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Is Winnipeg the next culinary travel destination?


Pam R

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From today's Winnipeg Free Press:

RESTAURATEURS in Manitoba are hoping to make up for slumping sales by whetting the appetites of a new breed of customer: the culinary tourist.

Culinary tourism -- where voyagers venture from afar to savour native ingredients ranging from wild rice with toasted almonds to bison steak with tarragon tartar -- is an exploding industry across Canada.

According to the article, Manitoba and Saskatchewan were the two provinces that saw restaurant sales drop in the last year. Local restaurants are advertising in North Dakota and Minnesota and culinary tours are scheduled.

Are there enough native ingredients to bring people to the region?

Do you think places like Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Brandon, etc. will be able to draw travellers in for the food or are these restauranters hoping for something that will never happen?

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I think it could work if the target was not the high end (where regional differences really blur) but at what is percieved to be 'locally authentic'.

For example - in Kelowna, while I have enjoyed Fresco's and Bouchon - what has really charmed me are the local deli's and German based places. The food may not be a culinary homerum - but it feels real and honest - and I can't get it in back in Vancouver. So - the local voice is important. And if you have some local version of moonshine or beer to extol - all the better.

Edited by canucklehead (log)
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I think it could work if the target was not the high end (where regional differences really blur) but at what is percieved to be 'locally authentic'.

100%

There are pros and cons to this type of thing. Now, I haven't been back to Winnipeg in a few years, but I know that consistency of produce and availability of fresh ingredients can be a hurdle. In saying that, and agreeing with canucklehead's point, putting the emphasis on the Jewish, Ukrainian, Polish, German, Russian, Italian, Aboriginal & Filipino roots of the city would be putting it's best foot forward. Many ingredients for typical dishes in most of these cuisines are available year-round, plus putting an emphasis (or spin) incorporating local grains, berries, beans, cocoa, nuts, bison, elk, beef, pickerel, orange roughy, goldeye, etc. would highlight a local aspect to these cuisines.

I believe that Folklorama is still the #1 tourist attraction in Winnipeg, celebrating all things (particularly foods) ethnic. In selling the city as a culinary destination, I think a page or two could be lifted from the Folklorama notebook. It simply makes sense to build from that.

My favourite culinary memories of Winnipeg include perogies, kielbasa, borscht, matzo ball soup, falafel, grilled pickerel caesar salads, Filipino buffets, latkes, knishes, lox, bannock with cream cheese, sauerkraut, etc. Many parts of the world coming to the same table. I believe most expats would agree, and that's where I think your market is.

k.

-edited because sauerkraut was hard to spell the first time around ; )

Edited by kurtisk (log)
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I think it could work if the target was not the high end (where regional differences really blur) but at what is percieved to be 'locally authentic'.

I agree - I don't think high end should be the target.

So - the local voice is important.  And if you have some local version of moonshine or beer to extol - all the better.

Such as Fort Garry Brewing Company?

Or Agassiz Brewing Co.?

And don't forget about our local version of whisky... Crown Royal.

I'm in Chicago, and I could see traveling to Manitoba to taste the local specialties. I've never had Saskatoon berries and that seems kind of strange.

Tess, you should come on up! Everybody should experience some Saskatoon berries.

There are pros and cons to this type of thing.  Now, I haven't been back to Winnipeg in a few years, but I know that consistency of produce and availability of fresh ingredients can be a hurdle.  In saying that, and agreeing with canucklehead's point, putting the emphasis on the Jewish, Ukrainian, Polish, German, Russian, Italian, Aboriginal & Filipino roots of the city would be putting it's best foot forward. 

Though the ingredient consistency and availability is getting better - I think you're right. We have a diverse ethnic food scene - and I think it's one of our best selling points.

When you get down to it - how many native ingredients are there? I don't know how many people would want to come on a canola tour. :wink: But if you combine the local ingredients with the ethnic foods - there's a lot to offer.

These restaurateurs also shipped off stacks of flyers to North Dakota. Though we may compare the restaurant scene in Winnipeg to Vancouver, Toronto or New York and find it lacking in certain areas - we also have to remember that Winnipeg is the largest city in the region - from Alberta to the GTA and south to the Twin Cities. There are a lot of people in these areas who would consider a trip to Winnipeg for a culinary tour before heading to a different destination.

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Yes, I think that there could be an artisanal food-tourism/arts tourism movement on the prairies.

I mean, look at us hightailing it over to Vancouver Island so I can eat Saskatchewan wheat products at Wildfire Bakery. Wild rice, chanterelles, game, free range organic meat...I love all these things. It just takes businesses that can work with the locals as well as the tourists to make it viable. This is what is tricky, but it can work. (I wonder how Junior's doing? Hellooooo Junior!)

Combine this with the rich arts scene-music, theatre, crafts, visual arts, literary arts (not to mention some beautiful scenery, and great fishing) and you can make it a cultural destination. I would like to work on this kind of marketing plan. Any head-hunters out there?

For instance, I love the little café at the Saint Norbert's Art's Centre. That's a destination eatery in itself, since you have to drive outside of Winnipeg to get there, and it's like going on a mini-vacation. Then you can pop into the Saint Norbert's farmer's market and buy all sorts of homemade preserves and baking.

"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted."

--Mae West

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It just takes businesses that can work with the locals as well as the tourists to make it viable. This is what is tricky, but it can work. (I wonder how Junior's doing? Hellooooo Junior!)

Is Junior's known for working with the locals? The burger joint Juniors?

I gotta get to the SN Art's center...

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Is Junior's known for working with the locals?  The burger joint Juniors?

Two of the Juniors are owned by a local family--Palestinean immigrants (I love their falafel, especially their homemade hot sauce that goes with it). As far as I know, they don't really work with the locals in a promotional sense.

As kurtisk said, if Winnipeg wants to promote culinary tourism, they really are going to have to promote what they do best--and that's cheap ethnic foods. I think one place to start might be working with some of the universities nearby. A friend of mine went to Concordia College in the Fargo-Moorhead area and as part of one of his courses, they went up to Winnipeg to do a tour of the areas inhabited by some of the early Eastern European immigrants. They included that overrated pierogi place--I can't remember the name--as part of their tour. Contact the universities with the names of a few more similar places and I'm sure they'll add them to their lists (or at least make a list of places to eat for the students).

It would also be great to market some of Winnipeg's festivals to go along with the food. Folklorama is an obvious choice, but it was already at one time the number one bus tour destination (to Canada from the US). The Folk Festival is already popular with many of our American neighbours, so again, packaging that along with restaurant suggestions might be a good way to start.

I think one of the problems with marketing to the south (outside of Minneapolis, anyway), is that many of those being marketed to are not food-centric. North Dakota has some of the crappiest restaurants I've ever been to, and I seriously doubt many North Dakotans are very interested in the kind of food Winnipeg has to offer. University students are still a good target, as they're often more adventurous than the long-time residents, and since many of them make their way up to Winnipeg for booze, anyway.

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Passive tourism assets such as museums, galleries and historical sites can get stale quickly unless they have international significance; they suffer from a “been there, done that” disadvantage. Culianry tourism reinvents itself with the seasons though and that’s why, in many provinces, culinary tourism is the leading growth sector, despite our rapidly risng dollar and the threat that the new US passport doctrine portends.

On first blush, the numbers are discouraging, with Stats Can saying that year-over-year Manitoba F+B sales were down in 2005 0.3% versus +13.1% for Saskatchewan, +10.7% for Alberta, +10.6% for Ontario and +6.8% for Canada as a whole.

Good thing that this adversity has drawn out a collaborative of chefs and proprietors to actively market. And collaborative should be the operative word, because successful culinary tourism marketers tend to have these things in common:

1. Collaboratives of chefs and proprietors such as The Chefs' Table Society of BC and The Island Chefs’ Collaborative.

2. Strong culinary tourism marketing from local and provincial tourism authorities. What a shame that Travel Manitoba’s forthcoming April conference barely mentions food at all on its agenda. Saskatchewan, conversely (and most of the other provinces) markets its culinary tourism trail of farms and restaurants on its extra-provincial marketing trips.

3. An annual civic dine around such as Dine Out Vancouver.

4. A strong hosting program for foreign culinary journalists that promotes Winnepeg's strong suits in emancipated ethnic dining and that pushes the value button.

Edited by jamiemaw (log)

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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- we also have to remember that Winnipeg is the largest city in the region - from Alberta to the GTA and south to the Twin Cities.

...a very good point.

Even if it's assumed (as mentioned above) that those within a certain radius aren't exactly typical "culinary tourist" folks, then it comes to marketing marketing marketing to make them think they are.

And, yes, with the festival tie-in- there are huge opportunities with the 3 F's : Folklarama, Fringe & Folk.

k

Edited by kurtisk (log)
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I think one of the problems with marketing to the south (outside of Minneapolis, anyway), is that many of those being marketed to are not food-centric.  North Dakota has some of the crappiest restaurants I've ever been to, and I seriously doubt many North Dakotans are very interested in the kind of food Winnipeg has to offer. 

I don't know. Just because they don't seem to have any great restaurants doesn't mean that there aren't people who like good food. Remember all of North Dakota (642,000) has a population that's less than that of Winnipeg (approx 710 000). They just don't have the population to support good restaurants.

When I was at university in Minnesota, as a resident adviser I'd plan trips back to Winnipeg. I took a few groups for sushi. Not a single one of them had ever tried sushi, but they all loved the new experience and the new food. The want may be there, just not the options.

The Junior I was referring to is an eG'er in Saskatoon who has opened up his own restaurant. he's probably very busy-up to his elbows in hassenfeffer stew, I would imagine.

Right. I knew that's who you meant.

:biggrin:

On first blush, the numbers are discouraging, with Stats Can saying that year-over-year Manitoba F+B sales were down in 2005 0.3% versus +13.1% for Saskatchewan, +10.7% for Alberta, +10.6% for Ontario and +6.8% for Canada as a whole.

It's interesting that while the population is going up, the sales are going down. I wonder what is responsible for that..

1. Collaboratives of chefs and proprietors such as The Chefs' Table Society of BC and The Island Chefs’ Collaborative.

There is the Manitoba Restaurant Association - who you would think would take an interest in this... but I have no idea what they do to promote their members.

2. Strong culinary tourism marketing from local and provincial tourism authorities. What a shame that Travel Manitoba’s forthcoming April conference barely mentions food at all on its agenda. Saskatchewan, conversely (and most of the other provinces) markets its culinary tourism trail of farms and restaurants on its extra-provincial marketing trips.

Even their website only lists a couple of places where food is available under their 'shopping and dining' heading. Maybe they assume people will see pictures of all our lakes and just know that there's fish to be had :hmmm:

3. An annual civic dine around such as Dine Out Vancouver.

This we do have. But I can't find a website. Dine Out Winnipeg was just a few weeks ago.

4. A strong hosting program for foreign culinary journalists that promotes Winnepeg's strong suits in emancipated ethnic dining and that pushes the value button.

Come on down... We'll host you. :wink:

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And, yes, with the festival tie-in- there are huge opportunities with the 3 F's : Folklarama, Fringe & Folk.

Absolutely. But:

- people coming in for Folklarama are likely to eat most of their meals at pavillians.

- people at the Folk will be eating most of their meals in the dirt :huh:

But the Fringe and Jazz festivals keep people in the city - close to many restaurants and bars. And I think they lend themselves more to people going out for a meal before or after a performance.

Maybe we should start a maketing company :wink:

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While the article is interesting, the majority of it doesn't apply to the topic at hand.

What we can take from that article - and may be major hurdles for the culinary tourism trend - are the weather and mosquito issues. Is the weather just too cold and the mosquitoes too nasty? Outside of Canada I don't know if this reputation is known - but definitely within Canada we're cold and itchy.

If we're talking about visiting ethinic restaurants, this may not be an issue. If we're talking about visiting local producers it may.

There are, by the way, many people who visit Manitoba's lake regions every year for excellent fishing. Hunting and wild berry picking are also draws.

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I guess what is not good about the article is the generally negative picture it paints. Good food experiences should be part of an overall positive visit - and the article creates reasons not to go.

I was in Winnipeg a few months ago (early fall) and even though work took up most of my time - I really liked the city. The Winnipeg Art Gallery was something I wish I had more time for - and if I had gotten some pointers on good food - well the visit would have been all the better.

Edited by canucklehead (log)
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Pam,

Have you thought about doing a ]cookbook? This speaks to the methodology.

It's a lot ow work to bring together 50 chefs and 100 + recipes, testing et al, but it does garner attention for the city's culinary ambitions.

Here's an image of the cover.

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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I liked Winnipeg's downtown a lot when I was there - admittedly some time ago - especially around the Art Gallery. I think there is lots of potential for culinary tourism.

Jamie knows far better than I what the elements of a successful campaign are, but clearly tourists are not going to solve all the problems if the locals aren't also helping with the bottom line. Although maybe there is a chicken and egg thing there - once the locals see their eateries as being an attraction to tourists, they'll start appreciating them too.

Cheers,

Anne

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Jamie,

I've admired your book for quite a while now.

I've searched and searched but can't find the name of a book that was put out here a few years ago featuring recipes from local restaurants. I think they put more of an emphasis on the high-end places - rather than the ethnic ones. This is a great idea for a project - and if my parents ever fire me, I'll pitch it to somebody!

Do you have a fill in the blank template available? :wink:

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Jamie,

I've admired your book for quite a while now. 

I've searched and searched but can't find the name of a book that was put out here a few years ago featuring recipes from local restaurants. I think they put more of an emphasis on the high-end places - rather than the ethnic ones.  This is a great idea for a project - and if my parents ever fire me, I'll pitch it to somebody!

Do you have a fill in the blank template available?   :wink:

Not quite, Pam, but here's a pretty good description of the process:

For anyone interested in how the book came together (it was a largely volunteer project), I reprise the article recently published in Vancouver magazine below.

But first a few factoids, each of which might be made the more relevant given the recent controversy surrounding the James Beard Foundation.

Vancouver Cooks is a product of The Chefs Table Society of British Columbia, a registered not-for-profit owned and administered by the 54 chefs who contributed their time to this project. Those chefs, no matter what dialect they cook in, are dedicated to sourcing local, seasonal, sustainable ingredients. Further, partial proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Chefs' Table Society of BC for scholarships and bursaries to sustain emerging and apprenticing chefs. Based on our budget, we anticipate that about $40,000 will flow through from the book, a little more than JBF reportedly spent on the same last year. Lastly, while the book draws attention to both individual restaurants and to the entire province (culinary tourism), it has also broughts chefs together to collaborate rather than compete in one of the most interesting culinary laboratories extant.

I hope what follows might become a useful template with application for other cities. It has certainly drawn together and empowered the culinary community here.

EAT THIS BOOK!

The Making of a Cook Book

Vancouver Cooks

The Chefs’ Table Society of British Columbia

Edited by Jamie Maw and Joan Cross

With a foreword by John Bishop

Douglas & McIntyre; 224 pp; CDN$40

National Release Date: October 12, 2004

“Chefs. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.” So begins Canadian saint Vicki Gabereau's stirring cover endorsement of Vancouver Cooks, a collection of more than 120 recipes from the province’s leading chefs.

Like many of the best ideas, this one was hatched over platters of very good food and more than a few glasses of wine at a regular meeting last year of The Chefs’ Table Society of British Columbia. A collaborative of more than 50 professional chefs, the society is dedicated to aggressively sourcing and sustaining local ingredients: all pointed toward the support of our emerging regional, ingredient-driven cuisine. The chef who suggested the idea, Rob Feenie, is a veteran of the cookbook wars himself.

The chefs in that room that day immediately took up the cause. And several others of us, caught up in the enthusiasm, perhaps slightly naively volunteered our time. “What could be simpler?” we collectively thought. Collect a hundred or so recipes, put them in a nice wrapper, roll it out. Thousands of hours later, we’re coming up for air, the pain of the birthing behind us, our collective ambition to sell the book across the country lying just ahead.

We didn’t want a coffee table book that people would buy and not use. We wanted a concise book that would become an instruction manual, not too big, but brimming with useful recipes and cogent detail. We wanted a book that would wind up in home kitchens and summer cottages and on boats. And we wanted a book that tourism agencies, hotels and culinary associations would use as a calling card.

Our collective also wanted the proceeds to benefit, via an adjudicated scholarship and bursary program, emerging young chefs who are passionate about cooking local. But that would mean a largely volunteer project, a tough task rife with grace and favours. Our supportive publisher, Scott McIntyre, was a little disbelieving of our initial budget. The most expensive component of cookbook production is the photography and food styling. Well done (the consumer hears the music of the images long before the lyrics) and it sells books by seducing the shopper. Poorly executed and they’re aimed directly to the remainders bin. We came up with a plan.

But then the games began in earnest. A meeting of the city’s top culinary public relations handlers resolved the indelicate task of herding the chefs. Recipes began to arrive. Some of them, especially from hotel chefs, were hardly directed at the home cook. “Secure 18 pecks of Coldstream infant morels, several Saltspring Island lambs and nine litres of Pemberton Valley wild rosemary-infused lamb demi-glace. Reduce the demi further on medium heat over two days until glue-like and pungent . . .” began one correspondent, perhaps used to cooking for larger groups.

Well, I jest, but not entirely. Joan Cross, a gifted home cook and culinarian, began the complex task of recipe testing, the most arduous stage of cookbook publishing. The shopping alone would stagger most civilians, and our protocol demanded that the ingredients be reasonably handy. Truth be known, most are available at Granville Island, along West Broadway, or in local specialty shops.

And then she began to cook. And provision. And cook again. And host pot luck dinners where volunteers on the project would shop for and cook a dish, makes notes of adjustment, then present the finished product to a tough crowd. We threw out a few recipes, recalibrated many, and slowly began the process of weeding through to find, say, the best and most workable halibut recipes of more than a dozen submitted. We talked daily during this stage, celebrating small victories, and talking about recipes that had to go into turnaround. Joan was unfailingly gracious.

“The most challenging part was trying to take recipes from professionals who come from so many diverse backgrounds,” she said, “and make them friendly for the home cook and consistent throughout the book.”

I’m a self-admitted glutton, but Joan Cross is clearly a glutton for punishment. “The most enjoyable part was testing the recipes,” she says today, breezily, “and asking others to test-drive them too. That’s because you can give the same recipe to ten people, but just like snowflakes, no two outcomes will be identical.”

Much of the workload was accomplished by a crack team who worked for modest honorariums. Jane Mundy, who writes for our Eating + Drinking Guide to British Columbia, tested some of the recipes and assisted with additional research. Logistics were managed by Sue Alexander and Tiffany Soper of Alexander Ink, a downtown culinary public relations firm. I wrote 54 chefs’ bios while on holiday. Twice, as it turns out, due to a suspect hotel computer. I feel I know these chefs quite well now, even if my fiancée began referring to my little vacation project as biohazards.

Publisher Scott McIntyre’s early suspicion about the photography was confirmed by the realities of the business. He’s published Rob Feenie, John Bishop and many other chefs and knows full well what photographers charge to painstakingly light and shoot finished dishes in the studio. And the process of coordinating and cooking the dishes, then styling them, can be daunting—there’re a hell of a lot of moving parts. Fishy moving parts. That task would fall to Murray Bancroft, the skilled food stylist, restaurant consultant, food writer and international diplomat.

Our solution to the photography conundrum was to approach two experienced culinary shooters whom we thought would buy into the project. John Sherlock, who shot the food, and Shannon Mendes, who captured the human images, agreed to discount their industry rate and accept partial payment in restaurant gift certificates. Suddenly we had more contras than Oliver North. With Murray Bancroft on board, the project was blessed. All of them will eat very well over the next six months.

John Bishop’s elegant foreword arrived. Bishop, who is the godfather of British Columbia’s regional cuisine, writes of the strange circumstances that greeted him when he first arrived here from the UK, half a generation ago. “Restaurants were serving ‘imported delicacies’”, Bishop remembers. "Icelandic scampi, eastern seaboard lobster and so on," he says, “but we’d turned our backs on our own ocean and backyards.” Like the local and organic menus that Bishop serves in his own restaurant, Bishop views this book as a benchmark of where we live.

The editing process, which began with Douglas and McIntyre’s experienced cookbook team, moved to me and then back to their senior editor Lucy Kenward, It was a detailed but agreeable process, much aided by good nature and a sense of common cause. At this stage, Joan’s husband Sid Cross, the retired lawyer with the legendary olfactories and wine mnemonics the size of Latvia, inserted his British Columbia wine pairings for each dish. Like Sid himself, they are direct, informative and useful.

Later, with the assistance of the publisher and Barbara-jo McIntosh, we formed a plan to launch the book, both through conventional bookshops across the country, but also in the 54 restaurants whose chefs participated in the project. [Note: Those restaurants ordered almost 2,000 books and have re-ordered 500 already—talk about empowering the chefs. Tourism Vancouver ordered 260.]

So just who are these chefs? Well it’s a diverse group that includes many ethnic backrounds but with a passion aimed squarely at our merging regional cuisine and the sourcing of the ingredients that support it. You’ll see recipes from Michael Allemeier of Kelowna’s Mission Hill Family Estate Winery, Pino Posteraro of Cioppino’s, David Hawksworth of West, Rob Feenie of Lumiere and Feenie’s, Vikram Vij of Vij’s and Rangoli, and Peter Zambri of Victoria’s Zambri's. And you’ll find Andrey Durbach from Parkside, Michel Jacob of le Crocodile, Thomas Haas of Senses, Rob Clark from C, Bernard Casavant from Whistler’s Chef Bernard’s, Gord Martin from Bin 941/2 and Go Fish! And a host of others, including Karen Barnaby, whose recipe for a superb “chicken stew in the style of fish soup”, reprised below, will keep you entertained until the book comes out. We hope that you’ll cook from it early and often, astonish your friends, and delight yourself in the process.

But perhaps it’s Vicki Gabereau, so expert in synthesizing our national ambition, who said it best in her full cover testimonial: “Chefs, can’t live with them, can’t live without them. An outstanding chronicle of Vancouver’s culinary coming of age.”

Edited by jamiemaw (log)

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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Yes, I think that there could be an artisanal food-tourism/arts tourism movement on the prairies.

I mean, look at us hightailing it over to Vancouver Island so I can eat Saskatchewan wheat products at Wildfire Bakery. Wild rice, chanterelles, game, free range organic meat...I love all these things. It just takes businesses that can work with the locals as well as the tourists to make it viable. This is what is tricky, but it can work. (I wonder how Junior's doing? Hellooooo Junior!)

Combine this with the rich arts scene-music, theatre, crafts, visual arts, literary arts (not to mention some beautiful scenery, and great fishing) and you can make it a cultural destination. I would like to work on this kind of marketing plan. Any head-hunters out there?

For instance, I love the little café at the Saint Norbert's Art's Centre. That's a destination eatery in itself, since you have to drive outside of Winnipeg to get there, and it's like going on a mini-vacation. Then you can pop into the Saint Norbert's farmer's market and buy all sorts of homemade preserves and baking.

My fond childhood memories of Manitoba involve spending time with family foraging for seasonal specialities. There was the wild asparagus in the early summer and later chanterelle mushrooms and wild blueberries.

Winnipeg is absolutely ripe for tauting itself as a culinary destination. From the Hudderite and Mennonite communities reknowned for their cheeses and sausages, to the pickerel and goldeye in the rivers to wild meats, corn, wild berries, mushrooms and fields of sunflowers, there is alot to market and alot for restaurant chefs to source.

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From everything above, it sounds like Winnipeg has plenty to tout and a good amount to work with. It seems (from what we read here) that the issue is how to market it properly. Between your Restaurant Association, Chefs and media, there must be room to work. A cohesive commitee seems to be the answer. It's concerning though, that most with enthusiasm, ideas and comprehension of this seem to be from other parts of the country (on this board at least). Sounds like someone is needed to be a leader in promoting and supporting the Winnipeg scene, and it appears that you (Pam R) are in a good place to either be that person, or be a catalyst to increase its growth. You must have many colleagues who share your passion, insight and vigour. Odd that we don't hear from them 'round these parts.

k.

Edited by kurtisk (log)
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Absolutely.  But:

- people coming in for Folklarama are likely to eat most of their meals at pavillians.

Sure, but if you market it the right way, you can still promote local restaurants. For example, "If you liked the food at..., why not try... for lunch tomorrow?" Pavilions don't open until around 6, so most people coming in for Folklorama will still need to have lunch somewhere. Or, "Can't make it to the Indian Pavilion? Then try the food at one of these great Indian restaurants, instead."

Actually, something like the last one might even work for locals.

- people at the Folk will be eating most of their meals in the dirt  :huh:

Again, put the right spin on it and it can be done. Most people going to the Folk Festival will probably be camping in or around Bird's Hill. So why not team up with hotels to create a Festival/Stay-over package to lengthen people's stays in the area? Tickets to the Festival, camping site reservation, plus two nights at a hotel in Winnipeg for before or after the Festival, and by the way, here are some restaurants you might be interested in.

Edited by prasantrin (log)
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Not quite, Pam, but here's a pretty good description of the process:

For anyone interested in how the book came together (it was a largely volunteer project), I reprise the article recently published in Vancouver magazine below.

Thanks for sharing this with me/us Jamie. Who knows? Maybe someday I (or somebody else reading this) will be able to take from your experience and put out an equally beautiful and tasty book as yours!

My fond childhood memories of Manitoba involve spending time with family foraging for seasonal specialities. There was the wild asparagus in the early summer and later chanterelle mushrooms and wild blueberries.

Winnipeg is absolutely ripe for tauting itself as a culinary destination. From the Hudderite and Mennonite communities reknowned for their cheeses and sausages, to the pickerel and goldeye in the rivers to wild meats, corn, wild berries, mushrooms and fields of sunflowers, there is alot to market and alot for restaurant chefs to source.

What wonderful memories! I'd put your thoughs on a brochure! :biggrin:

A cohesive commitee seems to be the answer.  It's concerning though, that most with enthusiasm, ideas and comprehension of this seem to be from other parts of the country (on this board at least).  Sounds like someone is needed to be a leader in promoting and supporting the Winnipeg scene, and it appears that you (Pam R) are in a good place to either be that person, or be a catalyst to increase its growth. You must have many colleagues who share your passion, insight and vigour.  Odd that we don't hear from them 'round these parts.

I wish I had the time to be able to take on this sort of project. But something like this needs a large comitment from the person/people involved and I just have too many things on my plate as it is.

I also find it odd that we don't hear from more people from this area - I wish we could get more input from locals. But I think the conversations we have on threads like this are a great start.

Again, put the right spin on it and it can be done.  Most people going to the Folk Festival will probably be camping in or around Bird's Hill.  So why not team up with hotels to create a Festival/Stay-over package to lengthen people's stays in the area?  Tickets to the Festival, camping site reservation, plus two nights at a hotel in Winnipeg for before or after the Festival, and by the way, here are some restaurants you might be interested in.

All great ideas. :smile: Along the same lines they could do a "Jazz Fest Weekend/Stay". Tickets to performances, stay at a downtown hotel and dinners at so & so restaurants.

I no longer have a restaurant and am not a member of the restaurant association. Anybody out there a member? There are some great ideas here for you guys!

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I no longer have a restaurant and am not a member of the restaurant association.  Anybody out there a member?  There are some great ideas here for you guys!

You could pm winefellow--or hop down to Kenaston Wine Market (that should give you a big hint to whom I am referring) and visit, since he hasn't been active in the eGullet in ages. No restaurant, but he has a lot of contacts in the industry and is a member of the Chaine de something...

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