Everyone Needs a Vegan Mentality

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals! Like a good sunscreen, Ottawa Life

Inspiration Village Opens to Celebrate Canada

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals! Like a good sunscreen, Ottawa Life

Rideau Street Borders

 Rideau Street is a border between the Ottawa I live in and the Ottawa I visit. The Byward Market sits on the opposite side and my story migrates there. The Bluebird Cafe on Dalhousie, has a medium roast - ideal with the right amount of sunlight pouring through the window.

Top Valentine’s Day Date Spots in Ottawa

 Valentine’s Day is here and if you’re looking for a special spot in the city to bring your sweetheart, look no further! Here is a list of some fun and romantic hot spots in the National Capital where you can celebrate this special day with your loved one. Corktown Footbridge Major

A Toast to Tradition

 When one steps through the doors of an Irish pub, one hopes not only to be met with good food and drink: they expect to be met with the millennium of tradition that comes with the words “Irish Pub”. The Heart & Crown, located in Ottawa’s historic ByWard market, has tradition in spades.

Rainbow Blues

 Guitarist Philip Sayce rocks the Rainbow (photo by Terry Steeves). AOther images courtesy of the Rainbow Bistro. Credits AlZon Photography and Scott Doubt of sD3. “The Blues had a baby and they called it Rock and Roll,” Muddy Waters once said and though rock may have become the dominate genre the influence

Luxury Byward Boutique Hotel Opens with a Bang

 All photos by Danika Leminski. Ottawa is now home to the first Canadian luxury boutique hotel by Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Andaz Ottawa ByWard Market marked its historic grand opening with a spirited evening of festivities, food, and drinks in an exciting preview of what will be offered at this dazzling new

12 Things to Do When Visiting Ottawa

 (Web editor's note: just because the summer is winding down doesn't mean Ottawa becomes less of a travel destination! Also, this week, new faces join our city in the form of students. Even if you live here now's the perfect time to get take become a tourist in your own city.

Why Ottawa has the Best Nightlife in Canada

 Byward Market The great South Eastern state of Ontario sits between the border with the United States of America and the French speaking province of Quebec, and it is within this territory that you will find the nation’s capital city, Ottawa. Sitting astride the Ottawa River, just across the water

Five Unique Ways to Enjoy Ottawa’s Nightlife

 Clubbing and bars not your thing? Fortunately, Ottawa has so much more going on once the sun goes down. From fantastic quick food to quirky stops downtown, there’s always a way to turn your evening into a blast. We have a list of five off-the-wall things you can try in

The Best Restaurants in Ottawa

 A dish by Tomo. Photo by Lakyn Marie Felix Photography.  We all know that Ottawans are attracted to great food, and luckily for us, it seems like great food is drawn to us as well. This city is loaded with fantastic places to grab a snack on the go or

Co-Op Students Explore Ottawa Part One – Ashley in the ByWard Market

 Photo courtesy of Samantha Lapierre What would you do if you were a tourist in Ottawa? Ottawa Life Magazine asked our co-op students this question and put them to the test. Each student was asked to pick an area of Ottawa that they wanted to explore for an afternoon. Grade

Arthaus – Ottawa’s Uber-Cool Condo Project

 The condo building topping off the future Ottawa Art Gallery and Groupe Germain hotel will be named ‘Arthaus,’ the building’s developers announced October 2. The new structure will stand just beside the old arts court, on the corner of Daly Avenue and Waller Street, and should offer nearly 100 condos beginning at

Ottawa’s place for horses: Wesley Clover Parks

 For thousands of years, horses have made our lives easier. But in the past hundred years they’ve gone from being utilitarian to something more akin to friends. Their deep eyes seem to resonate an incredible emotional intelligence and calmness. Even after spending only a few minutes with a horse, it’s

The Journey of ‘Five Crooked Lines’

 Finger Eleven has made a bold return to the Canadian music scene with the release of their sixth studio album, Five Crooked Lines. For the new record’s launch, the band has lined up a full summer tour across North America which includes a stop in Ottawa on August 13. Five Crooked

From Dreary to Dramatic

 The mission: Transform a fully accessible kitchen and bathroom. The results are improvements to both form and functionality. A call to action put forth by the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation was presented to local contractors to update an older apartment unit located in the Byward Market area. The goal was to

Playing Chicken: The line between beauty and tension in Andrew Moncrief’s “Unseen”

 Moncrief stands in front of paintings featured in this month's exhibit. All photos by Kerri Fukui. Andrew Moncrief is a 28-year-old artist who’s talented enough to create beautiful, classically styled figures, and brave enough to smear paint over their faces. His latest exhibition, a collection of portraits called “Unseen,” is

RBC Ottawa Bluesfest Celebrates Festival Fashion in New Campaign

 Photo credit: Alexander Vlad/Captivate Creative Music festivals are all about music…and fashion! Both on the stage and on the street, artists and audience members are embracing festival fashion, from Coachella to Osheaga and now RBC Ottawa Bluesfest! For the first time, RBC Ottawa Bluesfest is launching the I Love #RBCBluesfestFashion

The Strumbellas on music, tour life and making it big

 Photo credit: Heather Pollock “I know I’m supposed to say my favourite part of being on tour is meeting the fans,” says the Strumbellas frontman Simon Ward. “But really it’s trying all the different food from everywhere we travel.” If I wasn’t a fan of the Strumbellas before, you can bet

Disegno Fine Jewellery: The Essence of Design

 Pamela Coulston is the owner of Disegno Fine Jewellery,  launched in 1992. In Italian “disegno” means more than just “design.” The word also suggests the ability to envision a design and execute the drawing. At the heart of this notion is the discovery of fresh concepts, often from unexpected sources;.

A Magnitude of Inspiration: momondays

 If you’ve ever wanted to inspire or be inspired, momondays is the place for you. In short, momondays is real people, with real stories, generating real inspiration. Michel Neray founded momondays in February 2012. He was teaching public speaking and wanted to give his students a platform from which to practice

Secrets Revealed: Q&A With Ottawa’s Fitness Experts

 We could all use an expert opinion when it comes to dusting off the old fitness routine. Who better to ask for advice than the experts themselves? Some of Ottawa’s fitness experts are here to answer five of your most-asked questions about fitness, food and health. With expertise ranging from

Making the Most of Fall and Winter: 2014/15 Ottawa Event Guide

 “I’m bored! What should we do?” This familiar question far too often doesn’t have an answer. Stop right there! Look no further! OLM’s Fall and Winter Event Guide is here to relieve your boredom. With the turning of the seasons comes many new activities to kick the fall and winter blues

Top 25 People in the Capital 2014

 by Marie Waine, Janice Dickson & Caleigh DiNicolantonio. Our list of the TOP 25 people in the Capital reflects a small sampling of the citizens who lead and make our community better. While honourees differ greatly in vocation and social circumstance, they share a commonality: With the odd exception, they

Nuit Blanche Takes Over Ottawa and Gatineau

 Get ready to sleep all day so you can be up all night—The third annual Nuit Blanche Ottawa+Gatineau is this Saturday, September 20, from 6:20 p.m. to September 21 at 4:21 a.m. This one night a year event celebrates local art and culture at its finest. Nuit Blanche aims to