Grounded grows in downtown popularity

By Louise Rachlis
When Amir Rahim runs or walks from his home at Metcalfe and Lisgar to his restaurant at 100 Gloucester near O’Connor, he’s well aware of the joys of living and working in Centretown.
All week long, at noon hour Grounded Kitchen & Coffeehouse is packed with neighborhood office worker dine-in-ers while a line of dine-out-ers snakes up to pick up their meals to go.
Some sit alone in the comfortable location, with their pocket novels or newspapers; others chat in small and large groups.
The restaurant is also busy for breakfast from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., and dinner from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“I’ve been in restaurants my whole life,” says Amir. “Everything I’ve done has led to this.”
He came from Toronto with his family when he was seven, and has “seen Ottawa grow from a quiet town. I love Ottawa.”
Both his parents began running a Swiss Chalet restaurant in 1979, and he and his sister “grew up” there.
Now his own daughter Nazlin, six, has the same opportunity to grow up in a restaurant just as her father did. She even has her own menu of “roast beef, cucumber and Swiss cheese” which she has named “The Nazlin Special” and sells for a dollar.
“I get real pride when she says ‘let’s go to Daddy’s café,’” says her father.
He is also grateful for the help of Andrea, his life partner. “I wouldn’t be here without her. She has been by my side since the decision to do this. She gets free bagels and cream cheese - her favorite - for life.”
And he says he couldn’t have done it either without his business partner and friend Gabriel Pollock, who is the restaurant’s co-owner and chef.
In the summer of 2010, their “lifelong dream” to open a restaurant with quality food and all natural ingredients came to fruition.
“I was looking for a business for a year and a half,” says Amir. “When this location became available, I decided to make a go of it. I’m super grateful it has turned out as I planned.”
Just like the meals that are created completely from scratch, he is proud that his furnishings are “built from the ground up” too.
The open-kitchen at Grounded serves from behind two wooden carts, former Museum of Civilization exhibition items they picked up from Cohen & Cohen Re-use Store. The bar is built out of whiskey barrels, and there’s a glass table made from an old door.
After deciding on their location in the former Hair Junkie Salon, Amir and Gabe enlisted the help of friends to build the coffee bar, scrape the ceiling, and paint the walls.
Gabe and Amir decided on the concept of an outdoor market, indoors, and the menu and their business evolved from there. “I’ve seen a lot of restaurants and I’m confident in what we’re doing. Customers can use real plates and cutlery, but not spend a fortune.”
Most of their customers walk in from within a five block radius, but some come “all the way from Kent Street.” “The response was all from word of mouth. We had to show up and be all we could be, and the word travelled.”
He has learned that “real estate is key” and would like eventually to have multiple locations. “There are a lot of condos going up and it’s not as risky to set up in a less ‘congregated’ location,” he says. “Ottawa is becoming more of an urban city. It’s not Montreal or Toronto, but it’s getting there.”
View www.groundedkitchencoffee.com .
Amir laughs. “Daniel [a friend] met us at the store with a bunch of change. We all got toghttp://groundedkitchencoffee.com/our-story.htmlether and pulled out of our pockets whatever change we could