All eyes on the fries for La Poutine Week

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This article was published 01/02/2021 (2051 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

February is a big month for poutine at Le Garage Restaurant and Bar.

The classic French-Canadian dish is a menu staple year-round at the St. Boniface eatery, but the annual convergence of Festival du Voyageur and La Poutine Week sees a surplus of potatoes, gravy and cheese curds going through the kitchen.

“Oh gosh, well just potato-wise, I could say two Festivals ago… I think we got in between 10 and 15 bags of potatoes; and those were those 50-pound bags,” says Le Garage kitchen manager Hilary Collins. “We go through those definitely within that week.”

With the francophone festival going virtual, the restaurant won’t be rolling its food truck into Whittier Park this year. Collins hopes La Poutine Week, which runs Feb. 1-7, can help fill the gap.

“Unfortunately, this year has just brought so many surprises to us,” she says. “It’s really hard to know what this Poutine Week will bring, we’re really hoping that it is a busy one.”

Le Garage has whipped up a French onion poutine — caramelized onions, cheese crostini and parmesan aioli on a bed of shoestring fries, house gravy and curds — for this year’s food festival.

Eat-in dining is still prohibited under code-red restrictions, so Collins had to devise a recipe that travelled well — a major challenge for fries covered in hot gravy. After some trial and error, the French onion poutine came out on top thanks to straightforward toppings that won’t wilt or curdle in a steamy to-go container.

“We did a poutine tasting actually where I created four different options,” Collins says. “One of the owners came and picked them up as takeout and… this one travelled the best, it was still perfect half an hour after he ordered.”

There are a record 108 local restaurants taking part in the eighth annual La Poutine Week, a national food festival started by the founders of Le Burger Week. Daniel Gurevich, Winnipeg ambassador for both events, was pleasantly surprised by the turnout.

“This is the largest showing we’ve had,” he says. “To be honest, we weren’t expecting it and we’re really happy about it.”

Food festivals are a way for restaurants to attract new customers and many see a significant uptick in sales during the events. During the pandemic, the festivals carry more weight.

“I’m sure that restaurants didn’t see as much sales as they would have if it was a regular Burger Week,” Gurevich says. “But at the same time we got a lot of really positive feedback… and we even had a few say that it saved their butt, having that increase and having those sales was a huge, huge thing for them.”

During the pandemic, many restaurants affiliated with SkipTheDishes or Saputo had their entry fee sponsored by the aforementioned companies and La Poutine Week offered a subsidized rate for others.

At the same time, there are more and more themed food festivals vying for diners’ attention locally. One month into the year, Winnipeg has already celebrated Fried Chicken Fest and Le Vegan Week. Gurevich isn’t worried about the extra competition and believes Winnipeggers are game to support local restaurants in any way and as often as they can right now.

“Like anything else, when there’s a free market out there people are going to enter, people are going to exit… the customers will really dictate the appetite for it,” he says. “I think that people feel the need to support local now more than ever.”

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney