Muted Dine Around Freddy Still Helps Restaurants Through Shoulder Season
FREDERICTON—Shawna and Bryan Foster opened their Italian restaurant MoCo Downtown six years ago and have participated in Dine Around Freddy every year since. Their second restaurant, Dos Toros Taqueria And Tequila, which opened in October 2021, participated for the first time this year.
Dine Around Freddy offers customers a three-course meal for $35, with one dollar from each plate going to charity. This year, the Fredericton Community Kitchen Inc. is the charity of choice.
This year’s event ran from February 17 to March 13, with 25 restaurants participating throughout Fredericton. This year, restaurants were challenged to create new and original menu items.
“It brought people out of their houses and brought people together,” said Shawna Foster, in a phone interview with Huddle. “It’s a great community event.”
Foster says Fredericton Tourism and Tourism NB have been raising awareness and encouraging the support of small, local businesses.
In pre-pandemic ears, Dine Around Freddy coincided with FROSTival, a three-week winter event occurring throughout Fredericton. It included events like the Shivering Song music festival, Downtown Gallery Hop, entertainment at the Playhouse, and ice skating in Officers’ Square.
Dine Around Freddy gave FROSTival a culinary program while stimulating restaurants at a time of year that is usually very slow. But this year, due to the pandemic and cancellation of FROSTival, Dine Around Freddy was delayed.
“We wanted to bring it back at a time where we felt most confident that we would be moving towards 100 percent capacity again in the restaurant sector,” said Stacey Russell, manager of recreation, tourism, and community engagement at Tourism Fredericton.
Since the province moved to Level 1 of the winter plan on February 18, restaurants were able to offer the Dine Around Freddy special while operating at full capacity.
The program is run by Fredericton Tourism but managed by the participating restaurants, who choose the price point, structure of the special, and charity.
“It’s a true partnership,” said Russell.
Foster said the initiative was helpful in bringing first-time customers to their new business, Dos Toros, which this year featured main course options like Carne Tacos, Oceano Tacos, or Taco Vegetal.
“Their [customer] support goes a long way; we look forward to a busy spring/summer season,” says Foster.
Milda Titford, of Milda’s Pizza And More, said her restaurant has had very successful years participating in Dine Around Freddy. She says Fredericton has done really well to promote local while dealing with the pandemic.
This year, Milda’s Pizza offered a starter of black bean and winter veggie salad with lime-chili dressing. Dessert was a winter fruit cake.
She says in normal years, the event could boost her sales by 10 or 15 percent during the “leanest” months. But this year it wasn’t as beneficial as in the past.
Located in the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, her restaurant has been adapting throughout the pandemic—going from full service to only take-out and delivery may have been a factor in low sales.
A three-course meal for takeout does not translate the same as a dine-in experience. Last year, she reported selling close to 200 plates. This year, it was 65.
Last year, Dine Around Freddy sold 5,301 plates.
Both Tourism Fredericton and Fredericton Community Kitchens Inc. did not respond to requests for comment on plate numbers this year.
Mary Allan is an intern with Huddle in Fredericton. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].