Christopher Ryan: Saucy No More (The Saucy Noodle Tavern on Somerset)

The location of the Saucy Noodle today. This faded “Tavern” sign the only physical remnant of the former hotspot. April 2014.

A weekly feature by Christopher Ryan , a local photographer, blogger and researcher.

To the urban explorer, a ghost sign is one of the most treasured of finds. Whether it stretches back into previous centuries like the G.A. Snider ghost on Bank or into the midcentury glory days of Pure Spring beverages, a ghost sign can ignite the imagination. As I was walking along Somerset, I couldn’t help but notice this faded text reading “tavern” on the street-facing edge of the sign for the parking garage on the street over. Curious, I decided to look into it.

Source: Google Maps (2014)

The empty lot, which mostly seems to be used for overflow parking now, has a municipal address of 409 Somerset West. Of course, the lot wasn’t always empty. It began its civic life as the site of a home at some point during the 1890s. By the mid-1970s, it had been, like so many of its Centretown contemporaries, divided into apartments catering to an audience with much less income than the original inhabitants. In 1973, with the then recent demolition of the neighbouring Borden Dairy complex and the replacement, a seniors’ apartment (Admiral Engineering), Samuel and Alice Bousada saw their opportunity.

The Saucy Noodle, as it stood in 1976. Source: Ottawa Journal, April 24, 1976.

Had the Saucy Noodle remained the domain of cheap and cheerful Italian cuisine, it might not have built up the reputation as the place to be that it was.

Reviews were, for the most part, a mixed plate. Source: Ottawa Journal, August 24, 1974.

It was also in 1973 that the Belle Claire had been sold by Sam Koffman to Cadillac Development, leaving the Ottawa Rough Riders’ after parties somewhat homeless. By 1975, the Saucy Noodle’s upstairs had been converted into something of a club and music venue.

The Journal’s Dave Brown was never far behind. Source: Ottawa Journal, October 25, 1975.

With that move, The Saucy Noodle came to attract more business and it also came to be known as a popular dinner and music venue.

Understated, but in many ways, the place to be. For a modest price, Centretowners were invited to ring in 1980. Source: Ottawa Journal, December 29, 1979.

The Saucy Noodle remained open and active well in to the 1980s and beyond. Although I am uncertain of the specific circumstances surrounding the end of the business itself, the Saucy Noodle’s host – that converted home – once shelter to the Braden family, stood in to the latter half of the 1990s.

In 1991, the Noodle stood. Source: geoOttawa, 1991 Aerials.

By 1999, the Noodle was gone and Downtown Gas and Car Rental was preparing to make way for Claridge’s The Strand condominium (Douglas Hardie, 2003). Today, the only tangible reminder of the Saucy Noodle are the faded letters - T-A-V-E-R-N - affixed to the repurposed parking garage sign between the condo and apartment. Although the tangible reminders are few, it appears that the collective conscious of Ottawans contain numerous stories and memories surrounding the former pasta joint cum venue.

– Original photos & text by Christopher Ryan.