says Sutherland. “It's a small neighbourhood, and the options for a restaurant were few and far between, and a lot of landlords don't want to deal with restaurants or bars.” The thirty-seat space has made a name for itself with its ever-changing menu and devotion to cocktails. “We really just want everyone to come in and find them something they enjoy. That could be a cocktail or a can of Olands or it could be a three hour meal where a table orders every food item on the menu” Finding exactly what one wants without having to leave the neighbourhood is becoming easier and easier for residents of this area. With mainstays like Alter Egos, and food trucks like The Food Wolf occupying Squiggle Park on a regular basis, the quality and quantity of great places to eat on Gottingen Street has become one of the worst-kept secrets. But in the end, it’s not just about where to eat, or what to do. It’s about fostering a place. Sutherland sums it up: “It just makes sense to want to do business in the neighbourhood you love and live in.” █
Food + DRINK
Q & A by: Tiffany Thornton
Devouring Nova Scotia aa QQ&&AA wwiitthh aanntthhoonnyy BBOOuuRRDA DAIINN
E
mmy Award winning chef, author and TV personality Anthony Bourdain jets down in Nova Scotia next month to kick off the opening gala of Devour! on November 12th. Being part of a film festival has been on Bourdain's bucket list for a long time. The five-day food film festival takes place in the culinary town of Wolfville. It celebrates cinema, food and wine culture, while featuring top-notch local and international chefs. Devour! is a true gastronomic feast for your senses that will leave your palette tingling for more. Local Connections Halifax entertainment reporter chats with Bourdain on global food flare, his love of film and the tenacity it takes to be a chef.
for thirty people, but is in fact for a small family of daughters. It is just amazing. It was really one of the first films about professional cooking that respected the craft and took the time to really do it right, the way a professional would do it. It's an amazing breathtaking sequence, and of course it's also about dysfunctional people who express emotion and affection through food. That is something I am very familiar with.
This is your first time in Nova Scotia. Do you have any preconceived notions of what the food flare may be?
Is there a meal that you have had on your travels that you would love to be able to duplicate?
First time in the Maritimes and to Nova Scotia. I am afraid I don't have any preconceived notions. I often use these events as scouting expeditions. I will have to do a serious deep-dive at some point in the future.
Yes. Eating at Bocuse, in Lyon, France. It's French food, but it's at such an extraordinary high level of technical proficiency and visual excellence.
I have been told that one of the things on your bucket list was to be a part of a film festival. Why does this really appeal to you? I like films. I think if you look at my shows the footprints of a serious film-nerd are all over them. I have been an obsessive film fan since I was a little boy. I am an annoying film buff, foreign or domestic. I love the craft.
For the opening night of Devour!, they are showing your favourite food film, “Eat Drink Man Woman”. What is it about the film that inspired you? It has far and away the single best cooking sequence ever. In the opening scene the chef prepares what appears to be a meal
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What’s the most obscure remote place you have ever been to? Remote northern Canada. Lapland in Scandinavia. Up the Congo River in the Congo. Congo is a real combination of remote and difficult.
What advice would you give to someone who is endeavouring to take on a foodie path like becoming a chef? Any must see places or courses to take or draw inspiration from? Ask yourself some very hard questions like are you truly suited for the job? Is this really what you want to do? It's very difficult. You give up your entire personal life; you never have holidays with family or friends. I recommend being a dishwasher or a prep cook for a few months at a restaurant. You should really find that out before you spend money on culinary schools. Find out about what kind of person you are and if you really like the business and are comfortable in it. Most people are not. They don't understand that just because you cook well at home that does not mean you are at all suited for a life in a professional restaurant.
ABOUT Anthony boUrdain 1978 Graduated from the world-renowned Culinary institute of America.
1997 Wrote the now famous piece "Don't Eat Before Reading This", which was published in the New Yorker.
1998 Became executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles.
2000 Released Kitchen Confidential - Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, which became a bestselling book.
2001 Released A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines.
2002 Started a tv series on the Food Network called A Cook's Tour which ran for two seasons.
2004 Releases Anthony Bordain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking.
2005 Launched a new tv series on the Travel Channel called Anthony Bourdain: No Reservatons, which ran for seven seasons.
2010 Releases Medium Raw: A Bloddy Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
2013 - Present Currently stars in Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, which can be seen on CNN.
WOLFVILLE
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NOVA SCOTIA
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CANADA
Prepare yourself for a veritable feast on screen and on your plate. Indulge in restaurant pop-ups, wine experiences, sensory screenings, food truck rallies, awesome foodie seminars, industry insider sessions and gala dinners featuring renowned international and local chefs celebrating the very best of food and wine.
Tickets available now! To book packages and tickets visit:
NOVEMBER 12 - 16, 2014
OPENING GALA FEATURING CNN’S
ANTHONY BOURDAIN
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE Devour! Opening Gala evening featuring CNN’s Anthony Bourdain, exquisite Cajun & Acadian-inspired fare from 16 of Nova Scotia’s finest chefs and an Order of Good Cheer processional.
Delicious food and wine-focused excursions throughout King’s County including the return of the popular All You Need is Cheese Express and addition of the new Bubbles Bus and the Cajun-Acadian Express.
The Select Nova Scotia Food Truck Rally - The hottest food rage in North America hits the streets of Wolfville over multiple days during the festival.
Celebrated International Chefs paired with local chefs to create decadent meals based on films in the program including Stephen Stryjewski of Pêche Seafood Grill in New Orleans, winner of James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America, Chuck Hughes of Garde Manger and Le Bremner in Montreal, Top Chef competitors Connie DeSousa, Jesse Vergen and Todd Perrin and more.
Devour! offers a unique cinematic adventure with feature films from El Somni and Brasserie Romantique to documentaries like Steak (R)evolution and GMO OMG. More than 50 films of all genres will transport the inner movie buff in everyone to somewhere extraordinary. Devour! The Workshops - a comprehensive series of 15 inspiring panels & hands-on industry sessions for all including culinary demos by visiting chefs and sessions with James Beard award-winning Perennial Plate, world-renowned blogger MattBites and Emmy-award winning Executive Producer, Michael Steed from Mind of a Chef & CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
Devour! The Grills - three rounds of distinctively different chefs take turns on the Big Green Egg at the Wolfville Farmers’ Market. Parties at every turn including the return of the Devour! Cocktail Pop-Up Party with mixologists Jeffrey Van Horne and Matt Jones presenting the first Devour! signature cocktail and the all new Devour! Kitchen Party featuring live music.
DevourFest. #EatItUp
You don’t have to travel very far to see what an amazingly diverse province we live in. Our picturesque landscapes are filled with family farms, fishing villages and other industries that when combined like ingredients in a recipe create a flavour that is unmistakably ours. It’s a reminder of what an important ingredient local producers are to our economy and way of life. These local producers and the thousands they employ, spend their money with local merchants, so the money stays in rural communities where it benefits everyone. We traveled our beautiful province to showcase how accessible these amazing people and products are. The fact is, local food travels fewer kilometers, has less packaging and is fresher and tastier than food shipped long distances. It just makes sense to buy local. With a dash of creativity and some of the freshest ingredients around, we’ve discovered some other uniquely Nova Scotian recipes that we like to share - Please enjoy.
Chef Alan Crosby
White Point Beach Resort
Serves 4 to 6 THE GREENS Organic greens Baby kale Bronze fennel and other assorted herbs Swiss chard THE CHEESE 1 Cup toasted walnuts (ground or finely chopped) 8 oz Goat cheese
Wild Rose Farm
THE VINAIGRETTE 1/3 Cup White balsamic vinegar 1/4 Cup cranberry juice 1 tsp Dijon mustard 1 tsp Orange zest 1/2 tsp Cinnamon 1 tbsp Sugar 1/3 Cup canola or grapeseed oil 1/4 tsp salt
THE GARNISH Yellow pear and grape Tomatoes Dried cherries Roasted yellow beets Heirloom carrots COOKING DIRECTIONS For the vinaigrette, combine all ingredients in a blender and puree. Adjust seasoning to taste. For the cheese, slice the goat log into ½ inch thick slicespress into crushed walnut crumbs, lightly butter a pie plate bake at 400 for 5 minutes ( till just soft) Toss Salad greens, vegetables and herbs Top with several slices of warmed goat cheese, serve immediately
Gilbert’s Cove, NS
Visit selectnovascotia. ca to find local producers and more recipes just like this one.
East Coast CRAFT BEER
Article by: Lola Augustine Brown
The Growth & Evolution of Nova Scotian Craft Beer
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he Nova Scotia craft beer industry is on fire right now. From Boxing Rock in Shelburne to the Tatamagouche Brewing Company to Big Spruce in Baddeck to many more in Halifax and beyond, there are plenty of new breweries and many opening soon that tempt us with new local brews to try. Consumers in Nova Scotia are in love with craft beer and not just because we’re hot for anything local here and love knowing who’s making our beer and what exactly is going into it, but because the beer created in this province is excellent. Consequently, Nova Scotia beer is gaining recognition across Canada and even internationally. “We have several national and international awards under our belt in the brewing community here, so there’s definitely recognition and a lot of buzz about the scene here happening in other provinces’ media,” says Andrew Cooper, marketing director for Propeller, Nova Scotia’s largest craft brewery. “We’ve come into our own, and we’re moving forward.” Brian Titus, owner of Garrison Brewing, says that he has had to rebuild his trophy shelves three times, and Randy Lawrence, owner of Sea Level Brewing in Port Williams, says with pride that Nova Scotia beer is at the top of the heap in Canada (and he should know, as he has been brewing it here since the 90s). Locally, we’re able to get our hands on more craft beer than ever before. We don’t have to visit our local breweries or specialty stores to pick up our favourite small-scale brews because the NSLC has become increasingly supportive and dedicates an impressive amount of shelf space to them (despite
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
the fact that craft brews only make up 5% of total sales). The local hospitality industry has also embraced the craft beer scene, and Emily Tipton, co-owner of Boxing Rock, says that this has helped immensely. “Part of the reason our industry has grown the way it has is because of bars like Stillwell and the Stubborn Goat, who are really pushing local craft beer,” she says. “And then also we’re seeing hotels like The Westin and The Lord Nelson take out all mass-produced beer barrels and put in just local craft beer. It’s not just craft beer bars; it’s the hospitality industry in general across Nova Scotia that is latching onto this, and that’s great.” The impressive growth of the Nova Scotia craft beer industry isn’t just good for beer lovers or those making beer, but for our economy as well. For a start, craft breweries create way more jobs than the big breweries because the process of making the beer is much more labour intensive and requires a more hands-on approach. “We are the fastest growing industry in Nova Scotia,” says Randy Lawrence. “The craft brewing industry employs more people than Oland does.” Then there are the farmers growing the hops, the other local suppliers providing ingredients, and the added boost to local hospitality and tourism that comes with the opening of these breweries. What continues to make the craft beer scene here so interesting and fun is the way that breweries are injecting personality into everything they do, from the range of ales that they create to the cool design on the labels to the way that each brewery embraces where it is located. “There’s as much difference between the breweries in Nova Scotia with our
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packaging and branding as there is our beers,” says Cooper. Although one might wonder whether there could maybe be too many breweries opening up given the fact that we aren’t a big province, Cooper isn’t concerned. “I’m sure there will be a point where people start to feel like it’s getting crowded, but right now we’re having fun with it and we’re excited,” he says. “There’s room for what we have now and for everyone in the province to grow.” Titus agrees, saying that Garrison has seen 20% growth this year, and their continued growth has led to a $3 million dollar investment in a new brewery. “That’s an indication that we haven’t topped out or saturated the market by any stretch,” he says. Lawrence says that last year Sea Level experienced 25% growth, and this year it is up to 40%. Continued growth shows that this is no fad, and clever marketing and promotion from these breweries mean that they’re reaching out beyond the NSLC and into diverse markets outside of the Maritimes. Not every brewer cares about being on the shelves of the NSLC or has that goal as part of their plans (Sea Level doesn’t but Boxing Rock had that as a clear goal from the start), and that’s okay because in order for all of the breweries here to thrive, they’re going to have to do things differently. “You just have to figure out who you are in the zoo,” says Titus. “You need to have a plan. Maybe that means having an interesting brewery retail store where people can come in and purchase a growler or a six-pack, or maybe you’re going to have samples and a little licensed pub attached to it.” Craft brewers in Nova Scotia are trying all of these approaches and successfully growing their businesses as a consequence. Cheers. █
East Coast CRAFT BEER
THE WORLD OF ORGANIC Article by: Brenden Sommerhalder · Photo: Riley Smith
Nova Scotia’s craft brewers tap into the organic beer trend
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ropeller's Organic Ale hit the shelves in early September, marking the brewery’s entry into a growing trend in beer. The Organic Ale caries a certified-organic label issued by Atlantic Certified Organic, the organization in Nova Scotia empowered by the federal government to issue organic certification. It’s the real deal. “People are beginning to look for organic, not just in beer but in all of their products,” says Andrew Cooper, Propeller’s marketing director. “So it's just a natural transition for the consumer and for us as well.” The Organic Ale is brewed at Propeller’s Dartmouth brewery. The location, Propeller’s second, opened in 2013 and is now responsible for over 95% of the brewery’s beer production. Adding the new location—which has updated equipment, more space and greater brewing capacity—made it possible for Propeller to develop a system to produce a certified organic beer. “We didn’t have room [at our Gottingen Street location] to add another brand into the mix, and we just didn’t have the space to store or sort ingredients for the organic brewing process,” explains Cooper. A local brewery with over 16 years under its belt, Propeller’s process for its existing line of beers is well-established. Rather than change the process or recipes of their current (much-loved)
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
brands, the team shifts the whole brewery’s focus to the Organic Ale when it brews the new product. “When we make this beer, the whole place is sort of in ‘organic mode’,” explains Josh Adler, Propeller’s brewmaster. “We go through a very thorough cleaning process when we brew organic to make sure every part of the process is up to code.” Certification requirements stipulate how ingredients should be transported, sorted, stored, bottled and labelled. Meticulous record-keeping and double-checking processes are part of an ongoing commitment to the standards. Then there is the matter of the organic ingredients. “The big thing if we were going to start this was to make sure we would have long term stability for raw materials,” says Adler. “A difficult part of that was getting organic hops, which are difficult to procure. We’re making this particular beer with Centennial hops,” he explains. It’s also up to the brewer to ensure their suppliers are certified organic, which includes checking their paperwork, too, if the supplier agrees to sell. “It's not just about picking up the phone and ordering organic hops,” says Cooper. “The supplier we're working with was literally asking us, 'Why should I sell you this? Why do you deserve this?' It was intense. We've never had someone quiz us on why we deserve to buy an ingredient.”
Cooper and Adler are excited to introduce Propeller’s new beer to the world. “It was important to us to make a beer that is not only certified organic, but is also true to craft brewing and what we do. You don’t need to be looking for organic to fall in love with this beer,” says Cooper. Adler describes it as having “a nice American hop aroma to it” and on the lighter side of bitterness among Propeller’s beers. “It has a lot of character to it,” he says, “and it’ll be very welcoming for new consumers or those who want to try something new, and of course something that is organic.” Propeller’s Organic Ale is not the first organic craft beer in Nova Scotia, and two newer breweries in the province, Big Spruce Brewing and Tatamagouche Brewing, built their breweries with organic in mind and produce fully organic beer lines. Big Spruce built their farm this way, too. “It’s our philosophy that what we produce is organic and follows sustainable practices,” says Jeremy White, owner of Big Spruce. “That was always in our plans for what we wanted to do.” The brewery is located right at their farm, which is also a certified organic body separate from the brewery. This allows Big Spruce to have complete control over all aspects of the ingredients they produce for their beer, from farm to finished product. White agrees that maintaining an organic-certified operation is time consuming and introduces new challenges, but it’s worth it, he says. “Being certified organic is more laborious, and there’s certainly more paperwork, but we weren’t going to stand down from that when we knew organic is what we wanted to be. Setting up as organic has also influenced how we buy ingredients and think about brewing beer; it’s helped us be unique.” The availability of quality local organic beer is a reality in Nova Scotia, and its rise in accessibility is good news for consumers looking for organic products and beer drinkers looking to add a new texture to their discovery of Nova Scotia beer. █
902.428.7852 harbourstone sea grill & pour house
@harbourstonesg
1919 Upper Water Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3J5
PRESENTS
THURSDAY JANUARY 15, 2015
at the halifax club
Propeller’s Organic Ale is available at the brewery’s Halifax and Dartmouth locations, on tap across town, and it is the first local organic beer to be available at NSLC stores.
It's back! 7 ROOMS.7 experiences.1 CLUB.
AN EVENING SHOWCASING THE BEST Nova Scotian CRAFT brewS, CIDERS,AND LOCAL FOOD STUFFS.
TICKETS ARE IN LIMITED SUPPLY. localconnections.ca/events You must be of legal drinking age to attend this event. No exceptions.
East Coast CRAFT BEER
craft BEER STYLES 101 A quick look into a few varieties available to the local beer drinker
Article by: Tracy Phillippi
India Pale Ale (IPA) Taste and Aroma: Most people think of IPAs as being incredibly bitter and hoppy, but the flavours and aromas can come in many delectable forms—citrusy, piney, earthy, floral, perfume-like, grassy and skunky, for example. Most will have a strong malty backbone that increases with the beer’s alcohol level. Fun Facts: Not only do hops give beer its bitter flavour and add to its complex aroma, but they also act as a preserving agent, which is especially useful in unpasteurized craft beers. As legend has it, hops were first added to English-style beer, making the treacherous journey from Britain to India by sea in the late 1700’s (soldiers got thirsty!). The hops, combined with a higher alcohol percentage, prevented the beer from going bad on the four-month journey; thus, the India Pale Ale was born. Pairing Suggestions: IPAs have a robust bitterness and bright citrus notes, so try pairing spicy Mexican, flavourful Thai or savory Indian foods with these beers. They also pair nicely with mild blue or gorgonzola cheese. Local Gems: Meander River’s “Lunch Box Pale”, Rockbottom Brewpub’s “Fathom IPA”, Propeller’s “Double IPA”, and Boxing Rock’s “The Vicar’s Cross Double IPA”
Stouts & Porters Taste and Aroma: It’s easy to mistake these two luscious dark ales. As a general rule, stouts are almost universally
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LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
brewed with roasted barley, which gives them deep-roasted notes like chocolate or coffee, ending very dry on your palate. Porters, on the other hand, tend to have more grainy, breadlike or toffee characteristics and are ever so slightly lighter in colour. Both brews have a large variety of sub-styles, from boozy to sweet. Fun Facts: The history of the stout and the porter is a tangled affair, with the definition of these styles having changed drastically over the past three centuries. Porters originated in London in the 1700s, were loved by the working class and are considered the first industrialized beers. Stout is the stronger son of porter, originally called “Stout Porter” until it dropped the “Porter” and took on a definition of its own. Pairing Suggestions: Roasty porters pair perfectly with barbecue and blackened fish, while a hearty stout was made for rich foods like meat pies and raw oysters. Both compliment gooey chocolate cake or truffles. Local Gems: Big Spruce’s “Cereal Killer Oatmeal Stout”, Schoolhouse’s “Chequer’s Ale”, and Sea Level’s “Port in the Storm Porter”.
Wheat Beers Taste and Aroma: Wheat beers can range in flavor from clove and banana to coriander and pepper to light and fruity. Regardless, wheat beers are unanimously refreshing with a fluffy, long-lasting head. Fun Facts: While the majority of craft beer styles feature
East Coast CRAFT BEER barley malt, wheat beers have a large volume of wheat (wouldn’t ya know it?) in their recipe. Most wheat beers can be divided into three camps: German “Weizen” beers, Belgian “Wit” beers and sour beers. In Germany, it is written law that such beers consist only of wheat, barley, hops, water and yeast. As usual, we’ve taken our own interpretation in North America by adding fruits, spices and other interesting ingredients to the mix. Pairing Suggestions: Keep delicate wheat beers as part of the first course, including light salads, seafood, vegetable dishes and even sushi. If you’re feeling a bit sweet, wheat beers also go well with berries or a fruit salad.
yeast takes its sweet time eating up the sugar in the beer. Since fermentation has slowed, the lager has more time to reabsorb the fruity flavours that are typically found in ales. Pairing Suggestions: Since lagers are light and refreshing, you don’t want to overpower them with heavy or rich foods. Try them with chicken, salad, seafood or lemon shortbread for dessert. Also pairs nicely with the lawnmower.
Local Gems: Rogues Roost’s “Raspberry Wheat Ale”, Gahan House’s “Sir John A’s Honey Wheat Ale” & Rockbottom Brewpub’s “Deadwood Wheat”.
Taste and Aroma: Because Belgian-style beers are one of the most complex categories of beer, it’ll be hard to find one that you won’t like. Common flavours and aroma characteristics include fruity, floral, spicy, toffee, peppery, caramel, dried fruits, rich maltiness or aggressive bitterness. Fun Facts: The Belgian-style beer category is big! From sour lambics to boozy quadrupels, these sudsy creations are considered works of art by Belgian brewers. But perhaps the most interesting sub-category goes to Trappist beers—aka, beers brewed in monasteries by monks. There are currently ten Trappist breweries in the world, and they’re found in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and now the USA. Trappist breweries are regulated by the International Trappist Association to guarantee precise quality and to ensure that the monasteries are not profiting from the beer’s production. Pairing Suggestions: With an eclectic range of flavours, Belgian beers can be the most exciting to pair with food. Try a Saison with salmon, an Abbey Ale with beef stew, or a Belgian Wit with brunch.
Red Ales Taste & Aroma: Our local red ales lean towards the bitter side of the spectrum, often supported by high maltiness and full body. Most red ales will have light fruitiness or citrusy characteristics. Fun Facts: Many brewers in Nova Scotia have included a North American twist on this classic UK beer, which tends to have notes of caramel and toffee. American red or amber ale came out of the craft beer revolution of the late 1990’s, popularized on the west coast of the USA before spreading nationwide. Pairing Suggestions: As a versatile brew, red ale can be paired with a main course like chicken or burgers. Hoppier versions are a great match for spicier food and tangy cheese. Local Gems: Boxing Rock’s “Temptation Red”, Tatamagouche’s “Butcher Block Red”, and Uncle Leo’s “Red Ale”.
Local Gems: Propeller’s “Nocture Dark Lager”, Garrison’s “Bohemian Pilsner”, Tatamagouche’s “Oktoberfest Lager”.
Belgian Style
Local Gems: North Brewing’s “Farmhouse Ale” and “Dark Belgian”, Garrison’s “Nit Wit”, and Granite’s “Old Cardinal Abbey Ale”.
Lagers Taste and Aroma: Most lagers will be grainy, sweet and have a corn-like flavour. Sensitive palates may notice a spicy or floral hop presence, or a subtle yeastiness. All lagers should be clean, crisp and refreshing on a hot summer day. Fun Facts: Unlike ales, lagers are fermented at cooler temperatures for longer periods of time, which means the
For a chance to try these, and many other fabulous styles of craft beer, why not join us at The Halifax Club on January 15? THURSDAY JANUARY 15, 2015
localconnections.ca/events
www.stubborngoat.ca 1579 Grafton St. | 902-405-4554
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014 WINE
BEER
COCKTAILS
FOOD
LIVE MUSIC
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East Coast CRAFT BEER
THE craft BEER UPDATE
North Brewing Co. - Belgian Milk Stout Propeller Brewery - Pumpkin Ale, “Nocturne Dark” Lager, Organic Blonde Ale Garrison Brewing Co. - “3 Fields” Harvest Ale, “Double Jack” Imperial Pumpkin Ale Sea Level Brewing Co. - “New Scotland” Heather Ale, “Hopfazupfa” IPA, “Punkin’ Grinner” Ale Rockbottom Brewpub - Rhubarb Pi Tatamagouche Brewery - Oktoberfest Lager Meander River Brewery - Wet Hopped Ale The Antigonish Townhouse Brewpub - Terry’s Friday Night Casks (of the English variety)
Collaboration Alert: “Sweet Rye’d Harvest Wheat” Garrison Brewing Co. X Beau’s Brewing Co (Ontario)
Get Real with Real Ale Perhaps you’ve seen them around town at The Henry House, Bar Stillwell, The Stubborn Goat or at Ladies Beer League events: 40-litre stainless steel casks, generally containing an interesting beer concoction from one of our province’s creative breweries. But what exactly is caskconditioned or real ale?
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On October 4th, a dozen experts who are Beer Judge Certified Program accredited will gather at The Delta Hotel in Halifax ARD W to carefully select our region’s AW top brews in 15 styles, as well as nominate a “Beer of the Year,” “Brewery of the Year” and “Brewpub of the Year.” The Atlantic Canadian Beer Awards, funded by the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers, is part of a weekend-long celebration that welcomes Mirella Amato, Canada’s only Master Cicerone, to Halifax. We’ll be reporting on all of the winners in our next magazine (after sampling them ourselves, of course!).
NER IN
Collaboration Alert: “Many Hands 2.0” Boxing Rock Brewery Co. X North Brewing
The FIRST annual Atlantic Canadian Beer Awards
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Big Spruce Brewery. - “Hoppily Married” Harvest Ale
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The weather is chilly, the leaves are changing and yes, it’s time for the wool sweaters. But just because the city’s many patios aren’t as hot, doesn’t mean that the local craft beer scene has cooled down. In fact, the fall brings a cornucopia of harvest ales, pumpkin beers and wet-hopped IPAs:
ADIAN BEER AN
Beers of AUTUMN Checklist
Almost all of the beer drank by Nova Scotians is fermented in large stainless steel tanks— (sometimes) filtered, (sometimes) pasteurized—and then forced carbonated. From there, the beer is transferred to kegs or bottles, and then enjoyed by you! This process results in beer that is incredibly consistent and nicely carbonated—in other words, it’s predictable. Cask-conditioned ale or real ale is quite the opposite, and frankly a lot more fun! After the beer is brewed and almost completely fermented in the tanks, it is transferred to the cask with a small amount of residual yeast and sugar, where it undergoes a secondary fermentation. Many brewers will add additional sugar, yeast, special ingredients (e.g. hops, fruit, spices) and a fining agent to help clarify the unfiltered beer. The result is a live brew with natural carbonation, interesting flavours and aromas, and the nutritional properties of its raw ingredients. Traditionally, casks are served at around 55 degrees Fahrenheit by hand pump but can also be propped atop a bar and tapped, where good old-fashioned gravity does its thing to pour the beer into your glass. Because all of the magic happens inside the cask during secondary fermentation, every cask is truly a surprise for the brewer and drinker. So the next time you see cask beer offered at the local pub, brewery or beer festival, give it a try and become part of the cask revolution.
ATLANTIC C
Article by: Tracy Phillippi
A quick look at what’s happening on the beer scene in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia’s tiniest brewery Schoolhouse Brewery On a back road in Upper Falmouth overlooking rolling fields of corn sits an old schoolhouse where local children were taught from 1870 to 1960. This isn’t just any old schoolhouse, though, because it’s been recently renovated by shop teacher Cameron Hartley to house Nova Scotia’s tiniest brewery! As a homebrewer who started experimenting over 20 years ago, Cam describes his endeavors as a “hobby that went out of control.” His efficient 35-gallon system has been keeping Valley craft beer enthusiasts quite content with his two flagship brews— Chequers Robust Porter and Principal Dry-hopped Pale Ale. The brews are available on tap at Library Pub (Wolfville), Spitfire Arms Pub (Windsor), Cocoa Pesto (Windsor) and Kings Arms Pub (Kentville). Schoolhouse Brewery has a simple mantra: keep ingredients as local and organic as possible, and make damn tasty beer. In fact, the base grain in all of their beers is locally processed by Maritime Malt, and all of the specialty grains that give the beer its colour, flavour and aroma are certified organic. In addition, the majority of hops are grown by Hants County farmers and by Cam himself. What’s in store for this crafty gem? Next up is the Hants County Hop Series, featuring four distinct, wet-hopped beers that showcase a variety of locally-grown hops. It’s a very limited release, so keep your eyes peeled at the Wolfville Farmers’ Market for their seasonal debut. There’s no hiding Cam’s enthusiasm. “The series really focuses on the uniqueness of the hop variety, our particular growing season and the terroir of the soil,” he says. Small but mighty, I reckon you’ll be seeing quite a lot from this brewery in the future!
Your brand. Your glass.
23 Venture Cresent, Elmsdale, N.S. 1-866-535-7483 · www.jymline.com Your LOCAL choice for custom decorated drink ware since 1969.
Propeller Goes Sour Propeller recently launched the first beer in its top secret lambic-style series, which was literally years in the making. Traditionally, lambics are spontaneously fermented by wild yeast unique to the Senne Valley region of Belgium. Propeller’s lambic has kept with the tradition by using unmalted wheat, aged hops and a similar yeast to the naturally-occurring strains of Belgium (Nova Scotia’s wild yeast is not too pleasant, and it’s kept out of beer at all costs). The Framboise, brewed with whole raspberries and bottle-aged for several months, is tart, musty and refreshingly complex. The Framboise is the first of at least three lambic-style ales to be released by Halifax’s largest craft brewery. Our sources tell us that the next ultra-special ale will hopefully be released before Christmas. But better take the day off work—Propeller’s Framboise sold out in 20 minutes at both brewery locations.
Find us at 980 Terry’s Creek Rd, next to The Port Pub in Port Williams.
Also available at Bishop’s Cellar, Harvest Wines, Premier Wines and Cristall Wines.
www.sealevelbrewing.com @sealevelbrewing
Arts + ENTERTAINMENT
Article by: Alison Delory
A spooktacular good time in downtown Dartmouth this October
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he Bluenose Ghosts Festival, a celebration of the book Bluenose Ghosts and its characters, written by Helen Creighton in 1957, is happening in and around Alderney Landing in Dartmouth this month in a myriad of fun and frightening ways. Two haunted houses—one called "Fear the Darkness" that's extreme; one pirate-themed and family friendly—as well as simulated casket rides and a witch's trick-or-treat house, where children can fill a bag with candy for $3, are the main festival attractions in the event’s plaza. "It's a festival for all ages," explains Bea MacGregor, executive director at Alderney Landing. "Anyone who loves Halloween, we invite their involvement." Creighton (1899–1989) was a prominent Canadian folklorist who was born and lived most of her life in Dartmouth. Her home, Evergreen House, is now a part of the Dartmouth Heritage Museum. Over the course of her career, Creighton collected more than 4,000 songs (among them, “Farewell to Nova Scotia”) and ballads. She authored 13 books of traditional songs, ballads and stories, of which Bluenose Ghosts is the most widely known. According to its website, bluenoseghostsfestival.com, the Bluenose Ghosts Festival is essentially an homage to Creighton and her tireless efforts to document the stories, songs and experiences of Atlantic Canadians. It’s also part of continuing efforts to collect and share the stories of downtown Dartmouth. There's a strong emphasis on involving Alderney Landing's neighbours and community partners in the Bluenose Ghosts Festival. Two art exhibits in Alderney Landing's Craig Gallery are part of the ghoulish good time. The Darkside Art Exhibit is a curated collection of visual art, such as paintings and masks by professional artists, whereas the Ghost in My Camera
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
exhibit features pictures taken by amateur photographers that appear to capture supernatural elements. There will also be a scattering of enormous pumpkins through the streets of downtown Dartmouth people can discover on self-guided walks. Plus, residents are invited to participate in a province-wide decorated yard event. "It's fun and interactive. It's a folklore festival and also a celebration," says MacGregor. She expects 20,000 visitors in October, and says while people can buy advance tickets at the box office, they can also just show up between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. from October 3 to 5, October 9 to 12 and October 16 to November 1. The events plaza will be covered by a tarp in case of rain, and should you find yourself in a line-up you'll be entertained there, too. There was a contest for youth aged 14 to 24 to create a three-minute trailer for a fictitious horror movie. Submissions deemed suitable for all ages—and with original and high-quality storytelling, imagery, and production values—are being screened on a 101.3 The Bounce media wall. "I'm astounded at how professional the young people are at putting together their submissions," MacGregor says. In its efforts to engage multiple community members, festival organizers invited local university students to complete research projects that help tell the stories of those buried in the nearby Geary Street Cemetery (see sidebar). Plus, there is a curriculum-aligned educational program available to teachers of elementary and junior high students. Researching and retelling entertaining stories inspired by Dr. Helen Creighton’s work on the supernatural is a rewarding activity for students of all ages, explains MacGregor. The Alderney Landing Farmers' Market is in on the action too, offering pumpkin-based foods and folklore each weekend morning through Halloween. █
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Arts + ENTERTAINMENT
Article by: Kathleen Higgins · Image: Neptune Theatre
Neptune delivers an action packed 2014-15
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reaking Bad is long gone, and Orange is the New Black won't be back until next June; what are we going to do with ourselves? How will we spend our time? What will we talk to our friends about? Lucky for us, Neptune Theatre has us covered with an exciting new season, and they're inviting us all to press play. Jennie King, Neptune's director of sales and marketing, is excited to share their new season with Halifax, and she wants to remind folks what makes the theatre experience so special. “We sell experiences,” she says. “The entertainment that we put on our stage is the real 3-D. It's something that's never duplicated; you can't DVR it. You just have to sort of live in that moment.” Kicking off in September, the 2014/15 season will feature nine plays across a number of genres, and there is something for everyone. Kid-friendly fare like The Adams Family and A Christmas Story are nestled in among unique stories about Canadian prime ministers (Rexy, a play about Canada’s longest-sitting leader William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Brooke Johnson’s one-woman show Trudeau Stories) and the premier of rising star Hannah Moscovitch’s What Every Young Wife Ought to Know. This diverse and heavily Canadian programming (five of the nine show presented this year are distinctly Canadian) offers a wealth of unique experiences for seasoned theatregoers and newcomers alike, experiences that, unlike your Netflix favourites, cannot be duplicated. “You're never going to see the same show twice,” explains Leyna Faulkner, marketing and design associate at Neptune. “You can come on two separate dates and see the same show, and it won't be the same, which is the beauty of live theatre.” And what if you did want to see the same show twice? What
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
if you are so enchanted by Norm Foster’s bittersweet Mending Fences or the breakneck hilarity of four actors filling over one hundred roles in the adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps? If that’s the case, Neptune’s unique and incredibly accommodating subscription options make it as easy to come back again and again for a fresh take on your new favourite play as it is to take in every show on the bill. “We have what we call fixed and flex subscriptions,” King explains. “Fixed essentially means for each show you pick a certain week and you sit in your same seat. . . . Flex subscribers are people who essentially get voucher packs, and they can redeem them however they want.” While many theatres offer a range of fixed and more flexible subscription options, King believes that Neptune may be one of the only companies in the country that gives subscribers so many different ways to enjoy theatre, including using their vouchers to bring along a friend (or four) to see a show they just can’t stop raving about. “We determined that we don't really care how you want to use your tickets, we just want you to make theatre a part of your life. So [a flex subscription] enables you to use the vouchers in any combination, at any time, any seat, any performance, to really just make it easy for people to make theatre a part of their entertainment.” By making their subscriptions and programming so accessible and diverse, Neptune Theatre hopes to encourage as many people as possible to make theatre a regular part of their
entertainment life. They emphasize the way that live theatre can be an exciting social experience in a way that binge-watching House of Cards on your couch simply cannot. Communications Coordinator Jenna Rathbun emphasizes the connection between the theatre and the other downtown entertainment offerings, and the way in which experiencing live theatre with your friends can be a part of a great night out. “Come and experience your city,” she says. “Go to dinner, come see a show, go have a drink after, talk about the show and really experience everything Neptune and the city has to offer.” As an integral part of the wider cultural community, Neptune is also a unique example of the move towards buying local, an increasingly popular option for discerning, community-minded Nova Scotians who want to support the amazing work created in their own backyards. “All of the shows we do here are made here,” says Faulkner, “so what they're seeing on stage was built by craftsmen here in the city. All of the work, all the costumes and props, all the sets, everything is made in house.” More than simply a unique and exciting way to spend an evening, Neptune shows offer an opportunity to see the incredible work being produced in our city and to support the people creating it. “You want to support local?” asks Rathbun. “Buy a theatre ticket.” █
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Arts + ENTERTAINMENT
Article by: Kathleen Higgins · Photo: AGNS
the art gallery of nova scotia's latest exhibition
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here's an interest in looking at painting, which happily never really goes away. I mean, for a hundred years, painting has been ‘dead,’ but the beautiful thing is that painting is continually reinventing itself, and artists are continually reimagining how a painting can affect a person standing in front of it. Mary's work really speaks a language of its own that people respond to immediately.” This is how Sarah Fillmore, chief curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), explains the lasting appeal of Mary Pratt's photorealistic studies of domestic life, and why now is the perfect time for a retrospective of her six-decade-long career. Born in Fredericton in 1935, Mary Pratt studied fine arts at Mount Allison University, her father's alma mater, under the likes of Alex Colville, Lawren P. Harris and Ted Pulford, graduating in 1961. After marrying fellow student and artist Christopher Pratt, the couple relocated to St. John's, eventually splitting their time between the provincial capital and Pratt's family cottage in Saint Catherine's, Newfoundland. The rich body of work presented in this exhibition showcases Pratt’s incredible skill as a painter and her keen interest in turning an eye to the domestic realm. In between raising their four children and keeping house, Mary finds time to paint some of the scenes in her home, including early and iconic works like 1969's Supper Table and 1971's Eviscerated Chickens. These domestic scenes, along with her series of portraits of Donna, the family's housekeeper and Pratt's friend, establishes Pratt's reputation as a painter and keen observer of the rich,
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complex inner lives of women. Often produced with the aid of photographs and colour slides of her source materials, Pratt's paintings are intimate, though not overly sentimental explorations of the objects and occupations found inside of the family home. Like so many people who grew up in the advertising age, Pratt was fascinated by commercial art. “I felt that commercial art spoke to people. I wanted people to love my work. I wanted people to understand what my situation was, and what I knew.” Filmore explains that this is one of her favourite quotes from the artist whose paintings she has worked tirelessly to bring to the gallery. “To be able to translate an image or a thought, or the way something smells or tastes or feels, to bring that all together for an audience is a really incredible power that I admire.” The nationally-touring exhibition, which opens in Halifax on October 10th, is a collaborative effort between Filmore and Mireille Eagan and Caroline Stone of The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery in St. John's. The AGNS has a number of Pratt’s works in their permanent collection, and they are some of the most popular pieces in the gallery. Knowing that there was a great deal of interest in seeing more of Pratt’s painting, in particular, Filmore, Eagan and Stone felt that this was the ideal time to create a touring exhibition that would take Pratt’s work across Canada. “At
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this point we were able to look at fifty years of work,” Filmore explains, “so that's a considerable and exciting body of work to kind of pick apart.” Dozens of paintings, some going back to the early 1960s, comprise this in-depth exploration of Pratt’s work, which began last May at The Rooms, and has stopped in Windsor, Kleinburg and Regina, before closing at the AGNS this autumn. As a companion to the exhibition, The Rooms and the AGNS have collaborated with Goose Lane Editions to create a stunning catalogue. The handsome edition features essays from five artists, critics and curators, as well as many pages of large, lush images of Pratt's paintings. Nicole WatkinsCampbell, communications advisor at the AGNS, is excited about the book and the diverse ways in which it examines Pratt's work. “Each [writer] has taken a very different look at the work,” she says. “So there's some that's quite art-historical, there's some that's quite personal, and there's a beautiful biographical kind of compendium that my colleague Caroline Stone at The Rooms did that gives you a very personal look at Mary in history.” The five distinct approaches to Pratt's work found in the book mirror the five unique themes around which the exhibition is organized. This in-depth exploration of Mary Pratt's painting paints its own portrait of one of Canada's most thoughtful and talented living artists. █
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Q & A by: Tiffany Thornton Photo: Paul Wright
Arts + ENTERTAINMENT
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t’s been an incredibly impressive year for multi-talented Canadian singer/songwriter Mo Kenney. Since her debut self-titled album was released in the Fall of 2012, Mo Kenney has established herself as more than just an emerging artist. Kenney won the SOCAN songwriting award for her hit song “Sucker”, several Nova Scotia music awards and this year’s Pop Recording Of The Year at the ECMAs. Mo’s powerful voice and rock/folk sound seem to garner notoriety wherever she goes. She has been performing all over Canada and Europe along side Canadian musicians Joel Plaskett (the producer of both her albums), Ron Sexsmith and Gordie Sampson. Her much anticipated new album, aptly titled “In My Dreams”, out this fall, finds Mo exploring different genres and delving into a stronger rock vibe. Local Connections Halifax sits down with Mo before she embarks on a fall tour of Germany, Austria and the U.K. Over a pint at one of her favorite haunts, Celtic Corner in Dartmouth, we chat about the amazing new album, climbing trees, and keeping it real.
Q: The title of the new album “In My Dreams” is quite the departure from your first self-titled album. Do you feel like the vision you had early on for your music has been actualized? It’s really an ongoing vision. This album was great to work on because I felt super comfortable with Joel this time. With the first album I feel like I was pretty nervous being around Joel.
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I am a huge fan of his music, and I had never met him before so I was quite shy. We were really able to experiment together musically with this album.
Q: The album cover has a real maturity to it; a sense of coming into your own & redefining youR identity musically. From the sounds of this album it has a whole new vibe to it and your voice is a lot stronger. It’s definitely more of a production compared to the last record. The last one was more guitar and voice based, but with this album I have been working with a band. I have a three-piece band that I work with; they play base and drums. I felt like with “In My Dreams” I had more freedom to go in that direction. Its bigger and heavier - more rock then folk. More rock inspired.
Q: I really love the title “ In My Dreams”. How did you decide on it? I contemplated calling it “Sophomore Jinx” with my weird sense of humor, but I found that there were about ten other records that had that name! So I felt like “In My Dreams” was better suited. There is a song on the album entitled “In My Dreams”, plus I dream a lot so it all made sense for the title.
Q: Lyrically your music has rawness to it. Do you think you have exposed yourself more with this new album? It wasn’t really a conscious thing, but I feel like my writing is
a lot more honest - not that I wasn’t honest - before but now I feel like I was able to lay it out a bit more clearly. My writing has changed, but I haven’t noticed. Preparing I notice, but with writing I just do it. I am not so conscious of it. It just evolves.
Q: Joel Plaskett produced this album and the two of you collaborated together and co-wrote on a few of the songs. It seems you both have such a succinct synergy when working together. Was that always there, or has the relationship really evolved? I felt an instant affinity with Joel. I think its because he is such a nice guy and we have similar tastes in music. We share a similar vision and are into the same kind of stuff musically, so we are usually on the same page when it comes to production. The title song on the album was written in Cape Breton last summer. I wasn’t sure if I was going to use it. Then I showed it to Joel and he and I worked on it. “Untouchable” Joel and I wrote together. It started out like a piano thing and a melody, but I wasn’t really sure what to do with it, so I brought it to Joel and he really liked it so we wrote it together. “Telephones” is the cover song and it’s a Mardeen song.
Q: This album seems like it was a labour of love. What was the biggest challenge for you while recording? I think the challenge is you can only do one song at a time. It’s often hard to see the big picture and see the record come together, so I worry what will this be like when it all comes together; the sound. That was the struggle wondering what it would be like when it all came together.
Q: Are there any songs on the new album that really touched a personal chord for you? “In My Dreams”, I think. There are a lot of love songs on the album, but there are also some anti-love songs. Its kind of manic in that way - the record ends with three love songs and those were pretty personal.
Q: Where do you draw a lot of your inspiration? It's kind of weird and morbid, but the graveyards near my house in Dartmouth. I go there all the time especially at night. I love to climb the trees there.
Q: Whom would you love to work with in the future? I was listening to Death Cab For Cutie, the group I loved when I was a kid. They were a new band that I loved listening to and I was revisiting those albums. I would really like to work with their Singer/Songwriter Ben Gibbard.
Q: What can we anticipate from new album More depth for sure. It goes a bit deeper this time.
Mo Kenney's LATEST ALBUM "IN MY DREAMS" IS Now available for purchase on itunes.
Community FEATURE
CYCLESMITH GOES NORTH Article by: Brenden Sommerhalder · Photo: Michelle Doucette
making a new home on Agricola after 20 years on Quinpool
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t was 1986 when a Halifax man returned home from a cross-Canada cycling trip that inspired him to open a bike shop. As Cyclesmith prepares to move from Quinpool Road to Agricola Street in November, it takes with it the same bones-deep passion for cycling that motivated founders Greg Smith and Brian Woods nearly 30 years ago—and that has made the independent bike shop a stalwart in Halifax’s cycling community. “We’re cyclists that own a bike shop,” says Andrew Feenstra, a Cyclesmith partner along with Mark Beaver and Paul Shaw. The three have cycling stories with details like “during my first 10-day, 500-mile expedition to PEI and back in 1974” and casual mentions of epic cycling journeys across most of North America and beyond. “The business part follows from that,” says Feenstra. “We’re passionate about cycling and we need a job as well, so we own a bike shop.” After earlier stints on the Halifax waterfront and in Dartmouth, Cyclesmith opened its doors at its current Quinpool Road location in 1994, the same year Feenstra was hired as a mechanic at the shop. It was the second Quinpool address for Cyclesmith. Its introduction to the street dates to the beginning of the Cyclemsith story, when the business started its retail bike sales from the second floor of Smith’s father’s home, which is LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
just a few doors away from the location that would later house Cyclesmith for two decades.
Takes One to Know One In 1996, Beaver and Shaw bought the company from Smith and Woods, and in 1999 Feenstra became a partner. The trio has been running Cyclesmith ever since, and lucky for customers, their passion for cycling is reflected in the service the bike shop provides. “We use virtually every product that we sell,” explains Feenstra. “So we know we can recommend something and there will be no problems with it. We travel and go to trade shows to find out what’s best for our market. If we don’t already have the best, we’ll find it and get it into the store.” The same is true for bike repairs. “We wouldn’t want to be without our bike for a week, so let’s have enough mechanics so we don’t have to book a week out for repairs.” Feenstra explains that his team has such personal familiarity with cycling and bicycle technology that common concerns people have about buying bikes at large chain retailers, such as quality and suitability, are non-issues at Cyclesmith. “We’re selling bikes, not toys,” he explains. “That’s a big difference
between a department store and a good bike shop—the quality of the bike.” Cyclesmith’s involvement with cycling in Halifax doesn’t end at its shop doors. The business contributes resources to numerous charity and non-profit initiatives, such as children’s bike rodeos and rides to support cancer research funding. They also participate in community events like Switch Halifax’s Open Streets. Cyclesmith’s involvement with the community and other local businesses also helps to legitimize cycling in the eyes of the public. “If this is a legit business, cycling must be legitimate as well,” says Feesntra. “Now,” he says, “it’s socially acceptable to ride a bike to work. People go, ‘Hey, you rode your bike to work? That’s awesome!’ That has changed over the past few years. Now, bit by bit, we’re starting to see more bike lanes, more bike education, more acceptance of cycling as a form of transportation.”
A New Chapter Cyclesmith’s current Quinpool Road location has served the business well in its 20 years, but with the impending demolition and reconstruction of the building, the time has come to make the move to a new location, which was an opportunity to not only move but also improve. “When we started looking at the Agricola Street location, all of the things that were coming together were that much better,” says Feenstra. “The area has really been on the upswing, lots of great restaurants and cafes. And there have been lots of businesses in the area for a long time doing great things. It just made sense.” Feenstra also sees the north end community as a logical place for a bike shop. “It’s a high population density area, basically a five minute bike ride to downtown. It lends itself very easily to cycling,” he explains. Cyclesmith’s new location is at 2559 Agricola Street, the site of the old NSLC (the new NSLC is now next door). In preparation for a new tenant, everything was completely removed, including the exterior walls, with only the recently-replaced roof remaining. This allowed Cyclesmith to tailor the new space to their needs, from customer experience to sustainability. “We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about traffic, how customers come in and interact, and how staff manage the flow,” says Feenstra. “So when people come in they’ll find it very easy to navigate the store, which will be a big improvement.” The new building also features high-resistance thermal insulation and an HVAC unit that uses principles of geothermal heating and cooling to increase efficiency. Computer-controlled LED lights will only use as much power as they need to in response to the amount of sunlight entering the store. “We have about 56 feet of window that’s letting light in,” Feenstra explains. The Cyclesmith crew has confidence their new location will be a hit. “Cyclists, beer and coffee. These are the three things that get along very well,” says Feenstra, referring to their new street’s healthy mix of these offerings. “So we know we’ll fit in on Agricola and in the north end.” █
A Naturally Sweet Place to Celebrate Fall! Burritos, Coffee, Handcrafted Ice Cream & Sorbet 5668 Cornwallis St, Halifax • deedees.ca • 407-6614
Community FEATURE
Reasons to L♥ve Downtown DartmoUth Article by: Alexander Henden
A QUICK look at some of Hotspots that are seeing dartmouth emerge as a shopping destination for locals
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or some time now, Downtown Dartmouth has marketed itself as a vibrant community that's worth hopping on the ferry for, but this year in particular they've really stepped out from the shadows, delivering on that promise. In a way, it's kind of mirroring what's happening in the North End right now, and when you consider the proximity of Downtown Dartmouth to our downtown core and the North End, there's reason for excitement. Halifax, as a whole, is realizing its potential, and it's the people who live here who will reap the rewards. In this feature, we've highlighted 13 reasons to love Downtown Dartmouth. Some of our featured businesses are new shops that have opened this year, while others have been there for some time now. Foundation if you will. And while we could have easily highlighted twice as many reasons to love Downtown Dartmouth, we'd rather leave it to you to check it out and come up with some reasons of your own. Make the trip, fall in love, and enjoy the renaissance Halifax is having right now. Downtown Dartmouth belongs to you!
ROOM 152 A true destination for fashion lovers. Room 152 carries the most current styles and designer labels at reasonable prices. The shop size is very good and so is the selection. 152 Portland Street · facebook.com/room152clothing
Kept Gifts and Housewares
The Canteen
Opened back in 2013, Kept Gifts and Housewares is a great little shop which has an excellent selection of things for the home. It's actually one of our favourite shops in Halifax right now. 127 Portland Street · keptshop.ca
It's easy to get hungry when you're out shopping, and the crew at The Canteen have that covered. Delicious artisinal soups, sandwiches, and salads, right inside the same location as TIBS. 66 Ochterloney Street · thecanteen.ca
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
DISCOVER RIDING. REINVENTED.
STRANGE adventures Get your super hero fix on Portland Street! Strange Adventures has comics, books, toys, and much more. 101 Portland Street · strangeadventures.com
FULL THROTTLE
POWER SPORTS LTD. 1015 Main Street, Dartmouth
fullthrottlepowersports.net
The d·art gallery Right next door to Kept, D·ART Gallery is a delightful little art gallery featuring an eclectic and ever-changing selection of works from local artists. 127A Portland Street · thedartgallery.com
doesn’t have a family doesn’t have an income doesn’t have an address doesn’t have to sleep on the street
TWO IF BY SEA Now very much a landmark in Downtown Dartmouth. TIBS is home to delicious croissants, Anchored Coffee, and TIBS family dinners featuring the Feisty Chef. 66 Ochterloney Street · twoifbyseacafe.ca
shelternovascotia.com
Reasons to L♥ve Downtown DartmoUth
hazelnut & rose
THE BIKE PEDALER
A newly opened boutique for expectant and nursing mothers. Hazelnut & Rose sells clothing designed to help celebrate pregnancy. 46 Queen Street · hazelnutandrose.com
This year saw The Bike Pedaler open its second location (Alderney Drive) right off Downtown Dartmouth. The new space focuses on sales and bike rentals. 25 Portland Street and 140 Alderney Drive
DArtmouth yarns
P'lovers DARTMOUTH
The perfect shop for folks who are into knitting sweaters and such. Your wool supply starts here. A variety of knitting classes are also available as well. 122 Portland Street · dartmouthyarns.com
Freshly opened this month, P'lovers is another great spot for picking up household decorations, nick nacks, and other wonderful things. 52 Queen Street · plovers.net
Fran's fish n chips It looks like that trailer has been there forever, and it probably has. If any one knows how long Fran's Fish N Chips has been a fixture in Downtown Dartmouth, we'd love to know. Anyways, Fran's is all about good ol' fish n chips, and who doesn't like fish n chips? Order a two piece, sit down at one of the picnic tables, and enjoy a proper Atlantic Canadian tradition. 56 King Street · facebook.com/FransFishChips
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Sugar Shok Candy, chocolate, more candy, and basically all the things you need for that crazy sugar high. They also carry whimsical greeting cards, and can make candy gift baskets as well. 117 Portland Street · sugarshok.com
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Sometimes getting there can be the best part of the journey. If you've had the chance to visit other cities across North America, it's hard not to realize just how much of a treasure the Dartmouth/ Halifax Ferry truly is. On a nice warm afternoon, there's no better place to be than on the rooftop, with a full panoramic view of the Halifax harbour. Halifax Ferry Terminal 2LOGOS.indd 1
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SO WHAT ARE YOUR REASONS TO LOVE DOWNTOWN DARTMOUTH? tell us at: magazine@localconnections.ca
5509 Young St, Halifax, NS B3K 1Z7 (902) 455-4411 · afhalifax.ca
Halifax LIFESTYLE
LIVING IN THE NORTH END P
Article by: Lola Augustine Brown · Photo: Riley Smith
Q LOFTS Perfectly meshing sustainability with style
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olycorp has a reputation for quality and sustainable design in its developments, but Q Lofts sets a whole new bar for other developers in the city to aspire to. These beautifully designed lofts in the heart of the north end are on track to receive LEED Platinum status from the Canada Green Building Council, the highest stamp of approval for green building possible in Canada. This has meant some serious research, creativity and innovation from Polycorp’s owner, Peter Polley. One of the groundbreaking initiatives at Q Lofts is the harnessing of heat from the building’s greywater—something that nobody else has done in the city or province but should provide enough energy to cover half of Q Lofts heating needs. “This isn’t overly complicated provided you know enough about mechanics to put the system together,” says Polley. “It’s about having the foresight to see that it could work and know how much it will cost.” Like Polycorp’s other developments on the peninsula, Spice and Mont Blanc Terrace, Q Lofts is constructed with insulating concrete form, which Vice President Louis Lemoine describes as being like a big Lego block made of insulation material but
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the middle is filled with concrete. This makes for minimal transference of heat and noise, meaning that Q Lofts offers superior sound insulation, too (you won’t hear your neighbours unless you want to). Windows are triple glazed with low E glass and argon gas as well, which means that you couldn’t get better insulated units. These facts, coupled with the energy saving measures employed throughout the building (harnessing of grey water to flush toilets, CFL or LED bulbs used throughout and dozens of other sustainable processes), help keep condo fees low and pass on long-term savings to residents. Q Lofts is targeted to people who care about all of the sustainability measures that are being put into this development, but also those who are looking to simplify their lives and live in a vibrant and eclectic neighbourhood that enables them to walk or bike to pretty much everywhere they need to get to (downtown is a 10 to 15 minute stroll, and you’re a stone’s throw from places like Lion & Bright, Local Source and Agricola Street Brasserie). Moving there you could happily ditch the car completely (there’s a CarShare Halifax site nearby) and lose that boring and stressful commute into work. Everyone at Polycorp was excited to move into this north
end location. “It’s a neighbourhood in transition, and there’s a huge renaissance happening here,” says Lemoine. “When we found the site we knew it was a phenomenal opportunity for us to come in and be a part of this.” Sustainability aside, the lofts are beautiful and surprisingly spacious (they run from 953 to 1,240 square feet depending on where you are in the building), and they were designed in a way that respects the location and history of the site. “When we designed the building we wanted something that was leading edge architecturally, really funky, but something that respected that industrial look, which you can see with the metal siding and the way that the balconies are going to be attached to the building, with perforated metal baluster’s,” says Lemoine. As a way of giving something back to the community, Polycorp has commissioned a piece of public art that will go in front of the development; this will be created by a soon-to-be-named local artist chosen through public consultation from invested parties in the neighbourhood. Venturing inside the lofts reveals plenty of clever design features that make the very best of the space. On the lower level, there’s a four-piece bathroom outfitted in Carrara marble; laundry and storage areas with cabinetry that conceals ironing boards, recycling centres and all of that other domestic stuff; and an interior cube room with sliding doors that could be an extra bedroom, office, den or whatever you want it to be. Then you enter the main living space, which has floor-to-ceiling windows, a gorgeous fitted kitchen, dining area and living room area. Take the imported-from-Italy glass sided stairs to the upper level and there’s a bedroom large enough for a kingsized bed and nightstands, a second bathroom and excellent fitted wardrobes big enough for people with impressive clothing collections. Finishes in the lofts are beautiful throughout. Polycorp employed a New Brunswick-based cabinetry maker to craft the custom kitchens that come with fitted wine racks, a central island with extendable countertop (finished in quartz) and topof-the-range stainless steel appliances. Q Lofts uses in-floor radiant heat and designer bathroom and kitchen fixtures that are sustainable and beautiful. The flooring is resilient vinyl that’s made with 30% recycled material. “Our finish package is a couple of steps above what most developers offer,” says Lemoine. The building is topped by a penthouse that’s home to a guest suite residents can rent, as well as a 16-seat dining table with a kitchen, and a lounge area with a big-screen television and fireplace. There’s also a gym up there, but what really makes the area special are the two decks—one on the west side of the building that has barbecues and lots of seating, and the other on the east. Both decks, being six stories up, offer fantastic views of Citadel Hill and downtown, and the east deck affords views out over the harbor and bridges. This development offers a lot to its residents, and future developments will have big shoes to fill if they want to compete with what Polycorp is doing with Q Lofts. █
“Efficiency Nova Scotia shows me new ways to save energy and money within my business.” Discover what energy efficiency can do for you.
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Halifax LIFESTYLE
Instant Savings, Long-Term Changes Article by: Jordan Whitehouse
How Efficiency Nova Scotia’s Instant Savings program is helping make lasting improvements to the energy-efficient products we buy
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f you were to buy an LED or an energy-efficient fridge five years ago, it likely wasn’t the cheapest bulb or fridge out there. Today, that’s changing, and in Nova Scotia, at least, one program that’s helped push that change along is Instant Savings, Efficiency Nova Scotia’s twice-a-year campaign that offers rebates on energy-efficient products. The point isn’t just short-term savings, however, but more importantly, long-term improvements in the types of energy efficient products available to us. “The main goal of our retail program is market transformation,” says the program’s manager, Trisha MacLean. “So here, by providing an incentive and creating demand for certain energy-efficient products, the idea is that retailers will continue to stock the products, and increase product variety.” This fall, Instant Savings runs from October 1st to November 2nd. Over Two hundred retail locations across the province are taking part, offering instant savings from $3 to$100 thirteen products ranging from LEDs to motion sensors to thermostats to clothes washers. Since the program is funded by the electricity ratepayers, all of the products rebated have
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electric savings associated with them and will save you on your electricity bill. The program was launched in 2009 by Nova Scotia Power until being transitioned to Efficiency Nova Scotia in 2011. Since then, the independent non-profit has changed more than just the products on offer. One change was that they started doing giveaways so that people could take home a product, try it and then come back for more. Another, and likely the most significant in terms of long-term benefit, is that they now host in-store engagement events during the campaign to educate people on how much money they can save from using these products; in some cases those savings are up to $100 per year per product. “Some people aren’t aware of the savings that can be achieved by switching one light bulb or installing a smart power bar,” says MacLean, “so having engagement reps in the store who can talk to consumers and educate them on the benefits and savings that can be achieved has helped to increase the sales of these products. And it helped with our goal of market transformation, too.”
The numbers appear to be backing her up. For the past two years, Efficiency Nova Scotia’s independent evaluator surveyed customers who had just bought one of the Instant Savings products and found that 83% were aware of the program in 2013 as compared to 58% in 2012. Awareness of the Instant Savings Program has increased to the point that some customers have even started calling Efficiency Nova Scotia to ask when Instant Savings will be back. That awareness has translated to big increases in the number of products sold. Take the number of LEDs sold in 2013 through the program, for example. In the spring, about 16,000 were sold across the province, but in the fall customers scooped up nearly 214,000 of them. Part of the reason for that huge increase was that several retailers stepped up to the plate to offer their own incentive on top of Instant Savings’, which resulted in LED prices as low as $1.97 in some retail locations. “Manufacturers are definitely noticing the impact of the program on the market,” says MacLean. “We’re finding now that they’re proactively approaching us, they’re bringing in a greater variety of products to rebate, and they’re constantly in communication with us to get new ones approved for the program.” And as Efficiency Nova Scotia brings new products into the program, others are removed or the rebate is reduced— which is exactly what should be happening. As more people buy more of a certain product, manufacturers offer their own discounts or are just able to make the product cheaper without needing Instant Savings. One example of this is Efficiency Nova Scotia’s decision to no longer offer rebates on CFL bulbs this year. CFLs were on the Instant Savings product list since 2011, but now, because the market is saturated with them and the price has come down, it doesn’t make sense to keep them on the list. Instead, Efficiency Nova Scotia is pushing LEDs, and the hope is that when the market becomes saturated and even more efficient bulbs come on the market, the old LEDs won’t need to be rebated. Moving forward, this type of evolution is key to the success of the program, says MacLean. “One of our mandates is to encourage Nova Scotians to use energy better, and because the program is constantly changing and evolving over time, we have a great opportunity to educate consumers on the most energy-efficient products available to them.” Visit efficiencyns.ca/products/instant-savings for the fall 2014 Instant Savings product list, as well as how much energy and money you can save by using each product.
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City SPEAK
Culture Drives Performance Phil Otto ca.linkedin.com/in/philotto
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hat is corporate culture? It is a set of beliefs, values and attitudes that guide an organization. Culture is to an organization what character is to a person. And the culture you create internally has a direct impact on your company’s reputation externally. Every business has a culture, but not every business has a healthy culture. An unhealthy culture occurs when expectations are not properly understood, communicated or lived by owners and managers, or when owners themselves are not aligned. An unhealthy culture creates chaos and conflict within an organization. A healthy culture occurs when everybody in the organization understands expected employee behaviour and the values to live by. A healthy culture drives performance by bringing alignment and contentment together with each employee’s understanding of his or her role in moving the organization forward. A healthy culture encourages employee retention because when employees are aligned with the corporate culture, they have higher morale, a positive attitude and are more loyal. The ability to attract high-caliber people is significantly stronger in a business with a healthy culture simply because people want to work there. When your biggest fans are your employees, the impact on customers is remarkable. It drives stickiness, the key ingredient of a high performing business with low employee churn and extremely loyal customers. Culture drives brand—the combination of reputation and expectation—and is just
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as important in a small business as it is in a large corporation. Simply put, it is “the way we do things around here.” It is a learned set of behaviours that is common knowledge among all employees. It defines why a company does what it does and how it does it. For an example of a strong local corporate culture that has springboarded a small fruit and vegetable stand in Bedford’s Sunnyside Mall to a multi-location retail enterprise, look no further than Pete’s, owned by Pete Luckett. This successful entrepreneur has spent considerable time over the years making sure every one of his employees are aligned with the culture he wants, and if their values are not aligned, they are off the bus. From extraordinary retail experience and ever-changing, world-class merchandising to sustainability and collaborative thinking, Pete has built a business around a simple idea: Think Fresh. Fresh ideas, fresh displays, fresh
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
l brandguy practices and policies, and, of course, fresh fruits and vegetables. At Revolve, I nurture a culture that is focused on our clients and doing great work. We are practical, nimble and entrepreneurial, and we talk about our values of strategy, creativity, an uncomplicated approach, initiative and caring at every opportunity. They are the filters by which we hire, fire, bonus and promote. Our employee manual is simply one statement: “Every Revolver is empowered, authorized and committed to take care of their client. Period.” Is our culture perfect? Not at all. Is it for everybody? Not a chance. But for those it fits, it is a rewarding, engaging and comfortable work environment. How would you describe your culture? Take the time to think about it and talk about it. You can either drive and influence your culture or just let it happen. High performing businesses create a culture that allows the business and its employees to thrive.
City SPEAK
NOva scotia as an economic opportunity Lindsay BURNS ca.linkedin.com/in/lindsaybest
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t’s been many years, but my friends and family are starting to come home. When I graduated from university, I decided to leave. But I did not go out west or to The Big Smoke. I moved to Ireland. I worked, lived and played in Europe for a year or so, and then moved back home. The reason I left? I wanted to get an authentic experience living in Europe by eating, drinking and soaking up the culture for more than a weeklong vacation. I need to be clear: I have no beef with Alberta and the like, and fully
understand the reasons why people choose to move to larger markets for work. I’ve been to Ontario and Alberta, and my experiences there were wonderful. But for me, Nova Scotia is home. The choice to stay in Nova Scotia to start my career was not an easy one, and the challenges I faced were not unique. I often felt like I fought to stay in Nova Scotia. I took a lower starting salary and was working in a slower-to-grow economy, so at times the confidence in my decision waivered. Great jobs can take a long time to find, and in the
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meantime there are bills to pay. When you do land that ideal (or sometimes not) position, the pay is often less than what your peers are making elsewhere in Canada. Here's some facts: Nova Scotia has an aging population; business is greatly impacted by relationships and the people you know; we are advancing major projects; we embrace entrepreneurs and our local community. When I consider these facts, I feel as though there will be fantastic opportunities for young people in our future. It’s hard to tell if the people who choose to start their careers in Nova Scotia have an advantage down the road, but I certainly feel like the strong relationships we are building can only benefit us. Though there are a number of compelling reasons that people leave Nova Scotia, I feel there are attractive reasons to stay as well. We see the tides slowly turning to a more positive economic outlook. We support each other as a community, and the nature of a small city gives individuals the opportunity to stand out. We have a vibrant culture with a local flare that makes this salty air lifestyle worth enjoying every day. I am proud to be a Nova Scotian and wish our economic situation didn’t force Bluenosers to make the difficult decision to leave. But I’m also an optimist. I look forward to the day that the rest of my friends and family, and any other future business associates, see Nova Scotia as an opportunity. Come check it out; we do have lots going for us.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
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Article & Photos: Alexander Henden · Car Courtesy of O'Regan's Nissan
2015
Weekend DRIVE
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I
t wasn't that long ago that buying an entry-level car meant one thing and one thing only: compromise. The cars were often cheaply built and underpowered, and from the perspective of car enthusiasts, they were far from desirable. They were point A to point B hunks of metal, and the people who owned them expected nothing more. Today it's a different ballgame. In fact, you could argue that the car industry as a whole has become better at what it does and more focused on the quality of the end product. This new Nissan Micra is the perfect example of this progress. For our weekend drive, I had access to the top-of-the-range Nissan Micra, the SR Model. This one has pretty much all of the bells and whistles, and it’s a looker wearing "Caspian Sea" teal. This model also comes with the 16-inch alloy wheels, making it look both sporty and refined, leaving little to suggest that this is a low-priced car. The interior is also a delightful surprise. The car has a wellappointed interior with comfortable bucket seats covered in a good-quality charcoal cloth. Driving position is fairly high by my own standards, but this isn't unusual for cars in this class. At 5 feet, 10 inches tall I still found lots of headroom, and sitting up high does provide better road visibility. The dashboard is a very simple design, which, if I can be honest, is the way I prefer things. There's no fuss, and you'll never get lost in all of the options available because you only get climate control (with a/c), a fully-functional media unit with a USB interface and screen for rear motion camera, hazard lights, speedometer, tachometer, and fuel gauge. That's it. Perfect. There's a surprising amount of legroom in the back, too, and as we discovered on our test drive, a really decent amount of
LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
trunk space. In fact, we managed to fit two cases of wine and our photographer's suitcase back there, so one could argue that this could be the perfect companion for a weekend getaway. Driving the car on the highway was actually the biggest surprise, but perhaps it shouldn't have been. When you look at the power-to-weight ratio, this car is not far off the 1984 Volkswagen GTI (one of the original hot hatches), and the way this car delivers its power very much reminds me of that car. That is until you start to reach high speeds. Unlike the desirable GTI of yesteryear, this car is very composed at speed, and while I didn't explore the outer limits of speed, I can assure you there's more up top than you'll ever need. The car doesn't wander too much at speed either, which is a welcome change over my own car (a 2004 Nissan Sentra). It just pulls along nicely, and when it's time to overtake someone, you can do it, with a little effort, of course. In town and around the back roads of Wolfville, the car is very composed. Suspension damping is actually quite excellent for an entry-level car. The ride quality is firm but not overly so; there is an excellent balance. And while this car is not officially a hot hatch, you can really hustle it around the bends, if that's your style. It's certainly mine, and so for the whole day I kept the car pegged at seven tenths, finding it to be utterly amusing to the point where I asked myself: If I only had one car and this was it, would I still find pleasure in driving? The simple answer is yes. I would. Another thing I found surprising was how other people perceived this car. If being a car is a popularity contest, this is one for the in crowd. I actually had people ask me about the car on a couple of occasions, and when I told them that the base
price was only $9,995, you could see the surprise in their eyes. At the end of the day, it was time to replace all of the gas I'd burnt whipping around the valley. I often balk at the fuel economy claims that manufacturers make, but after a full day (300 km) of spirited driving, I surprisingly found myself having used even less fuel than what Nissan claims. I averaged 7.3L/100kms, mixing highway and city, all while driving with complete disdain for full economy. Very impressive. In the end, I discovered that this Nissan Micra shares almost nothing with the last model that graced our shores. This car looks good, drives well, isn't compromised and would be welcome on my driveway anytime. Complaints? Not many. Ride height is really a personal preference as I've come to realize that most drivers like sitting higher up (hence the SUV phenomenon). I suppose I'd have liked the media console to be a little quirkier to match the personality of the car, but hey, I'm nit-picking here. This car is a gem, and I now have a new appreciation for what car manufacturers can do with subcompacts. â–ˆ
Vehicle Specifications Model
Nissan Micra
Engine
1.6 litre DOHC 16-valve 4 cylinder
Power
109hp @ 6000rpm
Torque
107lb ft @ 4400rpm
Fuel Economy (city) Fuel Economy (highway)
6.6L/100kms 8.6-8.8L/100kms
Seating Capacity 5 Base price
$9,995
Price as tested (SR Model)
$15,883
Article and photos by: Tiffany Thornton Town photo: Göttingen Tourismus
Postcard Postcardfrom fromABROAD ABROAD
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The town of GÖttingen Bratwurst, Beer, and Kissing Gänseliesel I t's early morning and the sun is gleaming over the tarmac as the direct flight with Condor airlines lands in Frankfurt Germany. In a mere six hours after leaving Halifax, I am standing at the Frankfurt airport completely satiated from the scrumptious German inspired breakfast of fresh breads, flavourful gourmet cheeses and smoked salmon. All served up on the roomy Condor flight. Once off the plane I can't stop thinking about enticing my palette by indulging in cold and frothy German beer, but it’s only seven o’clock in the morning. I decide to board the modern and fast ICE train towards the university town of Gottingen in Lower Saxony. It’s about two hours and fifteen minutes from Frankfurt’s bustling main station Hauptbahnhof. The German town of Gottingen has intrigued me for some time since moving to Halifax. It shares a strong historic connection to Halifax's main street of the same name, but of course with a completely different enunciation that I just can't seem to perfect. Halifax's historic Gottingen Street is celebrating its 250th LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014
anniversary this year. At one time Gottingen Street was the most happening place in town, with its bright lights big city feel. Streetcar tracks ran up and down the main road, vintage diners lined the sidewalks and two movie theatres beckoned you to catch the latest film. It was the place to be. Long before that in 1774 Gottingen Street was known as Germantown and Dutchtown Street. However, the number of German settlers that lived in the area dissipated, leaving for Lunenburg. The remaining German community petitioned for the name of Gottingen, an homage to the British monarch of the time, King George II. His ancestors were German and he had founded Gottingen University. Nova Scotia's German roots are strong, and the province is home to Canada’s oldest German settlement. When my train pulls into the town of Gottingen in Lower Saxony, I feel an almost instant affinity to this University town of around 150,000 people. The young student vibe in the air is infectious as I meander the terraced streets, while gazing at the quaint German houses with their red roofs, some of which date back to the 12th century. As I pass several pubs and restaurants the smell of German
$2.50 includes all the reasons to come back. The harbour ferry delivers you right to the doorstep of many of the most celebrated shops, theatre, restaurants and urban escapes in Halifax. Downtown Dartmouth is all-together an unforgettable place to explore. FOR EVENT LISTINGS VISIT DOWNTOWNDARTMOUTH.CA AND FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @DT_DARTMOUTH food permeates the air. I realize that it is indeed time for a beer and bratwurst (when in Rome). I ask the locals if this fabulous city boasts its own beer and they tell me of course it does. As I sip on a local pint of "Gottinger", nicknamed for the locals, I can't help but wish this smooth premium beer that boasts over six hundred years of brewing tradition could be found back home. Next stop is Gottingen University, which was founded in 1734. The school is famous for its Nobel Prize winners and its esteemed academic reputation. I am anxious to see The Paulinerkirche Church, which used to be the library where the "Brothers Grimm” worked and is still used as part of the university library today. Its vaulted ceilings and array of historic weathered books lure me in. I want to linger there all day, however time is of the essence and I could have sworn I passed by a handmade ice cream shop in the town centre. A few winding streets later finds me enjoying Gottingen ice cream on a waffle cone. Consisting of almonds, pistachios, vanilla and a German staple Nutella, the taste is delectable. My time surrounded by the magic of Gottingen is nearing an end. Dusk is settling in as kids clamour for another ride on the carousel at the town centre. I am on a mission to kiss the goose girl "Lizzy" or “Ganseliesel” in German, a statue of a young girl who sits atop the fountain in front of Gottingen’s medieval town hall. It is a tradition of the Gottingen university students, upon finishing their doctorate, to climb the fountain and kiss the statue dubbed the “most kissed girl in the world". No doctorate in hand, but with the notion that it may be a long time before I am here again, I climb up lean forward and kiss a girl. █
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Closing NOTE
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CElebrating the best nova scotia has to offer W hen we started this magazine back in April 2012, we really had no idea what we'd signed up for. We knew, of course, that it would be hard work and that we'd have to learn a lot along the way, but there's one thing, in particular, we learned that came as the biggest surprise. In producing this magazine, now in its eleventh issue (a big surprise to some), we've learned who we are. If you were to ask our resident brand expert Phil Otto to articulate this, he might say that we've discovered our brand. But in more simple terms, we've simply discovered ourselves. Since day one, back when it was humble beginnings (or not so humble in some people's opinion), the foundation was already in place. We wanted to produce a high-quality magazine which would tell the stories of Haligonians who were shaping our region. We wanted to have good photography and illustration, and to use good local talent for everything that went into the magazine. We were also adamant about having quality advertising, as our position was that this was part of the content experience. But we never really considered much more than this. Every year during the holidays we found ourselves taking time to reflect on what we'd accomplished or, in many cases, what we failed to accomplish, but the biggest thing that happened during these reflection periods was that we slowly began to put things into perspective and come to better understand ourselves and our role in the community. We came to better understand who we are, what our mission was and how it affects everything we touch.
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As we move into winter and yes, another holiday season, we're beginning to look again at what we achieved during the year, and once more we find ourselves digging deeper. Our brand statement for some time has been "Showcasing the best our region has to offer," but we've come to realize that this is now obsolete. We are no longer in the business of showcasing; we're in the business of celebrating, and there's a big distinction between the two. With showcasing, we're simply sharing the achievements and experiences of others. With celebrating, we are actually taking part in the journey, and for some time now the latter has been the case. Looking ahead to 2015, we have another ambitious year planned, with five issues of the magazine scheduled and a delightful roster of Meet Your Local events to look forward to. Event festivities kick off on January 15 at the Halifax Club with our Craft Beer & Local Food Celebration, and then we're set to return to the Halifax Club again in May for our Wine & Spirits Gala, which may have a new name by the time tickets become available in late October. We're also going to overhaul Sausage Fest as it enters its third year, taking it to a whole new level and bringing in fresh new ideas and innovations that this event deserves. We're also planning to spend 2015 going even further to deliver a curated experience, ensuring that all of our readers, locals and visitors alike get the best reader experience possible. For us, this is the most important thing we can do. We're going to put the customer first and really deliver on this, and with a little luck, you'll be able to join us as we celebrate the best Nova Scotia has to offer.
Great Music, Warm Hospitality
Sunday, 2 Nov 2014
2:00pm at Lilian Piercey Concert Hall
Fandango Guitar Quartet Jeunesses Musicales presents this young and dynamic guitar quartet whose repertoire runs from Vivaldi to Paul Simon.
Saturday, 29 Nov 2014
7:30pm at Lilian Piercey Concert Hall
Donizetti’s Opera “Don Pasquale” Jeunesses Musicales touring production of the popular 19th century comic opera.
6199 Chebucto, Halifax, NS B3L 1K7 · (902) 423-0143 ceciliaconcerts.ca L CeciliaConcerts f ceciliaconcerts
2014 - 2015 TICKET PRICES Regular : $25 Senior : $20 Student : $12.50
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LOCAL CONNECTIONS HALIFAX | Autumn 2014