Percy Wiredu is frank in his assessment of what it’s like to be a restaurateur in downtown Edmonton.
“It’s kind of like Jekyll and Hyde,” says the co-owner of El Jardin, which opened in the Mercer Building in 2023. “When it’s good, it’s really good. When it’s slow, it’s really slow. Downtown is trying to build its own ecosystem outside of Rogers Place events, to try and help us out during the week. Weekends are great, but we need more of a weekday culture downtown, too.”
This is why the annual Downtown Dining Week is so important to restaurants like El Jardin. And, it lasts a bit longer than a week — it runs March 20-31. Participating restaurants are offering meal packages ranging from $15-$65. It ties the downtown culinary scene together.
“Downtown is very events-driven, and Downtown Dining Week acts as a quasi-event,” says Wiredu. “People are excited, driving down here, checking out multiple restaurants.”
Puneeta McBryan, the executive director of the Downtown Business Association — which coordinates the Dining Week — said that restaurants are indicators of the health of a neighbourhood. They bring people in. They are a major reason people choose to live in the core.
“Every business downtown is technically our member,” she says. “But there is no argument that most of our energy and time and focus is on the hospitality sector. That’s because it’s something that everybody benefits from, whether you’re an office worker, whether you’re a traveler or a student, whether you’re a downtown resident.
“Those third spaces where people go to gather, the food and drink and dining, the hotels, these are the establishments that really are the lifeblood of the whole neighbourhood.”
She said that if downtown suffered a rash of restaurant closures, that it “would hurt every part of the downtown revitalization effort.”
McBryan stressed that Edmonton’s core has been more fortunate than other Canadian cities, and that the number of restaurants opening is outnumbering the number of those that have shut their doors in the wake of the pandemic and inflationary pressures. Edmonton has lower leasing rates than many other cities, and customers have more disposable income than the Canadian norm.
“But the fear’s not over yet,” she said.
There is no kickoff event in 2024 like there has been in past years. McBryan said the DBA has recognized the goal of dining week is to get more people into the restaurants. And, when a launch event is staged, it overshadows the rest of the week. People go to the big opener, and then think, well that’s that. Been there, done that.
“We’ve really stripped it down to what it’s actually about and who it’s actually for. Hopefully it gives them a reason to visit new favourites that they’ve never been to, or giving them a really fun reason to go back to restaurants they haven’t been to in a while. We’re laser-focused on that.”
