Taste in the Glebe turns 25!
Jim Watson with a stained-glass window presented to him in honour of his role in originating the Glebe’s annual fundraiser, Taste in the Glebe.
Taste in the Glebe turns 25!
By Jim Watson
It seems hard to believe but Taste in the Glebe (formerly Taste of the Glebe} turned 25 years old earlier this month as hundreds of residents lined up early in the chilly weather to taste some of the best food, wine, beer and spirits our community has to offer.
Its origin has an interesting history that few know about it.
Back when I was mayor of the pre-amalgamation city, the Glebe community and in particular the amazing community organization, the Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group (GNAG), met with me to see how we could secure funds from the city to renovate the community centre. The centre was a former religious building and when the city bought the building, it had significant limitations as a community centre – remember the sunken floor in the main hall? I arranged several meetings with the community and city staff to see how we could move the plan forward.
It was a long drawn-out process and money was tight. I suggested GNAG hold a fundraiser to show the city we were serious about the need for a complete retrofit of the old building. At one meeting, I suggested we contact all the many fine restaurants in the Glebe and have them provide samples of their food and drink. I recalled a similar event called Bon Appetit that was very popular and raised significant dollars for several local charities,
I saw the event as a win-win-win. First, it allowed local eateries to showcase their offerings that might entice those in attendance to book a lunch or dinner based on the tasting menus they experienced. Second, it brought residents out in the January cold and gave them a chance to get acquainted with restaurants they had not tried before. And finally, it raised money for the renovation fund we started.
After boldly suggesting this would be a great project for GNAG to take on, some of the dedicated leaders from GNAG turned the tables on me and said, “Great idea, why don’t you organize it!?” Some of those GNAG leaders, among many others, were Mary Tsai-Davies, Jennie Aliman and Mary Lovelace.
I accepted the challenge and gathered up some of my mayor’s office staff and working with GNAG and leaders from the Glebe Community Association, such as Councillor Inez Berg, Beatrice Raffoul, Allison Dingle, Lynn Graham, Wendy Daigle Zinn and Diane Lupinska, as well as Jim McKeen, Jim Foster and Caren von Merveldt, we started organizing. We went up and down Bank Street pitching the idea and to my great relief and surprise, only one restaurant we approached refused to participate.
We sold tickets in person (no online orders back then!) and to our delight, the event sold out! I believe we raised close to $10,000 for the community centre renovation and showed the city the community was fully behind the project.
I chaired the event for two years, Doug Ward took over for a few years, and I believe the longest serving chair is the dedicated Tahera Mufti, who is still chair! Many more residents were our superstar volunteers, and I apologize if you’ve been left out.
GNAG presented me with a beautiful stained-glass window that I believe was made by a great Glebe artist, Alice Hinther.
I hope everyone who could get a ticket had a good time and not too many New Year’s resolutions were broken so early in the new year!
Jim Watson was city councillor for Capital Ward from 1991 to 1997 and mayor of Ottawa from 1997 to 2000 and again from 2010 to 2022.