Eateries entice customers to support local during holidays without sitting down for a meal

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many restaurants, pubs, bakeries and cafs to the brink and forced some local entrepreneurs to hang up the apron altogether.

While eateries and taprooms are still allowed to invite customers in, capacity restrictions make it difficult to cut a profit, let alone break even, and many foodies myself included are reluctant to venture out.

The ever-changing restrictions and health recommendations also keep business owners on their toes, coming up with creative ways to entice customers from the products they offer to introducing their own delivery or online ordering.

"The pivoting is crazy," said Crave Kitchen and Wine Bar's general manager Emily Nicholson. "It's such a fear of restrictions but also a desire to do what's right. We want to be safe for everyone here. We want to be safe for ourselves as well. We want to get people fed but we don't want people to be fearful to be in here."

Part of me feels lucky we can even get takeout right now, and I've been wondering how I could continue to support local businesses, especially during the holiday season when we're looking to treat others (and ourselves) with some good grub.

My musing beganwhen I tried two of Style and Graze's charcuterie boxes, which were delivered to my home. The business originated as a startup in Saskatoon and recently extended their offering to Regina, just in time for the holidays.

The boxes feature a variety of tasty and visually appealing deli meats, cheeses, crackers, fruit, vegetables, pickles, olives and preserves. You'll almost feel like you're at a catered event. (Remember those?) Just add wine.

What's nice about this approach is you can order high-quality food without setting foot in a restaurant and making outside contact. It also works well as something you would send as a gift. It feels fancy, it's safe and it's convenient.

"I've always loved entertaining with grazing boards," said Style and Graze founder Jessica Barredo-Finell. "People gather and share not only the food but also an experience conversations and laughs. It's fun. During COVID, I wanted to recreate this feeling, to offer something special during isolating times."

How else can we bring special dining experiences into our homes? I looked at three ways, here in Regina.

Takeaway Christmas meals

If you're looking to take the heavy lifting out of preparing a nice meal on Christmas Eve since you're not feeding a large extended family, ordering a fully prepped meal kit might be of interest to you.

It certainly has been to Crave Kitchen and Wine Bar's customers, according to Nicholson.

"We were brainstorming how to drum up business over the holidays and our chef, Jonathan Thauberger, suggested a holiday dinner meal kit. We wanted to offer something to people who wanted to take the work out of preparing a nice meal on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Boxing Day."

Crave's offer is $39 per person.

They also offer a fully-cooked option that's received quite a bit of interest from local companies looking to treat their employees to a special holiday meal at home, as a replacement for the usual corporate Christmas party.

The response to Skye Caf and Bistro's fully-cooked turkey dinner for Thanksgiving was so positive, they're doing a Christmas one as well (pre-order by Dec. 23), for pickup on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

They're but two of plenty of restaurants in the Queen City offering this option. Dig around on social media for one that suits your palate and your wallet.

Special gift boxes or treats by delivery

The idea of minimizing contact this month is a tough one to bear. After all, Christmas is about spending time with family and friends. But sending an edible delight from afar is one way to connect and treat your loved ones without unnecessary contact.

On top of Style andGraze, Bar Willow has hopped on the takeout charcuterie train, pairing it with wine for gifting by delivery.

New-to-Regina-this-year Filigree Patisserie offers all of its products for delivery too. Owner-operator Kent Lukey-Simes says the hot chocolate bombs have "exploded" this year. (No pun intended.)

"They're delicious, it's a fun thing to do at home, and it looks cool as well."

He added that the pandemic has gotten people more accustomed to ordering food products online and having them delivered.

Tipsy Samurai is delivering gift baskets of popular Japanese snacks and non-perishables. Cooking baskets ($30) include steamed rice, oden broth powder, udon broth powder, Japanese curry sauce, miso soup and green tea. Snack baskets ($25) include chocolate banana, and cookies and cream pocky sticks, Meltyblend strawberry chocolate, white peach Calpico drink, and more.

Stocking stuffers

The Cure Kitchen and Bar co-owner Morgan Choquer said customers had been asking to take home jars of their pickles all year, so when the holiday season rolled around, it was a no-brainer to make them available as gift ideas. They are selling their pickled onions (the most requested item), their house spice rub, pickled jalapeos, and strawberry jam for pickup or delivery.

"We originally thought of these jars as a stocking stuffer idea, but it's going so well we're thinking they might be something we should always offer," said Choquer. "Should we introduce other products? Should we sell them at the farmer's market? It's gotten us thinking about other opportunities on the retail side of the operation."

Malinche, the Mexican restaurant inside the Pile O' Bones craft brewery, has been offering takeout nacho and taco kits since the spring, but they've since expanded to jars of their salsa. They even have a "Holiday salsa trio" available for pre-order.

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So, even though we've got to stay home this holiday season, there are plenty of ways we can eat well and support our local restaurants without even leaving the house.