Beef Birria Tacos, Cadmans Montreal Bagels, 150 Montreal Rd #109, Ottawa, ON, Canada

There are restaurants that reinvent themselves with a certain amount of theatre. Lights dim. Music swells. A chandelier threatens to drop just to prove someone has a sense of drama. And then there is what happens inside Cadman’s Bagels in Vanier, which does not so much transform as quietly decide, somewhere around 5 pm, from Wednesday to Sunday, that it has had enough of just being a bagel shop.

No curtains are drawn. No one announces a second act. If anything, the room looks faintly confused about what it has become. But the kitchen knows exactly what it is doing. For a few nights each week, it turns out Mexican and Indian food with the kind of confidence that makes you question what else in your life has been hiding in plain sight.

The best thing I ate this month came from this unlikely double life. Birria tacos. Three of them, because anything less would be an insult. They arrive looking modest, which is the first trick. Shredded beef, slow cooked until it gives up all resistance. Mozzarella melted into the folds. Onion and cilantro scattered like they belong there, because they do. On the side, a cup of consommé that seems to understand its role as both supporting actor and scene stealer. (more…)