The aromas of fettuccine pasta and spices wafted around Burnt Butter, an Italian restaurant on Wellington Street West. The restaurant was busy with chatter, laughter and the clinking of knives and forks digging into the dinner specials.
“For us, on a Friday in the first week of January, to be this busy would not have been possible,” said Gen Lamorie, co-owner of Burnt Butter.
That is why the WinterBites Festival has become the new buzz in Ottawa. The festival, which runs from Jan. 10-26, encourages foodies to go out and try new and different dishes that are offered during the slower dining season. It does this by arranging prix fixé menus at set prices in a variety of pubs and restaurants all over Ottawa, offering a price range for everyone.
“The purpose of WinterBites is truly to support the restaurant industry in what’s typically a quieter time for them,” said Dee Campbell, manager of the WinterBites Festival.
Although this is only the second year of the WinterBites Festival, Campbell says it has been a great success.
“The statistics from last year show that 100 extra people had come into just one restaurant alone as a result of WinterBites,” Campbell said. “It was very popular, we even had people come in from Toronto, so we expect it to do even better this year.”
Burnt Butter is one of the restaurants that used social media to its advantage during the WinterBites Festival last year, and is now well-known for their featured dessert special called “Burnt Butter Pecan Pie.”
“When Steve featured it last year, it went viral on Twitter,” said Lamorie said, who works alongside her husband and fellow chef, Steve Wallace.
Lamorie and Wallace said the WinterBites Festival has added more than they could imagine to their restaurant, which only opened about a year-and-a-half ago.
“Given that we’re a new restaurant, people that weren’t aware of our restaurant before got to hear about it,” Lamorie said. “That included a lot of students, which was great.”
“It’s great for business, it offers the public three courses rather than just the usual appetizer and main, and it’s something different that we don’t always have on the menu,” Wallace said.
According to Campbell, a similar event was run by the National Capital Commission (NCC) about four years ago as part of Winterlude. In Toronto, there are similar events called Summerlicious and Winterlicious, “which is what the WinterBites Festival is loosely based upon, but is not the exact same,” Campbell said.
“We’ve been able to attract more groups from different demographics such as students due to the good deals that we’re offering through the WinterBites Festival,” Lamorie said.
“I think it all comes down to the fact that people like a good deal.”
