January 13, 2009
Canadians sink teeth into sugar-sweet Obama By SHANE ROSS, OTTAWA SUN
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2009/01/13/8004976-sun.htmlNicole Brown, left, and Isabel Theberge, both students at the University of Ottawa, enjoy BeaverTails on the Rideau Canal yesterday. (Andre Forget, Sun Media)
The makers of BeaverTails are heading to Washington next week to serve their tasty treats as part of a "tailgate party" to celebrate Barack Obama's presidential inauguration.
That's something you don't want to screw up.
So as a test run, specially made ObamaTails -- flat, deep-fried pastry topped in maple syrup with the letter O -- which would normally cost about $4, will be handed out free today from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in a hut on the Rideau Canal skateway at Fifth Avenue.
PARADE ROUTE
The ObamaTail was conceived in mid-December when Grant Hooker, who founded BeaverTails Canada Inc. in 1978, got a call from the Canadian embassy in Washington.
"They said, 'One of the best places to watch the inaugural parade is in our front yard. We're thinking of inviting 1,000 guests -- probably three-quarters of them important Americans -- to come and watch the parade with us. Have a tailgate party. We wanted to bring a Canadian food there, would you consider bringing BeaverTails? And I said mais oui, mais oui, mais oui,'" Hooker recalled yesterday.
Perhaps the embassy got a recommendation from Hillary Clinton. She devoured a BeaverTail on the canal when she visited here in 1999.
But George W. Bush never dropped in, so the "BushyTail" never made it off the production line.
DROP A NOTE
Hooker doesn't expect Obama to stop by the embassy next Tuesday and sample the creation made in his honour, but he plans to write a letter to the new president and tell him that when he's in the neighbourhood for his first official foreign visit, "we'd love to serve him a BeaverTail."
