Canada’s best family restaurants

I’ve blogged about the intersection of restaurants and rugrats before (see here, and here), but today I’m not going to complain about placement-impaired servers or sing the praises of the neighbourhood drive-thru.  I’m also not going to recommend a great restauarant where you can take the whole family, even though I am asked this question all-the-live-long-time.

Fortunately, I can now redirect hungry parents — and you — to this list compiled by Today’s Parent magazine: The best family restaurants in Canada.

I’m impressed by the comprehensiveness of the list.  It includes nation-wide chains — topping the list: Boston Pizza, Old Spaghetti Factory, Jack Astor’s, East Side Mario’s and Pizza Hut — and lists by province (primarily independents).  In total, 35 restaurants made the list.

Have you made your establishment a preferred destination for families?  Looking to attract more families to your restaurant?  Comment below and share your stories — we’d love to know what worked for you.

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Happy Valentine’s Day (2013)

None of the how-tos noted below are things you can easily pull off in one day — well, except maybe for the heart-shaped eggs — but I don’t imagine that hard-boiled eggs are really a hot menu item in 2012.

We’ve got a year to work on that.

In the meantime, you can get crackin’ (sorry) on these treats for next year’s celebrations:

• How to make a heart-shaped egg (Anna The Red, via Pinterest)

(Confession: this is the only item on this list I’ve actually tried to make.  It didn’t work so well.  Then again, my two-year-old kid did correctly identify the shape as “heart” and not “misshapen eggy blob,” so maybe it worked okay after all.)

• (Amazing) Heart cake tutorial (I Am Baker, via Babble)

… which of course you’ll want to wash down with an equally beautiful beverage …

• How to draw a latte-art heart (Serious Eats)

The next item might seem like a no-brainer, but check out the slide show for some time-saving tips:

• How to make heart-shaped pepperoni slices (Serious Eats)

… which naturally leads to …

• How to make a heart-shaped pizza  Serious Eats)

Of course, if you’d rather dine than dash around a kitchen, you could always head to a local Boston Pizza restaurant, where more than 50,000 special one-day-only heart-shaped pizzas will be served up.  With love, no doubt.

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How many wings would a woodchuck fling?

Well hey there, February!

Though not traditionally a month of strong sales — being shortchanged a few days makes a big difference to the monthly bottom line — February is home to two major food events: the Superbowl and Valentine’s Day.

In The perfect match: Super Bowl and chicken wings, Vancouver restaurateur Sammy Hussein (Sammy’s Hot Wings) puts it simply: “Super Bowl is one of the biggest days we have.”

Chains echo this experience:
 

For Canadian chain Pizza Pizza, the televised event is expected to translate into such a high volume of orders, the company is recommending that customers place their requests online before game day to beat the rush.  Last year, Pizza Pizza restaurants across the country sold more than 200,000 chicken wings for Super Bowl, chief marketing officer Pat Finelli says. In comparison, the company typically sells between 70,000 and 100,000 wings on a regular Sunday.

Similarly, Boston Pizza’s Canadian locations recorded a 55-per-cent increase in its in-restaurant sales of wings during Super Bowl last year, compared with a typical Sunday. For takeout orders, chicken-wing sales jumped to 108 per cent above normal, says Perry Schwartz, Boston Pizza’s director of communications.

Nine days later, chicken gives way to chocolate.  In the U.S., consumers report plans to open their wallets along with their hearts this Valentine’s Day, with 46% planning to visit their favorite restaurants to celebrate the holiday, up from 39% last year (source: American Expres Spending & Saving Tracker).

Less popular than wings, pizza and heart-shaped ravioli?  Woodchuck, aka: whistle-pig, aka: land-beaver, aka: groundhog.  Less popular, but reportedly quite tasty — apparently a vegetarian diet and innate sciophobia make for tender victuals.

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