Eating up the Hill: Smashburgers with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association

One of the highlights of the Parliamentary reception circuit has long been the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association annual beef BBQ in the East Block courtyard, held before the Ottawa weather gets too cool.

It had to go away during the pandemic but thankfully it made a triumphant return to the Hill last week, and many a staffer and Parliamentarian made their way over and joined the lengthy que.

Traditionally, this has been the good ‘ol beef on a bun. But this year they decided to showcase a different form of delicious Canadian beef, bringing in the chefs from local eatery the King Eddy to prepare their signature smashburgers.

This explained the lengthy line, as they were cooking double smash cheeseburgers from scratch on the grill, topping each with sauce, lettuce, tomato and pickle, wrapping it and handing it off to the hungry masses with a bag of Old Ditch chips, some slaw and a cup of chipotle mayo.

My wait was maybe 30 minutes-ish and I got there early – the line was way longer when I left.

Was it worth the wait? Oh yeah. Delicious, fresh, hot, juicy Canadian beef smashburger and two slices of the dairy industry’s finest processed cheese – which is actually in my view the best cheese for this application.

I removed the pickles and inhaled the burger, not remembering until I’d had a bite to snap a photo you good people. The courtyard was rocking more than it had in years, and no one left hungry.

Thank you to the cattlemen! Looking forward to Beer, Beef and Whiskey next.

Who doesn't love a cheeseburger?

The courtyard was a rockin'.

Celebrity chef?

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Eating in quarantine: Patty melt and rings from The King Eddy

As I've mentioned I'm doing a lot more cooking while physically distancing, but I am trying to support local reasturants so at least once a week, often Friday nights, I order out for dinner delivery. And I'm trying to order from places I haven't tried before. So last week, my Friday dinner came from The King Eddy.

A diner-style restaurant located in the Byward Market, the King Eddy touts the quality of its hamburgers. Being partial to a good burger myself I ordered the patty melt, hold the pickles. Yeah, come at me y’all, I don’t like pickles.

Basically, it’s a grilled cheese sandwich with two burger patties and red onions inside. I made onion rings my side for an upcharge, and it came with two cups of their dipping sauce. I haven’t knowingly had thousand island dressing since I can’t remember when, but this is what I imagine it to be.

It was fine as a grilled cheese, fried appropriately golden with melty processed cheese. The menu described it as Texas toast, but it seemed like regular white bread to me. The patties were small and, when tasted separately, lacked much independent seasoning. I had passed on the option to add a third patty for $2.99 because it seemed like it would be too much, but it would not have been. A third was necessary. It needed a bit more substance.

The onion rings were excellent. Crispy, and served in a generous portion. Everything you would want diner onion rings to be.

Since it was a Friday night I ordered desert and they only had one on offer, which was a vegan, gluten free chocolate cake. My friends, just, no. Chocolate cake needs dairy and it needs gluten. Other than the chocolate icing, which was tasty, this cake was dry and unfluffy. I get they’re likely limiting the desert menu right now, and want to offer the option for those on restricted diets – I will leave the cake for those folks next time.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad meal, but by the metrics of Uber Eats and food delivery it falls on the wrong end of the value for price curve. When life returns to normal, I’ll try them in person and get that extra patty. But this week, new adventures await.

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