Get ready to Dine About Winnipeg

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/01/2014 (4244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you have ever met Laurie Hughes, the co-founder and publisher of Ciao! Magazine, you will know with absolute certainty that she is a woman of passion.  

She’s passionate about her family, passionate about the city she calls home and passionate about its vibrant culinary scene. Since this woman constantly focuses her goals on her loves, I cannot say for sure if she created Dine About Winnipeg for its winter-weary residents or to perk up February business for the city’s many chefs and restaurateurs.  
Dine About Winnipeg takes place for 10 days each and every winter, this year from Feb. 1 to 11.  Dine About is a win/win proposition for both restaurant guests and the restaurants themselves. Each year,

Laurie and her staff secure a longer and more unusual list of businesses to participate, with such clever offerings.

I have had the pleasure of dining at 22 of the participating 26 restaurants and can attest first-hand to the excellence of their ambience and fare. The offerings are divided into two price ranges.  

Those restaurants with a multi-course menu set at $28 are: The Beachcomber, Bombolini, Café Dario, Clay Oven, Corrientes Argentine Pizzeria, The Loft, The Melting Pot, Nicolino’s, Resto Gare, Rudy’s Eat and Drink and Sensi Wine Lounge.

The second level of  choices are for the $36 menus: 296 York, Amici, Bailey’s, Bellissimo, Café Carlo, Carnaval, fusion grill, Hermanos Restaurant & Wine Bar, Mise, Peasant Cookery, Prairie 360, Resto Gare, Sensi Wine Bar, Steve’s Bistro, Sydney’s at the Forks, Tapastry and last, but certainly not least, Terrace in the Park.  

Detailed menu offerings are indicated online at www.ciaowinnipeg.com

Dine About is the perfect excuse to return to a favourite restaurant or to test drive one that you may not have visited before. The participating venues typically feature one or a couple of their signature items.  

We are looking forward to trying Tapastry by Amici for our first time, which offers an array of eclectic dishes designed for sharing. We will be invited to sample three of the following tapas dishes. Will it be scallop and pork belly, Italian pizza, sous vide pork loin, chicken livers, crab and guacamole salad or smoked bison ragu? A dessert of chocolate oblivion will top off the evening.

So bundle up in that fuzzy sweater, get out there and enjoy the many pleasures of winter in Winnipeg. By the time the table candles are lit and you are savouring your first warm taste of something wonderful, prepared just for you, winter will melt away.

Kathryne Grisim’s foodmusings.ca blog was named best local blog in Uptown Magazine’s Best of Winnipeg readers’ poll.