** A friendly user warning – the following is a rant. I’m emotional and may not make sense at all times. I still love this city and think that its one of the greatest foodie cities in the world… but I’ve got my beef with it too.**
What the fuck Ottawa? Where is my Taste of Winterlude?
For those of you who do not know, this year, after 5 awesome years of restaurants around the city offering Price Fix Menus for the weeks during Winterlude they have gone and replaced it with Food Experiences. Go ahead and read this great article by Ron Eade.
Now I like the idea of the Food Experiences. There are some really great opportunities from some amazing restaurants and businesses and I hope these lovely foodies will take no offense. But I want my price fix menus back. Actually I want them back in the addition to the Food Experiences. Move onward and upward – progress and all that jazz.
But don’t just get rid of my favourite part of Winterlude as if it wasn’t the best thing about the festival. I loved being able to try new restaurants at a reasonable price. And it was something I could do during the week to enjoy the festivities when the tourist crowds were significantly lower.
And the best part – I wasn’t partaking in the experience with 449 other people. I hate crowds.
Why can’t we have both?? The food experiences are a great ADDITION to what you had going already. But let’s face it, with the cheapest option being $85 a person… (most expensive topping out at $300 per person) you are marketing to a very specific crowd and I’m sick of it.
No one ever said that loving food as your hobby of choice was going to be a cheap endeavour – but what is it with Ottawa’s obsession of having overpriced events?? Look at our music scene. For years the majority of acts coming here were playing in a handful of venues and charging enormous ticket prices. Leaving those of us who enjoy live music on a regular basis either poor or having to head to Montreal to see smaller bands more often. That’s starting to change now… thankfully.
Now you are doing it to my foodie events. I know that good food comes at a cost and that some things are worth paying extra for. But just because there are people in our city who can afford the luxury of paying around $100 per person per night of entertainment doesn’t mean we all can. Those of us on a budget, with a new family or who just like to go out and have fun more than once a month can’t always pay those kind of prices.
Come on Ottawa. Keep the amazing food events coming, but let’s have them at a variety of price points.
There may be those of you who are about to comment – well what about this event or this one. Keep in mind I didn’t say there were NO well priced events in the city. Only that yet another one is gone. I miss it. I want it back. And I see no reason why there isn’t room for Food Experiences and Taste of Winterlude Price Fix menus.
Am I off my rocker? What do you think?
9 comments
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December 9, 2010 at 12:28 pm
melodie
I know… I was quite excited too until I saw the price lists. Aïe! I think they might want to become an upscale event like “Montréal en lumières”… But even during that Montreal festival, there are a bunch of food experiences quite affordable living side by side with the 300$ ones. Dommage.
December 9, 2010 at 8:58 pm
tracey
Agreed. The prices are ridiculous and you rock for bringing attention to the matter.
December 10, 2010 at 12:00 am
One of Ottawa's Real Foodies
I guess it is all about business in the end. So if the restaurants thought the Taste of Winterlude format was great for business, perhaps luring in more of the locals, then I won’t be surprised if they initiate some form of this on their own, without the big engine of the NCC to promote it. The local scene is good about getting the word out on food and the locals don’t tend to count on the NCC for that. Let’s see how the restaurants respond to the lack of ‘Taste of Winterlude’. Food is fun but it isn’t always ‘fair’.
December 10, 2010 at 10:41 am
simplyfreshottawa
I hope you are right! It will be interesting to see what the restaurants do and I am interested to know what they think of the whole thing.
December 29, 2010 at 2:45 pm
kaitlin
The NCC, truth be told, isn’t much concerned about the citizens of the National Capital Region. Their mandate is in fact to create a capital region for all of Canada. At the end of the day, they want to work with local businesses, but by-in-large only for the benefit of tourists.
December 10, 2010 at 8:32 am
Wine Out Loud
This is a VERY valid point. I too looked at the list and thought well, what can I afford? And Winterlude IS a family event. You should write a letter to the organizers (if you haven’t already). Your idea of including both is perfect. Nothing wrong with keeping the old while trying to attract tourists with some fancy events as well.
December 10, 2010 at 6:50 pm
sejal M
HI there,
Just wanted to let you know that the cheapest ‘experience’ is actually $45.00 at the East India Company Restaurant, and not that I am biased LOL, but I think it’s probably one of the best options!!
Hope you still get to try out some of the events!
~Sejal
December 15, 2010 at 2:41 pm
simplyfreshottawa
That is actually one of my favourite options! I think everyone should check it out. I love the idea of the experiences, I just wish they still had the old price fix menus!
December 29, 2010 at 2:41 pm
kaitlin
The problem with the fixed price menus was that a lot of the restaurants that offered them were not engaged with it as part of winterlude. A number of complaints came forth that servers didn’t know about the menus, and that aside from a menu on the front door and the taste of winterlude website, there wasn’t much done to convey the message.
The other issue at hand is that the NCC wanted to do more bang for their buck. They wanted to integrate the food with the experience (for example, C’est Bon Cooking tours!) I think that’s an awesome idea, personally.
That said…I wish it wasn’t an either/or.