Downtown Dining Week kicks off today

0:00Let's talk about food, pork and beans. Coming out of the pandemic, kind of this restaurant seemed, it hasn't exactly rebounded to its pre-COVID heights. In 2025, it's estimated that some 7,000 restaurants nationwide turned off their stoves for good, and there could be another 4,000 expected to follow suit this year, especially DIC from home and pops. With 41% of independent restaurants breaking even or losing money around 2026. So it's all the more reason. Not a time when we talk about buy local, to maybe put our money where our mouth is and put our money or mouth rather, where the local food is. So to chat about a big event on the local culinary calendar, joined now by the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Edmonton Downtown Business Association, the one the only Quinn Phillips. Happy Wednesday to you, Quinn. Oh, thank you, Courtney. Thanks for having me, and I loved that intro, despite it being a touch depressing. You know what, I try and navigate that fine line

1:01between the cynicism and optimism. So let's hone in on the optimistic side of things here, right? Because we're talking about Downtown Dining Week. It is back on the calendar, and once again, a good opportunity to savor and save. Talk to us a little bit about, you got on the menu this year. Yeah, so for those that don't know, Downtown Dining Week is a 12 day event with 68 restaurants downtown offering multi-course dining deals at a fixed price. So there's $15 and $25 lunches, and then $35, $50 and $65 dinners. So that really just gives people the opportunity to know exactly what they're going to be spending when they come downtown to a restaurant, and also all those offers are offered deal. So you're also getting at least 10% off their regular menu. So it is the perfect time to just kind of try something new

2:02or go to your old favorite. Indeed, and the thing is that it's not just a win for the consumers who are looking to maybe try something new, save a few bucks in the process. I was looking at some of the numbers here, and this is a real boom for businesses, and at the time of year when things are typically a little bit slow. Yeah, it's kind of the shoulder season, right? And I think that most Edmontonians can agree that, you know, the push and pull of the weather, the up and down can make it a little bit hard on you to want to go out. And so restaurants do kind of see things slow down in March and April. So it really is the perfect time to incentivize people to be coming downtown and hitting up the restaurants. And yeah, some of the numbers, you know, for the restaurants that respond to our survey, they see anywhere from like 18 to 40 percent or 80 percent, 14 to 80 percent in increase in sales. So it can be incredibly beneficial.

3:06And, you know, more than 90 percent of the restaurants that are taking part are locally owned and operated. So we're keeping the money in the city when we're eating at these restaurants. Yeah, and then as I was mentioning, obviously, but the mums and pops being the ones that, you know, are seeing some of the bigger struggles nationwide. And with respect to that, I mean, you know, certainly, I think among certain quarters of the population, there's a sense that, you know, the downtown is just not what it used to be, but rumors of the downtown's demise have been greatly exaggerated, right? I mean, I would certainly say so, you know, just considering, I think we have between six and seven new restaurants taking part in downtown dining week. And probably about four or five of them are brand new restaurants this year. So, you know, people are still opening businesses. And the realistic thing is, is that, you know, downtown Edmonton is your cultural and commerce hub. And these restaurants, the cultural diversity

4:08of these restaurants really represents that. But yeah, like, you know, we had over 800,000 unique visitors to downtown in 2025. So I know people want to say, and certainly we're not at the numbers we want to be downtown. We want to continue to see more people come downtown. But there are people coming downtown and the food scene, it's the best you're going to get, right? So, you know, some of the best restaurants in the city, according to edify, many of them are in downtown Edmonton. Yeah, well, 68 menus and all. And I would imagine there's a little bit of something on the menu for everyone then. That is exactly it. That's why I love downtown dining week so much because these restaurants curate their menus. So you don't have to make a lot of decisions, right? And for those that go to the restaurants that they love, maybe they're trying something new on the menu that they haven't tried before. Or you're getting the chance to add a discount, you know, try a new restaurant that you've been thinking

5:08about trying or wanting to try if they're part of taking part in downtown dining week. But yeah, and then on top of it, you know, we have the table service, we have the fine dining restaurants involved. But then we also have the fast casual. So for those that are on a really strict budget, you know, there's $15 and $25 menus and there is a variety of different kinds of foods. So yeah, there really is something for everybody. Yeah, what do you think the biggest challenge is for restaurants in the downtown core? Obviously, coming out of the pandemic, there's the perception issue that I was mentioning. A lot of folks still say parking is one of the reasons that they try to steer clear of the downtown. Although I will say I've been to the downtown core a lot lately for shows and things to that effect. And parking is relatively cheap at the end of the night. It's like a couple bucks for, you know, three hours, which is not a lot on a non-game night anyway. What do you think of the biggest hurdles to be able to get it back to where it was? Yeah, to be honest, I think those if I'm being honest as well,

6:11like, yeah, those are kind of the two biggest complaints. There certainly is the perception of safety complaints and or the perception of safety. You know, some people have very real experiences and we understand that, but you know, there's a thousands of people downtown every single day that, you know, that don't have negative experiences. You know, I'm one of them. I live in Brooklyn to win. I walk to work. I walk home every day and I can say that I've genuinely never had an issue. So we continue to kind of fight that battle and we're really hoping that the narrative can start to change because there are a lot of really positive things happening downtown and a lot of really positive stories downtown. And then parking, you know, I always use this line. There are 45,000 parking stalls, around 45,000 parking stalls downtown. There's no major downtown in the world that you don't have to pay for parking or fight a little bit for parking. There is no shortage of parking downtown and you're exactly right.

7:12If you can get street parking, it's $3 for, you know, probably a few hours and you know, even some of the private lots, it can be quite cheap to just park for a short period, right? So, and then also, you know, there is transit as well and you know, I walk everywhere too. So I don't ever have to worry about parking. But when I do have to park, I, it's never something that crosses my mind and I do understand that it is hard for people. But, you know, there are ways, there's the zip-stall apps that will tell you where stalls are and even on the city of Edmonton website, it does show you where a lot of the parking is. So you can even investigate before you head downtown. Now, all right, I'm gonna, I said the most difficult question for last if you're ready. I'm putting you on the spot here. Favorite place to eat downtown for Quinn Phillips. The fall, man. That is such an interesting and difficult question for me.

8:15You're right. It is the most difficult. Listen, I can't, I can't kid myself. I do love pasta. So Barb Rico, which is taking part in downtown Dining Week is definitely a favorite. And I can say that we did a photo shoot at the mark. Both their lunch and dinner menu are absolutely off the chart's delicious. So, and then I can't, I can't not shout out, show you sushi. It is one of my favorite sushi places in the city and they also have some pretty smoke and deals on for downtown Dining Week. Okay, there I was curious to see how many of the 68 you tried to squeeze in there. So three is a solid number and a good variety. Quinn, well, thanks for coming on. Obviously this gets underway tonight. I think just head on over to the Downtown Business Association website for more details. And then can downtown dot com slash dining week. You'll find all the menus there, all 68 restaurants.

9:16All right, there you go. Well, enjoy the the combo sushi pasta supper that you're probably having tonight. I'm doing multiple restaurants tonight. There you go. Well, maybe I'll see you out there. I'm starting to solid it at the prospect of this. That's like Quinn Phillips. Director of marketing and communications at the Edmonton Downtown Business Association ahead of Downtown Dining Week, which kicks off today.