Halifax program lets customers dine out for less

Restaurants across the city are featuring special menus for the annual Dine Around Halifax event.

A three-course meal for $60 is almost unheard of, except during February in Nova Scotia due to Dine Around Halifax.

“Dine Around is an exciting way to drive up extra businesses during the colder months when people are typically thinking about dining out, when they normally would in the summer months or when things are a little business around the waterfront especially,” says Patrick Gaetz, dining operations manager of The Bertossi Group.

Natasha Chestnut with the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia says this year they had a great turnout, with around 140 restaurants, cafes, and even food trucks serving up their best dishes for discounted prices.

“The first course includes a lobster and corn chowder, our yellowfin tuna tartare, or our insalata panzanella and for the second course it’s either one of our three pastas, spaghettini franti demar, our fresh crab ravioli or our beautiful mushroom lasagna. And for the third course we have our three incredible desserts, our infamous butterscotch cake, our 12-layer chocolate cake or our amalfi cheesecake, ” says Gaetz.

“It was originally created because February being the month that is it – grey, gloomy – people are not out as much. This is a great program, it’s free, its voluntary for the restaurant and it really helps drive some traffic to their restaurant,” says Chestnut.

Chestnut notes transactions were up 7.6 percent, adding to restaurant traffic this month.

“You have the Dine Around aspect where you are getting some extra visibility to your restaurant, it’s a really fun program and then it’s appealing to consumers but then of course this year for the first two weeks you had the HST tax break also very, very appealing to consumers to be saving that tax,” says Chestnut.

Other spots like East Cup Cafe say the Dine Around program has helped bring in new customers.

“It’s just a great idea to see new faces and we have seen lots of new customers, and people are always shocked, ‘Oh, you have sandwiches, oh, you have iced strawberry matcha, iced frito,’ really special drinks that people didn’t know about,” says Nada Musa, East Cup Cafe manager.

This is the first year East Cup Cafe has taken part in Dine Around and they are offering two menu options.

“The first one is $10 and you can get any drink, any size and you can pair that up with a croissant or fresh baked pastry or any cake. We have over 20 cakes and we switch them out all the time. Lots of special things, something for everything. The second item on our menu is the $20 menu and that is also any drink you would like and any pastry or cake that you like and you can pair that up with a sandwich or a croissant,” says Musa.

Customer Maryann Pitre says it’s a chance to enjoy a great meal without worrying about the cost.

“For me as a student it’s really helpful to have cheaper price points, like in between school and cost of living right now it’s great to have an opportunity to make it easier to go out eat and to have something that’s a bit cheaper and a little more affordable,” says Pitre,

Dine Around runs until Feb. 28.

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