Updated: August 8th, 2026
Published: September 1st, 2025
Tom Valentin's cocktail program is reason enough to visit this polished steakhouse whose food, drinks and hospitality are stronger than its quiet corner of the ByWard Market might suggest.
Sussex & Co. / Little Sussex
15 Clarence St
Open Tuesday to Saturday 5PM to Late
Closed Sunday & Monday
On a quieter stretch of Clarence Street, between Sussex Drive and ByWard Market Square, Sussex & Co. has opened with none of the noise that usually accompanies a serious steakhouse. The room gives little hint of where it is. Lighting is low, the bar is serious, the dining room has the kind of restraint you’d more readily associate with a back-room in Yorkville than with the ByWard Market. That contrast (the address, and what’s happening inside) is the whole story of the place.
Sussex & Co. is the 2025 project from Northern Hospitality Group, the Ottawa restaurant company behind Edinburger, Schoolhouse Pizza, Scoops Ice Cream Parlour, The Beechwood Diner and La Taqueria. Most of those sit in and around the affluent Edinburgh neighbourhood across the river. Sussex & Co. is a deliberate departure: an ambitious foot into the Market, with no obvious shared DNA with the group’s other restaurants except for the shared level of excellence.
The room itself has been on a long journey. Northern Hospitality Group first gained visibility when they opened Fairouz in 2016, a Middle Eastern fine-dining restaurant on Somerset West that earned a spot on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list a year later. In late 2020, Fairouz moved into the ByWard Market’s Tin House Court, rebranding as Fairouz Café in part to catch the heavier pedestrian flow. In 2025, the room changed hands again: Fairouz Café became Sussex & Co., named after the avenue nearby, with a cocktail lounge called Little Sussex tucked away from the dining room.
Sussex & Co. splits itself between a dining room and Little Sussex, a 28-seat lounge that anchors the front of the restaurant. Little Sussex has the feel of a small European cocktail bar: warm, deliberately dim, scaled so that conversation is easy. Tea candles and small table lamps throw soft light across the bar. Burgundy loveseats line one wall. The bar seats face the cocktail station directly, which is the best place to sit if you want to watch Tom Valentin at work.
I’ve had drinks at this bar many times now. Bartenders carve ice by hand, build garnishes with tweezers, and move through service at a pace that suggests they aren’t trying to punch tickets. Across the same span of visits, the floor staff have been warm, easy to talk to about the drinks.
The dining room carries the same low volume through. No noise problem, no fight for a table, and on each visit I’ve sat through dinner without ever feeling rushed. That relative quiet is, refreshingly, the point. The team told me this stretch of Clarence Street gets a fraction of the pedestrian traffic the rest of the Market sees, a fact he flagged as one of the reasons the restaurant will relocate in summer 2026.
So here is the thing worth sitting with. The room is quiet. The bar program is excellent. The food is precise. Sussex & Co. is not a restaurant whose traffic matches what it’s serving.
Sangre de la Tierra ($18.50): This drink opens with a fragrant interplay of bitter, sweet, smoky, and boozy notes. The initial sip delivers on that promise: perfectly balanced, with Mezcal lending a smokiness that complements the cocktail’s gentle sweetness. It was similar to a Division Bell, but better. A fantastic, well-balanced, and memorable cocktail.
Bitters & Fog ($17): A smoky, fantastic interpretation of the Old Fashioned, the Bitters & Fog began with a vibrant orange aroma. On the palate, it’s smooth yet spirit-forward, weaving together subtle smokiness with a measured sweetness. Though listed under the “shaken” section, its flavour profile leans toward a stirred cocktail. Garnished with twin citrus peels (orange and lemon), it’s a natural choice for Old Fashioned aficionados or those eager to explore scotch-based cocktails.
The Alchemist’s Garden ($21): This was a beautiful cocktail garnished with a slice of cucumber. The Alchemist’s garden is made with olive oil-washed gin and spritzed with absinthe. Aromas of cucumber and lemon lead into a bright, tart palate with minimal sweetness. Lemon and cucumber dominated, underpinned by subtle botanicals. It was easy to drink with its light & zesty profile. The gin was present but not too forward, and perhaps this is why the olive oil flavor unfortunately didn’t come through.
Havana After Dark ($20): This cocktail is likely a playful riff on the Mai Tai. It tasted like guava nectar and rum and was sweet and delicious. The other flavors (honey, tonka, bergamot) didn’t come through, but the edible dried pineapple garnish replaced the guava flavor once I took a bite. Notwithstanding, it was delicious and the sweetest drink we tried from the menu.
Toasted & Tonic (17$): This cocktail started with a strong scent of mint. Upon tasting, it was a well-balanced cocktail that felt like a riff on the Americano. The flavour of chocolate and roasted coffee was very present, as it had been pre-infused into the Campari. Overall, it was modestly sweet, and the alcohol was present though not forward. It was served in a highball glass with hand-carved clear ice, and garnished with two slices of orange peel and a mint sprig.
Midnight on Clarence 18$: This cocktail had a slightly sweet scent. Upon tasting, it was sweet and a little bitter (likely from the aperol). It wasn’t very boozy, but rather fruity. There were notes of honeydew melon, and overall, I would describe it as a fruitopia with a splash of alcohol. It was delicious and would be ideal as a dessert cocktail or for those who prefer sweeter cocktails! It was served in a beautiful stemmed glass with clear ice, hand-carved to fit.
By steakhouse standards, the wine list is unusual. France carries weight (Burgundy, Chablis, the Loire, Savoie, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Champagne), but the list extends well beyond that, into Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, South Africa, Argentina, and Ontario. The grape variety is where it gets interesting. Alongside Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, you’ll find Pecorino, Arinto, Jacquère, Garganega, Grüner Veltliner, Aglianico, Gamay, Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo.
Ontario shows up through Stratus, Charles Baker and Sue-Ann Staff Estate. Champagne leans grower: Monmarthe, Famille Mousse, Nicolas Maillart. The list isn’t long; it reads as curated to fit the food and the cocktail sensibility.
Pairings fall out fairly naturally. Jacquère or Albariño for oysters and seafood. Gamay, Dolcetto or a lighter Pinot Noir if you want a steak that doesn’t get smothered. Burgundy for a more classical audience. Champagne when you want it. The whole thing reads like someone actually thought about it.
The food menu is broader than the name suggests. A cold bar handles oysters and shrimp cocktail. Starters run to beef tartare, beef carpaccio, Wagyu meatballs, Caesar, burrata, scallop crudo. The steak program is split between Canadian Prime, dry-aged cuts and Australian Wagyu. Mains branch out into salmon, half chicken, mushroom pappardelle, a Sussex Burger and steak frites.
The oysters from my most recent visit were exactly right. Briny, well-sized, presented cleanly. The sourcing wasn’t noted on the menu, but the product didn’t need a label. Gitanes remains my Ottawa benchmark for oyster presentation, and Sussex & Co. was within striking distance.
The beef tartare is the dish I’d come back for on its own. Grainy mustard, pickled chili, preserved lemon, shallot, anchovy aioli, crispy onion. Stolen Goods is still my benchmark in Ottawa, but this is the closest thing I’ve had to it: punchy, with enough contrast to stay interesting through the plate. Chips on the side.
Tuna Crudo (22$): The fresh tuna slices in this raw dish were thick. The broth was tart and perfectly salted. It all came together to make a memorable dish.
Carpaccio ($25): A generous presentation of delicately sliced beef, the carpaccio was indulgent yet balanced. The flavours were richly beefy and savoury, accented with a whisper of heat. Fermented oyster mushrooms added depth and umami, while a slight zest brightened the dish’s freshness. It was served with four slices of warm, toasted, and buttered garlicky bread.
8oz Beef Tenderloin (68$) with Tallow Béarnaise Sauce (7$): Cooked to a precise rare, the tenderloin was tender and impeccably seasoned. The Tallow Béarnaise was an indulgent addition that elevated each bite with its buttery, smoky, and deep flavour.
Also, the Sussex Burger ($28) is stellar. Cooked medium-rare from a beef patty ground in-house, it’s one of the top steakhouse burgers in town in my experience.
The food program scores here because it doesn’t treat steak as a religious obligation. There’s enough variety that you could come for cocktails and a few plates, or come for the full sit-down, and neither visit would feel like a compromise.
Nice to know: Their best-kept secret is their off-menu signature cocktail called “Tom’s not Irish” ($22), a coffee cocktail featuring Mezcal, Green Chartreuse, and garnished with a toasted marshmallow.
It should be said: Sussex & Co. isn’t getting the foot traffic it deserves. The kitchen is precise. The cocktails carry real technique. The wine list has personality. The room is comfortable, and the service reads as both warm and professional. None of that is reflected in how busy it gets.
Some of that is just geography. Clarence Street in this stretch sits a little too far from York Street, and too far from the Market’s main pedestrian spine, to catch walk-ins. The bar, while populated, never tipped into noisy. Hence, the plans to relocate.
Whether the next location preserves the intimacy that’s currently working in this room’s favour is the open question. Bigger rooms come with a different energy. But for now, the address is doing the restaurant a favour.
In summary, Sussex & Co. is a polished, ambitious steakhouse with one of the better cocktail programs in Ottawa, a respectable wine list, and a kitchen that is more than a steakhouse. It deserves more attention than it’s currently getting.
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