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OTTAWA — For most restaurants, the publicity would have been a gift on a silver platter. But for Ottawa’s hipster Union Local 613 eatery, a nomination in a magazine’s search for “Canada’s top bar” was about as welcome as a freezer meltdown.

After the small restaurant voiced objections, Air Canada’s inflight enRoute magazine removed Union Local 613 from its online list of some 100 contenders for the title.

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“We took exception to the fact that they felt that it was a privilege to be associated with their brands without asking us if we wanted our brand to be associated with that,” said Union co-owner Ivan Gedz.

The restaurant’s reluctance to be included came as “a little bit of a surprise” to enRoute editor-in-chief Ilana Weitzman, who said Union was dropped from the saycheers.ca site within a day of its request.

Ms. Weitzman said the contest in which readers select the winner to be named in December was prompted by the success of enRoute’s annual “best new restaurants” list. “We’ve had an overwhelming amount of positive response from the [other] bars,” she added.