Some downtown restaurants are saying that Foodie Fridays are adversely affecting business and the city doesn’t care.
The event brings local food vendors and entertainment downtown on Fridays throughout the summer. According to the city, it’s been extremely popular in the community, with attendance up by 16% from last year.
But for some local restaurateurs, the festival has dramatically reduced business on what is usually their busiest day of the week.
Troy Mackenzie owns two downtown restaurants, the Twisted Cork and the Black Clover pub, which he said have both seen a loss of over 50% percent of their business on Foodie Fridays.
“Fridays went from our best lunch day to our worst. When I look at it, it costs us anywhere from $1000 – $1500 per restaurant, per Friday of lost revenue. The most frustrating thing about the whole thing is that no one really asked me about it or wanted to hear any feedback once it did happen.”
Mackenzie said he had to force the hand of the city into meeting with 13 downtown restaurant owners. 12 of the 13 were emphatically against the day of the event and wanted to compromise with the city on that.
“We felt like we were heard, but then two weeks later we heard they were just going to go ahead and do it on that day anyway and that was that. They just went ahead and did whatever they wanted to do. They’re screwing over all these businesses that need that revenue and that depend on Friday to recover from the rest of their week,” said Mackenzie.
Tyler Burbee is the owner of the Copper Pig and was one of the 12 who presented their case to city representatives.
“I’m the one who shovels, I’m the one who picks up the needles, I’m the one who does all the hard work and we’re allowing people who don’t pay downtown taxes to come and profit on our busiest day,” he said. “That was the complaint and it was not heard.”
Petra Haus, Owner of the Pastry Chef, wasn’t mincing words when it came to what how she thinks the city is treating downtown restaurant owners.
“During the lunch break, I have lost 70% of my business. That is our biggest lunch and that’s what they took away from us. It’s really sad. There is absolutely no support from the city in any way,” said Haus. “City Hall goes home at five o’clock and they don’t care.”
City spokesperson Michael Kellett said that the city reevaluates the event every year.
“We have an outstanding track record of listening and embracing business and the business community. I would just ask people for patience and to keep talking to the city and providing feedback and to wait and see what happens next year.”
Kellett provided a list of vendors in Prince George who are in favour of Foodie Fridays, but only one on that list actually owns a restaurant downtown, the White Goose, which also has a food truck and participates in Foodie Fridays.
For Mackenzie, the continuation of Foodie Fridays as it is shows a lack of understanding from the city.
“I’ve been downtown Prince George for 10 and a half years. I support downtown, that’s where my money is, I pay a lot of taxes, a lot of time, a lot of energy, there’s a lot of problems, but we stay here because we think it’s important.”
“To me, it’s disrespectful to make those types of decisions knowing it adversely affects our business and our revenue.”