Soccer and Portuguese food on the menu at Olitos Cafe

• Name and address: Olitos Cafe, 110 Bearbrook Rd.

• Type of food: Portuguese

• Wheelchair accessibility: Yes

• LCBO Licensed: Yes

• Website: Olitos Cafe

Just a few months old and Olitos Cafe has its fans in Blackburn Hamlet. It’s also bound to be a major destination for watching the upcoming World Cup.

Speaking with co-owner Dinis Oliveira, it’s clear that his vision was to create a soccer-centric destination for all fans of the sport. Soccer jerseys and large screen televisions adorn the walls and at one end of the room sits one of the greatest games ever invented: the foosball table.

With a large base of soccer enthusiasts in the Portuguese community, it’s little wonder that Dinis is already 75 percent booked for many World Cup matches.

Olitos is a retirement project for Dinis who has spent his career as an Ottawa police officer.  He comes by his love of soccer naturally as he’s a league coach and appears to have an incredible memory for statistics and personalities of the sport from many nations.

I was in the mood for some Portuguese flavours and stuck with a few favourites: cod cakes (pasteis de bacalhau), shrimp cakes (pasteis de camarao) and a bifana sandwich.

The appetizer “cakes” were brought in from a producer in Montreal. While the shrimp cakes had been left in the fryer a little too long creating a hard shell, the creamy interior was delicious and the cod cakes were done to fluffy perfection.

The bifana sandwich is a Portuguese staple and goes very well with beer. It’s made from slices of pork loin which means, in the wrong hands, it can be as tough as shoe leather. I would know. Here however the pork gives way easily. It’s soft, moist and nicely spiced. It doesn’t hurt that it’s served on a remarkably fresh Portuguese bun.

I had originally asked for a caldo verde, the great Portuguese kale, chorizo and potato soup but they only had borscht on the menu that day. I know, very odd. Then however I realized that the woman serving me had a Ukrainian accent and it turned out that Olitos had hired two recent refugees.

FYI, at the moment the pricing is not entirely accurate on their printed menu and it’s not been added to their website yet. I will say that this is a good representation of the cuisine and the prices are modest.

Dinis and his business partner Jason also have the space next door which they plan to convert to both a dining room and a shop selling Portuguese, Spanish and Italian foods. It’s nice to see that these options are increasingly available to Ottawans.

I paid my bill and wanted to say my goodbyes but couldn’t until I accepted an offer from Dinis to join him at the foosball table. I enjoyed myself like a little kid. I didn’t even mind that, on this day, the away team lost.