Co-owner Jenny Ong (front row, 4th from right) and her team at the Green Door are continuing the tradition of fresh and healthy vegetarian and vegan cuisine at OOE’s most storied restaurant Photo by Lorne Abugov
Mainstreeter Staff
The Mainstreeter: Old Ottawa East has enjoyed a prolonged 35-year love affair with The Green Door. How do you explain this community’s enduring affection for your restaurant?
Ross Farmer: The Green Door restaurant was originally founded to cater to a bunch of different communities, not necessarily just for Old Ottawa East, and that included the community that pioneered vegetarian and vegan cuisine. That niche market, together with the more general Old Ottawa East community, very much embraced the restaurant as a kind of a focal point. And in that way The Green Door kind of took on a personality of its own. This neighborhood was a very good fit for this style of business – the restaurant very much focused on local and organic, and that kind of clean and healthy living very much aligned with the mentality of this neighborhood. The fact that The Green Door has lasted for 35 years in Old Ottawa East is really quite an accomplishment and speaks to the neighborhood itself, that it can maintain that atmosphere and that mentality for such a long time.
The Mainstreeter: It’s been said before that most people in Ottawa and Gatineau can more easily identify The Green Door than they can identify Old Ottawa East itself. What do you say to that?
Ross Farmer: Old Ottawa East isn’t exactly a huge community. It’s geographically relatively small and, historically speaking, back in 1988 when The Green Door opened, there really wasn’t too much here. Of course, it’s changed drastically in the last half decade or so. But before that, it was pretty much our restaurant and St. Paul University, which was itself a subset of Ottawa University. And I don’t want to go stepping on the toes of any other businesses, of course, but the Green Door was very much of a target for health conscious people across the city and across the river. So I think the niche that we filled for many years brought some attention to a community that otherwise flew somewhat under the radar.
Jenny Ong: I think that recognition of The Green Door name evolved even before the restaurant opened. The founders, Ron Farmer and Poppy Weaver, started preparing vegetarian food for people cooking from their own homes. Customers would pay whatever they could to eat a vegetarian meal in their own homes. The Green Door evolved from that beginning, and Ron and Poppy were the really the pioneersand people began to search them out for vegetarian and organic foods. So even before The Green Door opened for business in 1988, Ron and Poppy had already gained a lot of trust from the community, and from beyond. To this day, we have a lot of customers from the Quebec side, almost 50%. Through word of mouth, people came to trust the food, they got to know the ingredients that we use here, and they had no doubts that it’s healthy and nutritious for them and that they felt good after they ate here. And that hasn’t changed to this day.
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The Mainstreeter: You mentioned a moment ago that the community has changed drastically over the last five years. And yet, the basic formula of a buffet style that The Green Door adopted early on hasn’t really changed, and it’s as successful today as it was 35 years
ago.
Ross Farmer: We’ve always used a “paid by weight” system. We’ve had to do a few modifications, obviously, over the years. We changed a few of the desserts because we were finding far too many half-cut desserts at the end of the day. So now most desserts are charged on a “paid by piece” basis, but the vast majority of the dishes here are still paid by weight, the way it’s always been. It’s simply a successful way of doing things, and I’m surprised that the approach hasn’t caught on with other buffets. We still get the question from some customers – is this an ‘all you can eat’ – so we have a standard disclaimer and a little speech we use to explain the system at the restaurant, because it is somewhat unusual. But it is another thing that sets us apart, and we also find that it very much contributes to an efficiency on both sides. The kitchen isn’t making a ton of food that ends up being wasted. And the customer takes only what they need, so you’re not seeing waste for them either.
The Mainstreeter: Over the years, you’ve worked with local farmers and other producers, your customers love your food, and you’ve hired many young people and
students from the neighbourhood. It seems that everyone in and around this community is a beneficiary of The Green Door
Ross Farmer: We certainly deal with a large number of suppliers along the supply chain. We’ve dealt with many local farmers from around Ottawa and Gatineau over the years. And we are often approached by other local farmers who would like to supply us but sometimes we just kind of reach the cap and can’t add to the list. As for the customers, we get repeat visits from customers constantly. We’ve got many customers who have been coming here since 1988. We have heard customers claim they were here on the day we opened, which is always endearing to hear. As for staffing here at The Green Door, we’ve seen tons of people come on to our team – long term chefs and cooks, some of them have been here for their whole career. There are many young people we’ve hired who are just looking for summer jobs or after school jobs that turn into long term endeavours, and we absolutely love seeing old staff returning back to us, both from a training standpoint and from a social standpoint.
“…we would have riots on Main Street if we
ever got rid of the tofu and broccoli dish.”
The Mainstreeter: You have a rotation of recipes here, and some of them are more successful than others. Speaking for myself, life wouldn’t be quite as good without your tofu and broccoli.
Ross Farmer: Yes, the tofu and broccoli would definitely be our bread and butter. It’s the number one recipe, and we would have riots on Main Street if we ever got rid of that dish. We do have a very, very large repertoire of dishes that has kind of evolved over the decades – dishes that we were making 10 or 20 years ago are different from the dishes we’re doing now since tastes change and we need to stay exciting and relevant. But there are many dishes that are absolute staples – the stir-fried vegetables, the lasagna, the potato & kale – they’re on the menu every day. They are long-term, very old recipes that, once again, we couldn’t change if we wanted to because of the backlash we’d receive. The other dishes that we make rotate on a seasonal basis. Over the winter months it can get a little tricky, but we try to stay creative and bring in different vegetables from time to time. We very much operate on a chef’s intuition here, where they check what they have available in the fridge every day and go from there. We have a huge list of recipes that they can draw from, but we’re also always open to try new things for our customers.
Fresh ingredients supplied by local farmers and lovingly prepared by experienced and creative chefs form the basis for the many popular dishes served up on a pay by weight basis at The Green Door. Staples such as ratatouille, vegetarian lasagna and the broccoli and tofu recipes never fail to please discerning customers.
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The Mainstreeter: What are some of the main changes that The Green Door has undertaken over its 35 years of operation?
Ross Farmer: Since 1988, there have been three separate expansions. Many community members will remember that it was a real small restaurant at first. Again, our system has always been the same, but the larger footprint has allowed us to expand our offerings and become more comfortable with a little bit more space. The community style of not having servers in the conventional sense but allowing people to take care of themselves and run at their own pace has always been a focal point of The Green Door. It goes without saying that COVID brought in a whole plethora of adjustments that we’re still getting used to today. For example, our online and website system was greatly expanded. We had an early foundation down just before COVID which was lucky because it allowed us to grow them quickly. So that part of our operations expanded dramatically as did our arrangements with third party delivery systems like UberEATS and Skip the Dishes.
The Mainstreeter: Speaking of COVID, many people in Old Ottawa East and beyond were really concerned about the fate of TheGreen Door, and whether you could survive the pandemic. How did you manage to pull through?
Ross Farmer: Well, the pandemic brought in a ton of challenges, obviously. It was very much thanks to the community, especially in the very early days, that we managed to continue. Our customers were very endearing, and it was eye-opening to see how many people wanted to help us. We received emails saying “I’d like to buy a gift card to support you. I know I can’t redeem it now.” People just putting their hands up to say if you need anything, we’d love to support. We didn’t necessarily need the help, because we managed to get by offering new things and providing customers with meal options and COVID-safe dining experiences. That strategy allowed us to sort of float through the tougher days. But it really ended up being a full circle, coming back to what people truly wanted, which was the pay by weight concept. We had many, many iterations in between, some of them good, some of them not so good. We tried coming up with the flavour of the week abiding by whatever rules were in place. It got old very quickly, but it wasn’t all for naught, because there were some keepers at the end that have made us stronger. Jenny Ong: Before the pandemic, we had 42 staff – during the pandemic we were down to eight core people – a couple of chefs and a few of us brainstorming on how to pivot so the restaurant could change things quickly overnight. Ross and I and a few other key members of the team, and a couple of chefs – we wore all the different hats. We were the dishwashers, the cleaners, the cashiers, the table movers – everything.
Ross Farmer: Now we are back to about 30 staff. Before the pandemic, the restaurant was super busy. That ground to a quick halt. But one of the really good adjustments that came from the COVID experience is that we ended up becoming much more efficient, and that has stayed true. It gave us a kind of cold reset to readjust everything and cement the positions and readjust the duties. So while we’re not quite back to the same level of business that we were pre-pandemic, we’re fast approaching it, and we’ve gone from 42 employees holding on for dear life, to eight in 2020, and now back to 30 employees who can comfortably manage things in 2023.
The Mainstreeter: You’ve probably amassed some funny anecdotes of customer experiences that you still really chuckle about. Are there any that spring to mind?
Ross Farmer: Well, we had a chipmunk that roamed in the front door once and caused a real scene in the front of the restaurant for a while. It took me a good 20 minutes to shoo it back outside. Some regular customers still come up and remind me of the chipmunk – the non-paying customer. I don’t remember what the chipmunk went for – I think he was taken aback by the selection and by the quantity of customers.
Jenny Ong: I remember one day we came to work in the morning and the front door was broken, the glass shattered. And you know what’s inside the vestibule between the two doors? A big fake plastic lamb. At first, I thought it was a dead goat! Maybe it was from a nativity scene. That was pretty funny.
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The Mainstreeter: Do you see anything on the horizon that might pose a threat to the ongoing longevity of a restaurant like this, or do you think The Green Door is good for another 35 years or more?
Ross Farmer: Vegetarianism and veganism, healthy eating and healthy lifestyle are all getting much more popular, which is fantastic news for everyone. Originally, we thought maybe this was going to be a situation of competition for us. We saw Pure Kitchen open up, and there used to be The Table, and then places that make bowls, salads and wraps, like Freshii. We saw all kinds of small vegetarian pop-up shops, not to mention more mainstream restaurants developing expanded vegetarian menus. We wondered if they were going to chew into the picture and maybe take away some of our clientele.
But we found that the rate at which these restaurant options are becoming available is not as fast as the rate that this food itself is becoming more popular. So what we once thought to be a possible concern with some additional competition is in fact a null point. There’s just so many more people enjoying this style of nutrition and lifestyle and seeing the benefits of it that we couldn’t keep up anyways. So we’re actually very glad to see other restaurants take on this market and expand upon it and, yes, provide us with some competition – but, in truth, it’s not really competition because we all get to share in the creation of greater interest and enjoyment of the health benefits which create even more awareness. And we get to celebrate that we were here first and what we pioneered back then is becoming more mainstream now.
Jenny Ong: I think that one of the main things about The Green Door, and it’s one of the things that sets us apart, and that our newer customers may not see, is the purity of our ingredients. People may not understand that this is key to our philosophy, or maybe we haven’t done our part to inform some of our new customers. For example, we purchase all of our legumes, soak them ourselves and then cook them. Those are the things, the freshness that that our bodies need nutrition-wise. It is quite simple in terms of what’s being served on the buffet because we don’t have fancy names to describe most of our dishes. If it’s chickpea curry, it’s chickpea curry. Broccoli stir-fry is broccoli stir-fry. Nothing fancy, no special moniker. It’s all about nourishing the body.
The Mainstreeter: The Green Door has supported local events and community activities from day one. Can you speak to the outward-facing role that you play as a community champion?
Ross Farmer: Well, first and foremost, we have to thank the community for keeping us going for 35 years. Obviously, were as much a part of the community as the community is part of us. In terms of our contribution to the community, we would always liketo do more. But sometimes we are just soswamped. So many things happen and we’re always playing catch up. But it’s good to be busy and we value our involvement in the community whenever we can step up.
Jenny Ong: We just realized the other day that this is our 35th year of operation – we did the math – and it’s a real milestone for us. We wish we had more time to plan a celebration, but so far, we aren’t planning anything special. Back in the day, Ron and Poppy used to celebrate milestones like this by opening up the restaurant doors for a few hours and they just give away food. You can imagine how popular that was. Eventually it had to stop because some customers would come in with their take-out containers and just cart food out of the restaurant!!
