Apologies to the Sugarhill Gang, but there’s a new East Coast ‘delight’ about to go down in Halifax with news from Eat North scribe Dan Clapson that the Hop Scotch Dinner Club is setting up shop in the former Barrington Street enclave formerly home to HFX dining institution Chives Canadian Bistro.

It’s the passion project of chefs Stephanie Ogilvie (Top Chef Canada season 8 runner-up and current Chives CDC) and Brock Unger, who have made Hop Scotch a buzzworthy pop-up for the past two years.

The new Hop Scotch HQ is slated to open soon with dinner service five nights a week, with lunch soon to follow suit. Expect a menu of casual a-la-carte plates infused with the same hyper-local Maritime focus on which the two dynamo chefs have carved out their reputations.

Some more stories of unexpected detours, much-needed rest stops and extra wear and tear on the tires on the road to recovery for Canadian restaurateurs in a recent article by MENU Magazine.

In the piece, writer Ivy Knight gets down and dirty to detail stories of survival and how operators across the country have been making ends meet — and the best out of a bad situation.

Read the full story here.

Chef Shani Cohen has joined the team at Vancouver’s Chickpea to add her passion for vegan cooking to every dish and strives to show that her guests that they don't need to compromise conscience to eat delicious food and support local!

Shani will be creating weekly specials at the Vancouver hotspot, including Crispy Pitas stuffed with rich portobello mushrooms & lentils, drizzled with preserved lemon tahini & pine nuts and accompanied by a mint chimichurri dipping sauce.

Chickpea is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mon-Thurs & from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fri-Sun.