Downtown Restaurants Get Support from WIFF, Social Media

By Mark Brown
Citizen Staff Reporter

Windsor’s downtown business association is calling attention to the diversity of the neighbourhood’s restaurants while reaping the benefits of the recent film festival.

The Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association is using social media to promote the uniqueness of eateries in the downtown core. Debi Croucher, acting director of the DWBIA, said participants can benefit from showing off Windsor’s restaurants.

“We really wanted to use social media to spread the word,” said Croucher. “A lot of ‘foodies’ enjoy taking photographs of the meals that they’re having. What we wanted to do was encourage them to post those photos to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.”

Croucher said the promotion, which runs throughout the month of November and is called “30 Days Dining Downtown,” is very user-friendly and anyone with a cellphone can take part.

“Just snap a photo,” said Croucher. “It (the restaurant) has to be within our boundaries, then they would tag it ’30 Days Dining Downtown.’ At the end of the month, we will pick an overall winner and then a number of winners would win gift cards to various establishments.”

Croucher said the response to the program has been varied so far. Among the restaurants that have had photos sent in are Maxim, Terracotta, Windsor Star News Café, Squirrel Cage, Naturosweet and Chanoso’s. Croucher said the program is also a terrific way to promote Windsor’s downtown restaurants ahead of the holiday season.

“This is a great time to do that, we’re leading up to the holidays,” said Croucher. “For folks who are looking for that perfect gift, perhaps folks would have seen a particular restaurant and consider a gift card.”

The buildup to the holidays comes in the afterglow of the Windsor International Film Festival which had its run earlier this month at the Capitol Theatre. Croucher said downtown businesses got a real boost from the eight-day event.

“It’s been huge,” said Croucher. “Restaurants, particularly those on University, Pelissier and Chatham have raved about the attendance, which is really encouraging. They always do well with WIFF because of the demographic that the independent film attracts.”

Restaurants that are popular with the downtown lunch crowd saw an increase in business during the film festival. Brian Khan, coordinator of special events and marketing at the DWBIA, said the response at some places exceeded expectations.

“Frenchy’s (Poutinery) had a lineup outside the establishment because of the film fest. And this is around 10:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. when they open on a Tuesday,” said Khan. “This is not a normal crowd that you would have on a weekday.”

Croucher said she is hopeful the energy provided by the film festival will carry over into the upcoming Winterfest, set for Nov. 29 with the traditional Santa Claus Parade.

The “30 Days Dining Downtown” promotion runs through Nov. 30. For more information, contact the Downtown Mosaic offices at (519) 252-5723 or visit www.downtownwindsor.ca.