(PHOTO: Just Shawarma owner Nedal Atieh.)
With an exploding population, it’s no surprise that we’ve also had lots of interesting new businesses open up in Stittsville in 2016. Many of them were related in some way to food.
There must be a correlation between healthy communities and a high number of coffee shops. Two new cafes opened in Stittsville this year. The Grounds opened up next to the Food Basics in Fairwinds, and Vardera Cafe and Lounge opened up in the Jackson Trails shopping centre. I guess you can call it three coffee shops if you count Blumenstudio, which combines coffee with a floral shop. Meanwhile, Gaia Java changed ownership and has added quite a bit of food to their menu.
Just Shawarma opened on Carp Road. “The community is very supportive, very friendly. Especially social media, on Stittsville Neighbours and Stittsville Moms,” owner Nedal Atieh told us … Renee Saunders finally realized her dream of opening her own bakery, with the launch of Sweet Room Bakery Boutique on Stittsville Main near the arena … The Vietnamese restaurant formerly known as Pho TJ on Stittsville Main relaunched under new management as Pham Le Kitchen (because Stittsville is a very “Pham Le” friendly place to live) … Writter Rebecca Smart brought us the story of The New Queen on Stittsville Main, who began a new chapter under the ownership of Sunny Cheung … James Clarke of The Glen is part of the ownership group revamping the restaurant space at the Amberwood Golf Club as ALE, and they’ve been getting very strong reviews … also worth mentioning is Covered Bridge Brewing, who expanded their Iber Road brewery and won a gold medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards.
Besides restaurants, other openings included Zida Academy, taking over the old Waldorf School space on Goulbourn Street … New medical lab and imaging centres on Stittsville Main … the Orange Theory Fitness studio opened at the Fairwinds Plaza … We couldn’t convince writer Devyn Barrie to jump in the pool, but he did bring us a good story about a unique aqua physio clinic on Iber … A marijuana dispensary called Magna Terra opened to some controversy on Iber (more on that later this week) … a couple of veteran barbers opened a new barbershop on Stittsville Main … and there’s a new art gallery/studio on Stittsville Main called Story Art Creative Centre.
We’ve heard rumblings about several more exciting businesses set to open in the early part of 2017 … meaning even more opportunities to #supportlocalstittsville. Stay tuned!
(This post is part of our end-of-year 2016 Rewind series. Read more here…)