Blue Cactus has closed, but ambitious eatery to open on prime ByWard Market corner

Ottawa hospitality mogul Abbis Mamhoud plans to open Grey's Social Eatery at the prime ByWard Market corner location as early as mid-February.

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Published Jan 04, 2025  •  4 minute read

Abbis Mahmoud, who plans to open Grey's Social Eatery in the space formerly occupied by the Blue Cactus Bar and Grill, calls the ByWard Market "the most special area in all of Canada." Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia

The owner of Med Supper Club in Lansdowne Park, one of Ottawa’s most posh and expensive restaurants, says he plans to open an eatery with a big-city vibe, but affordable food in the prime ByWard Market corner vacated recently by the Blue Cactus Bar and Grill.

“I wanna kind of make it feel like you’re in New York,” Abbis Mahoud says of his latest venture, to be called Grey’s Social Eatery, which he hopes to open as early as mid-February.

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Famed during its 35-year run for its Tex-Mex-inspired food and $10 triple cocktails, the Blue Cactus, on the corner of ByWard Market Square and Clarence Street, had its last hurrah on New Year’s Eve. Owner Bob Firestone says he did not want to sign a new, 10-year lease and that at his age, 64, he wanted a break after spending his whole working life in the ByWard Market.

The Blue Cactus ended its 35-year run in the ByWard Market on New Year’s Eve. Owner Bob Firestone says he did not want to sign a new, 10-year lease and that at his age, 64, he wanted a break after spending his whole working life in the Market. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia

“I just decided it was time to move on,” Firestone says. “It was a tough decision, but it’s time to hand it over to the young guys.”

Firestone says he has seen Mahmoud’s renderings for Blue Cactus’ replacement. “It’s going to be beautiful, it’s going to be great,” he says.

Mahmoud, Firestone says, has “a lot of energy, a lot of ideas. He’s a very talented guy.”

Mahmoud, whose Dreammind Group includes Med, several other Ottawa restaurants and bars and the Strathmere Country Retreat in North Gower, met Thursday with about 20 Blue Cactus staffers who are to join the team at his new restaurant. Mahmoud says he will need to hire another 80 people to fully staff it for not only for lunch, dinner and late-evening guests, but also for weekend brunches and happy hours.

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As he did with the luxuriously appointed Med, Mahmoud is investing heavily in custom-made furniture for Grey’s, including brass-ringed tables, chandeliers and a marble bar. He wants to build “a restaurant that’s modern that feels vintage,” he says.

This photo shows an artist’s rendering of the look being planned for Grey’s Social Eatery. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia

The Blue Cactus, he says, was showing its age, and a “complete gutting” will replace floors, bathrooms and a lot of the kitchen equipment. Several years ago, Mahmoud brought similar resources to bear when he took over the ByWard Market Square space that had been Mercury Lounge, a block away from where Grey’s will be, and opened several bars there.

Mahmoud says Grey’s will offer a menu of affordable “classics,” going head to head with nearby restaurants that serve the usual fare, including burgers, steaks, sushi and other crowd-pleasers, to woo families and tourists as well as nightlife-seekers and ByWard Market residents.

“Our hope is to give them a beautiful venue and give them amazing food, cooked fresh and made with love, that’s very accessible,” Mahmoud says. Most main courses will cost between $19 to just over $30, while steaks will be in the $40 range, he says. However, $10 triples will not be in the menu at Grey’s.

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Like the much more expensive Med, Grey’s will be a high-volume restaurant, seating 168 indoors and another 140 on its patio, Mahmoud says.

He notes that Med, which seats about 160 indoors, met with naysayers who didn’t believe Ottawa would support such pricey nights out, replete with $300 seafood towers and premium liquor costing more than $900 a bottle. But “Med is doing fantastic right now,” Mahmoud says. It ranks in the top five in Ontario for luxury alcohol sales, ahead of Toronto restaurants and behind only some high-end hotels, he says.

Mahmoud says he knows many people are down on the ByWard Market, citing fears about the historic neighbourhood’s homelessness and crime, as well as decreased sales by its businesses.

But Mahmoud, who lives in the ByWard Market, calls it “the most special area in all of Canada … no area I could think of has all the hotels, all the museums, all the art galleries, the Parliament buildings and the history, all in one place … I enjoy it a lot.”

He says he hopes his new restaurant will amount to “a little spark to ignite the Market.

“What I’m hoping happens is that we spark a lot of excitement and then we change the mood. I’m hoping other business owners, small and big, go back and reinvest in their own businesses and the city invests.”

Firestone, who opened Zak’s Diner, his first ByWard Market restaurant, in 1984, says increased police presence in the area in recent months plus other measures and programming are “working to bring it (the Market) back to its former glory.

“I have nothing negative to say about it. I think it’s going to continue to be a great place. It’s going to be even better in the next four or five years,” Firestone says.

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