Foodies wait hours for outdoor restaurant tickets

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This article was published 13/12/2015 (3606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers lined up before dawn Sunday in the Exchange District for their pick of seats this winter at Raw: Almond, the restaurant on the river ice near The Forks.

By the time the $120-a-plate tickets went on sale at 9 a.m., the line of would-be patrons stretched for a block and a half from Princess Street restaurant Deer + Almond. By the end of the day, only 156 seats went unsold for the river restaurant’s fourth season, which runs from Jan. 21 to Feb. 13.

A total of 31 chefs from Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, Nashville, Houston and Portland, Ore., are taking part in the 2016 edition of Raw: Almond, said organizer Mandel Hitzer, Deer + Almond’s chef and co-owner.

Each will present a five-course meal within the confines of a space designed by Etcetera Projects, a group of Winnipeg architects. Some of the visiting chefs were recruited to take part in the event, while others approached Hitzer.

“It seems crazy. Why would a chef want to leave their restaurant… and put out a five-course menu, two nights back-to-back, with three seatings a night? That’s more work than they’re probably doing day to day in their own restaurants, by themselves, in an environment they don’t know,” Hitzer said in an interview.

He said the attraction is the challenge involved in the event, as well as the chance to collaborate with other chefs and exchange ideas.

“I think we all learn from each other. Anybody who’s involved with the river, or comes to the river as a guest, might find a component or a way something is prepared to inspire them to try something else out,” he said.

All seatings for the 2015 run sold out weeks in advance. Nonetheless, Hitzer said he’s not concerned about the exclusive nature of the event.

“I really believe Winnipeg food lovers find their way out to the river,” he said. “Of course, there’s an exclusivity on the price and people do complain about that. But we’re flying in chefs from all over North America, putting them up in hotels and building the structure. If people knew what we spent on heat… ”

A potential new wrinkle for the river restaurant is warm weather. Mild weather this fall means the Red and Assiniboine rivers have yet to freeze.

In the event unseasonably warm weather persists well into January and the ice is not sufficiently thick, another outdoor location will be selected for the restaurant.

“I’m not worried,” Hitzer said. “We’ll find some place amazing.”

On Sunday, everyone who lined up for Raw: Almond tickets had a shot at buying one, even though some patrons grumbled about the long wait — up to four hours — and slow processing times.

The remaining 156 seats go on sale Monday at raw-almond.com, where the full lineup of chefs is also listed.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca