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On a Sunday in early September, a bubble tea franchise shop quietly opened in Ottawa’s Chinatown. The owners told no one, opting for a “soft opening” with no signs or bombastic social media posts.
Yet, by the end of the day, 400 people had passed through Chatime’s doors, stripping the store of its tapioca stock three times over, and setting a company record for busiest soft opening in Ontario yet.
To the owners of Chatime — a beloved bubble tea Taiwanese franchise selling the sugary, tea-based tapioca drink — it was all the confirmation they needed that their instincts had been right.
“When we opened at 1 p.m., people started coming in one or two at a time,” said Simon Huang, co-owner along with Nara Sok and Que Trang. “And then, all of a sudden, everybody just came in. It was kind of like, what just happened? People saw people carrying the cups, and we got a lineup.”
Out of the 20 franchises in Ontario, Sok said, Ottawa’s Chatime sold almost 600 cups on its first day, the most for a soft opening.
But the roaring success of Chatime is only a single part of a fast-growing surge in Ottawa, one that’s seen more than 20 East Asian restaurants from China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea open in the downtown core within the past couple of years — unprecedented growth for the city, according to some in the industry.
“After we opened (in 2016), I saw so many Chinese, Korean or Japanese stores open,” said Ling Pei, the operator of Sansotei, a popular downtown ramen shop that routinely sees long lines down Bank Street — an uncommon sight in Ottawa. “It just happened within two years. Usually, it’s not so fast.
Uji Cafe on Rideau Street.
“Our city, it’s not small, but it’s a quiet city compared to Toronto,” said Pei, who came to Ottawa from China a decade ago. “So (business owners) think maybe Asian food isn’t popular here. But actually, if you focus on your food, and do everything you need to do, I think people will like it.”
The majority of the new East Asian restaurants offer food Ottawans can’t easily get elsewhere in the city. Stop by Sugar Marmalade on Rideau Street for guilty pleasures such as Japanese-style popcorn chicken and mango juice with chewy sago pearls; at La Noodle in the ByWard Market, watch chefs manipulate dough into strands of noodles, served in Chinese pork and beef broths.
Most of these Asian eateries cater to the person on the go, melding the convenience of fast food with quality more typical of sit-down restaurants. Many of them are differentiated from the Asian restaurants of old by their emphasis on speed, trendy decor and specialization — just one or two items are highlighted, compared with other menus offering the gamut of “Asian” food.
“Our society is so time-rushed right now,” said Keira Seah, the manager of Uji Café, Ottawa’s first Japanese café selling matcha tea and cheesecake, and The Fry, a Korean franchise that specializes in fried chicken. Both opened in the past year. “It’s so people can have that lifestyle of, ‘OK, I’m busy, but I can also drop by a place I really like and have a different unique concept that’s affordable.”
The sudden rush of Asian restaurants can be explained, said Huang of Chatime, after a litmus test of sorts in 2015.
The advent of Ottawa Asian Fest’s night market two years ago — a street bazaar showcasing dozens of Asian food and drink vendors, many of whom travelled from Toronto — began at Lansdowne Park before shifting to Chinatown in 2017. Huang said between 20,000 to 25,000 people have showed up each year, chowing down on stinky tofu and spiral potato skewers.
It was the kick many apprehensive business types needed to take a chance on Ottawa.
“It showed there was a market for it,” said Huang, who is a part of the event’s organizing team. “With the night market, and all the lineups, it wasn’t just Asian, it was multicultural.
“Before, people thought of Chinese food as just egg rolls and chicken balls. But with the night market, and the introduction of different types of Asian cuisine into the Ottawa scene, people started to realize, ‘Oh my God, there’s so much more.’
“I believe it caused a surge in terms of Asian restaurants that have opened in Ottawa within the past two years.”
Much of the Toronto and Vancouver markets are maxed out, so business owners have turned their attention elsewhere, said Huang. Ottawa, as a government town, is a stable market that isn’t as affected by “fluctuation” as other cities.
“When it comes to Asian food, we’re way behind most cities,” said Sok. “I think it’s grown very, very slowly up until very recently. Maybe there are more Asians coming to Ottawa now.”
Ottawa has, in fact, seen a bump in its Asian population, according to Statistics Canada census numbers that revealed a spike of 13,105 people between 2006 and 2011, bringing the total population of East and Southeast Asians to 72,785.
The Chinese population makes up 42,740 of that number.
Seah, the spokeswoman for Uji Café and The Fry, which are under the same management group, credits part of the Asian restaurant rush to Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017 — which brought in tourists from all over — and to the thousands of international Asian students in Ottawa.
“There are so many visitors and international students from, say, China,” she said. “Students’ consumer spending power is so strong — especially Chinese students, their economic situation.
“People study abroad or travel but they want to be able to have here what they can have at home.”
The Chinese population dominates East Asian international student enrolment at the city’s main post-secondary institutions. At Carleton University, Chinese made up 1,770 of the 1,903 East Asian students in 2017; the University of Ottawa had 1,753 Chinese students out of 1,850 East Asians from 2016-17; Algonquin College brought in 421 Chinese students of the 489 East Asians in 2017.
Most of the new Asian restaurants are clustered in the downtown core to take advantage of those students. Several of them, such as a second The Fry location in Barrhaven, are on the outskirts.
Lui Xia Lee, a 21-year-old student from Malaysia with Chinese heritage, moved to Ottawa two years ago to study journalism at Carleton. A foodie, Lee was eager try a bunch of the new Asian restaurants that recently opened up.
“I really like them. Back home, this kind of food is really popular, so to find it here, it’s very nice because it’s always been a struggle to find really good Asian food in Ottawa, especially in my first year in 2015,” she said.
“Uji popping up with all their matcha recipes was really good, and I couldn’t find a close-to-authentic ramen store in Ottawa until Sansotei came up, so I was really happy.”
Seah, who is also an international student, knows eateries like Uji Café and The Fry cater more toward Asians, but she’s confident they also appeal to westerners looking to try something new, authentic and — hopefully — delicious.
“Because it’s the capital city, we really wanted to leave a mark,” she said. “Ottawa has been a top city to visit and live, so … this is the place where we want to start building the future.”
amah@postmedia.com
twitter.com/alisonmah
查看原文...
Yet, by the end of the day, 400 people had passed through Chatime’s doors, stripping the store of its tapioca stock three times over, and setting a company record for busiest soft opening in Ontario yet.
To the owners of Chatime — a beloved bubble tea Taiwanese franchise selling the sugary, tea-based tapioca drink — it was all the confirmation they needed that their instincts had been right.
“When we opened at 1 p.m., people started coming in one or two at a time,” said Simon Huang, co-owner along with Nara Sok and Que Trang. “And then, all of a sudden, everybody just came in. It was kind of like, what just happened? People saw people carrying the cups, and we got a lineup.”
Out of the 20 franchises in Ontario, Sok said, Ottawa’s Chatime sold almost 600 cups on its first day, the most for a soft opening.
But the roaring success of Chatime is only a single part of a fast-growing surge in Ottawa, one that’s seen more than 20 East Asian restaurants from China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea open in the downtown core within the past couple of years — unprecedented growth for the city, according to some in the industry.
“After we opened (in 2016), I saw so many Chinese, Korean or Japanese stores open,” said Ling Pei, the operator of Sansotei, a popular downtown ramen shop that routinely sees long lines down Bank Street — an uncommon sight in Ottawa. “It just happened within two years. Usually, it’s not so fast.
Uji Cafe on Rideau Street.
“Our city, it’s not small, but it’s a quiet city compared to Toronto,” said Pei, who came to Ottawa from China a decade ago. “So (business owners) think maybe Asian food isn’t popular here. But actually, if you focus on your food, and do everything you need to do, I think people will like it.”
The majority of the new East Asian restaurants offer food Ottawans can’t easily get elsewhere in the city. Stop by Sugar Marmalade on Rideau Street for guilty pleasures such as Japanese-style popcorn chicken and mango juice with chewy sago pearls; at La Noodle in the ByWard Market, watch chefs manipulate dough into strands of noodles, served in Chinese pork and beef broths.
Most of these Asian eateries cater to the person on the go, melding the convenience of fast food with quality more typical of sit-down restaurants. Many of them are differentiated from the Asian restaurants of old by their emphasis on speed, trendy decor and specialization — just one or two items are highlighted, compared with other menus offering the gamut of “Asian” food.
“Our society is so time-rushed right now,” said Keira Seah, the manager of Uji Café, Ottawa’s first Japanese café selling matcha tea and cheesecake, and The Fry, a Korean franchise that specializes in fried chicken. Both opened in the past year. “It’s so people can have that lifestyle of, ‘OK, I’m busy, but I can also drop by a place I really like and have a different unique concept that’s affordable.”
The sudden rush of Asian restaurants can be explained, said Huang of Chatime, after a litmus test of sorts in 2015.
The advent of Ottawa Asian Fest’s night market two years ago — a street bazaar showcasing dozens of Asian food and drink vendors, many of whom travelled from Toronto — began at Lansdowne Park before shifting to Chinatown in 2017. Huang said between 20,000 to 25,000 people have showed up each year, chowing down on stinky tofu and spiral potato skewers.
It was the kick many apprehensive business types needed to take a chance on Ottawa.
“It showed there was a market for it,” said Huang, who is a part of the event’s organizing team. “With the night market, and all the lineups, it wasn’t just Asian, it was multicultural.
“Before, people thought of Chinese food as just egg rolls and chicken balls. But with the night market, and the introduction of different types of Asian cuisine into the Ottawa scene, people started to realize, ‘Oh my God, there’s so much more.’
“I believe it caused a surge in terms of Asian restaurants that have opened in Ottawa within the past two years.”
Much of the Toronto and Vancouver markets are maxed out, so business owners have turned their attention elsewhere, said Huang. Ottawa, as a government town, is a stable market that isn’t as affected by “fluctuation” as other cities.
“When it comes to Asian food, we’re way behind most cities,” said Sok. “I think it’s grown very, very slowly up until very recently. Maybe there are more Asians coming to Ottawa now.”
Ottawa has, in fact, seen a bump in its Asian population, according to Statistics Canada census numbers that revealed a spike of 13,105 people between 2006 and 2011, bringing the total population of East and Southeast Asians to 72,785.
The Chinese population makes up 42,740 of that number.
Seah, the spokeswoman for Uji Café and The Fry, which are under the same management group, credits part of the Asian restaurant rush to Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017 — which brought in tourists from all over — and to the thousands of international Asian students in Ottawa.
“There are so many visitors and international students from, say, China,” she said. “Students’ consumer spending power is so strong — especially Chinese students, their economic situation.
“People study abroad or travel but they want to be able to have here what they can have at home.”
The Chinese population dominates East Asian international student enrolment at the city’s main post-secondary institutions. At Carleton University, Chinese made up 1,770 of the 1,903 East Asian students in 2017; the University of Ottawa had 1,753 Chinese students out of 1,850 East Asians from 2016-17; Algonquin College brought in 421 Chinese students of the 489 East Asians in 2017.
Most of the new Asian restaurants are clustered in the downtown core to take advantage of those students. Several of them, such as a second The Fry location in Barrhaven, are on the outskirts.
Lui Xia Lee, a 21-year-old student from Malaysia with Chinese heritage, moved to Ottawa two years ago to study journalism at Carleton. A foodie, Lee was eager try a bunch of the new Asian restaurants that recently opened up.
“I really like them. Back home, this kind of food is really popular, so to find it here, it’s very nice because it’s always been a struggle to find really good Asian food in Ottawa, especially in my first year in 2015,” she said.
“Uji popping up with all their matcha recipes was really good, and I couldn’t find a close-to-authentic ramen store in Ottawa until Sansotei came up, so I was really happy.”
Seah, who is also an international student, knows eateries like Uji Café and The Fry cater more toward Asians, but she’s confident they also appeal to westerners looking to try something new, authentic and — hopefully — delicious.
“Because it’s the capital city, we really wanted to leave a mark,” she said. “Ottawa has been a top city to visit and live, so … this is the place where we want to start building the future.”
amah@postmedia.com
twitter.com/alisonmah
查看原文...
