ulla blog

Yay us! We’re Top Tenners!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How exciting to be chosen as one of Canada’s Top 10 New Restaurants by enRoute Magazine. This is a highly regarded list that comes out every November and is buzzed about for quite a while (pretty much until the next years crop of newbies). This year’s list has a lot of heavy hitters on it; many of whom have had experience owning excellent restaurants previous to the one they are honoured for now. We kind of feel like the little guy in amongst the grown ups. It is also particularly cool to be on the same list as Chef Brad’s mentor David Hawksworth.

Each day we strive to make sure we are continually moving forward and improving ulla. We are thankful for our wonderful staff who have helped us progress and are a big part of what we do on a daily basis. We are also unbelievably grateful for our families and all their help (cleaning, fixing, scrubbing, building, scouring, feeding us, etc.). Without them this restaurant would have never started out so well.

Here’s to all of us!

 

Celebrating Canadian Food!

Food Day

Food Day Canada is coming up on Saturday, July 30th. Restaurants from coast to coast are participating in this fabulous event to highlight the amazing bounty that we have in Canada.

The main goals of Food Day Canada are:

To ensure that NO Canadian can ignore the fact that we have some of the finest food and talent (at all levels) on the planet.
That there is NO PLANET B and helping one another is helping us all.
That we know how to throw a heckava great party.

At ulla we use as many local products as we can on a daily basis and work with a great bunch of farmers and suppliers to make this happen. Join us on Saturday, July 30th to taste the deliciousness of Canadian food!
If you can’t join us or one of the other participating restaurants you can celebrate on your own by sourcing out Canadian products at your local farmer’s market, grocery store, butcher, baker… Share the meal with others by posting it on the Food Day Canada Website (there are even prizes!).

Check out the official website by clicking on the banner above.

Wild Things – You Make My Heart Sing

 

fiddleheads

The last few weeks have seen some amazing wild produce grace our plates. These beautiful eats are all foraged on the West Coast. Fiddleheads make many people happy. Ramps are wild leeks and they are especially delectable when they are lightly pickled. The most unknown of the gang was the bracken fern. It kind of looks like a dark green asparagus with little, fuzzy curls at the top and it tastes like broccoli and asparagus had a delicious baby.

There are many reasons to love wild foods but some of the best are that you can be assured that they have not been genetically modified and no one has doused them in pesticides. Many of them are dark green vegetables so they have a high nutritional content; fiddleheads are especially noted for being high in iron.

The sad part is that the window when the gems are found is quite short since many of them are only edible when they are quite young and tender. We’ll likely see them again next spring. But that’s okay cause- summer is here!!!!!

Octo art.

We’ve been working with our friend Chris Dobell on a new piece of art for the hallway. Yes, it seems like a weird place to put art but we really thought it needed something. That is why we decided to make it more of an installation than a traditional painting.

We talked a lot about the style and theme of the piece and decided that we wanted to go with something vibrant and urban that included nods to what we do and the neighbourhood we are in. This is the first part of the installment and we may add more as time goes on. Here is a little sneak peek of the guys putting it up.

Octo rising.

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