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Explore Fall with the Island Taste Trail
Try new flavours when you order featured small bites paired with craveable local sips
Get out and share a foodie experience with a friend!
From October 20 to November 10, in Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Nanoose Bay, Deep Bay, Cathedral Grove, Courtenay, Cumberland and Comox, chefs, baristas and bartenders are creating dozens of tasty dishes with a feature beer, wine, coffee and cocktails for foodies to try.
Looking for a reason to dine out?
Fall is a fantastic time to connect with local taste makers. The harvest is coming in and it’s inspiring!
As we write, participating restaurants and cafés are putting together small plates that showcase their favourite tastes for the harvest season and are pairing them with locally made beer, wine, cider or cocktails. For those who choose a non-alcoholic pairing, options include locally roasted coffee, locally harvested tea and non-alcoholic cocktails.
This section of Vancouver Island has a robust harvest. Seafood and shell fish are being caught fresh and served daily. Apples, grapes, squashes and pumpkins are ripening and are inspire a flight of tastes ready for you to discover. Head to a local restaurant for an ‘appy hour’ experience you soon won’t forget!
The promotion lasts 3 weeks so you’ll have plenty of time to try multiple offers.
A New Take on
Appy Hour
Restaurants and foodie spots from Parksville to Comox have designed unique features to get you excited about local tastes. When you choose to explore the Fall Taste Trail, you’re making a difference!
Each and every local buying decision helps support local foodpreneurs, farmers, fishers, makers, producers and harvesters. It’s has an incremental to our local agri-food economy – and it tastes great!
But if you have food sensitivities or allergies, please feel confident that checking out the regular menu for some ideas and tastes that will inspire you and celebrate the local bounty of the region.
It’s not quite patio season, so most restaurants are only offering indoor service – but on clear and sunny days, you’ll be able to dine outdoors on covered and heated patios. If that’s your preference, please ensure you come dressed for the weather.
Hospitality is
dining in
This promotion is for dine in customers. The best experience of the featured small plates and the pairings is right after the chef has made it! You’ll get to have a knowledgeable staff person share the dish and explain the pairing. We know you’ll love it.
Many restaurants will be offering their regular take out menus for you to consider during the promotion.
When you dine in, you can be confident that all participating businesses are actively following safe dining best practices for guest and staff safety.
Local Sips
Each of the feature dishes will be paired with a local beverage – from right here in BC and specifically from Vancouver Island.
Local craft breweries, wineries and distilleries offer a range of products that are Island made from local products.
Did you know? While coffee isn’t grown here, it is roasted here and that makes it a local product. For tea, we have a lot of local tea blenders on the island – but Westholme Tea Company is Canada’s only tea-grower – just down the road in Duncan!
If you get inspired by the pairing, you can visit some of these purveyors at their tasting room or local farmers market through the fall. Try a tasting, buy a bottle, or consider buying some to take home!
It’s the People & Places That Make Dining Out Great
The people are what make dining experiences great! When you make the choice to support a local restaurant, coffee shop, café, winery, distillery or craft brewery, you are celebrating the skill and craft that these people proudly bring to the table. You are engaging with a beautiful web of people who live and work in your community and are proudly #foodies.
The food web includes not just chefs, cooks, hosts, servers, bussers and dishwashers but the all the local farmers, winegrowers, craft brewers, distillers, fishers, harvesters and producers that they partner with on their menus and drinks lists. That’s why it’s so important to #EatDrinkLocal and #BuyBC!
From October 20 to November 10, head out into the community and meet some of the people who make your food and drink – starting with small plates and craveable sips is a great way to try somewhere new and have a unique taste experience!
2022 Sponsors
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