When Grizzly Bar will open next week in Toronto, the guests will have no doubt about the place where the alleviation of its owners are in the trade war between Canada and the United States
Maple leaves and animatronic bears will set the mood. Customers will be able to order smoky meat from Montreal, Calamari of the Maritimes or Caesars garnished with Ketchup chips in mini-baskets in paper. They can all be paid in cash, card or the other favorite currency of the country, money from Canadian tires.
For entertainment, Blue Rodeo, Rush and Loverboy will be in a heavy rotation and a “Hoser Olympics” will see customers compete in a series of challenges like the “Loonie Toss”, “Hockey Tape Escape” and “Sorry-Not-Sorry” Cawards Competition Canadian.
“It will be wild how many things are,” said co -owner Jessica Langer Kapalka, who also plans to dress the bar manager in a nine -foot inflatable grizzly costume and set up tents offering a campfire experience with the Mores.
The approach of Grizzly Bar opposite is one of the ways in which Canadian restaurants respond to pricing tensions that have engulfed North America and threatened to upset food supply chains and eat budgets.
While US President Donald Trump continues to upset the ally closest to his country with tasks on everything, cars with basic cupboard foods, Canadian restaurants have exchanged American ingredients for domestic ingredients.
Some have reworked menus, abandoning philly cheese and replacing Americanos with Canadianos, while others hold American expansion plans.
Variable approaches reflect the fact that each establishment had to find its own way to balance its Canadian pride with the preferences of its customers and the realities of pricing, said Jo-Ann McArthur, president of the Toronto Advertising Agency Nourish Food Marketing.
“You don’t have to go so far as to change your decor and change your entire menu,” she said. “It’s about supporting your local producers where you can.”
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However, some, like James Mcinnes, want to go even further.
Its vegetable plant chain Odd Burger Corp. interrupted its plan to open 60 franchises in the United States just two weeks after announced expansion in March.
Mcinnes made the decision because he feared that “climbing political tensions” had made the stomach too much on the economy of the plan for his business based in London, Ontario.
“Not only do pricing percentages change daily, but also what is a price changes regularly,” said Mcinnes.
“How do you form the prices of franchisees when you don’t know what costs will be?”
Rather than being caught in confusion, Odd Burger has decided to stay focused on his Canadian operations and to think more and more about what he can do to isolate his supply chain from the United States
“If there is a 200% price on Coke, we don’t know what it will look like,” he said. “We are exposing ourselves to a lot of risks and at a certain time, it simply does not have a financial meaning to transport us products.”
At Kanoo Coffee, it was patriotism rather than the prices that have forced the co -owner Steve Neville to make his menu shamelessly Canadian.
When the coffee opened its doors last year, the plan was to give customers a taste of the best coffees in the world, then it has traveled international beers until the price has convinced Neville to make Canadian coffee.
“We realized that it was obvious from the start,” he said.
Kanoo’s offers now come from Roasters from Coffee Soustext in Toronto, September Coffee Co. in Ottawa, Phil & Sebastian in Calgary and Traffic Coffee Co. in Montreal.
“Being in this globalized world, we have somehow lost sight of some of these national priorities (such as) supporting local businesses, local families … and it is starting to break down,” said Neville. “So it’s a bit like the money lining to all of this.”
Grizzly Bar is also proud that he can put the spotlight on Canada.
The company has found the highlights of the highlights of the menu such as Putin, chicken wings and bison burgers at home.
“I expected it to be much more difficult in some ways to get the majority of our food in Canada, but it was not so difficult,” said Langer Kapalka,
In the few cases where something cannot come from Canada, the company turns to the Allies. This is why the Wapitis of New Zealand and Mexican fruits and vegetables make the menu and animatronic bears come from the Philippines.
Asked how she and Jason Kapalka, her professional partner and her life, have spent the effort, she said: “I would have liked to know!” The couple’s budget is up to $ 15,000, but they have reduced expenses by forcing friends to go through the “wooden basements” for the eccentric decor they could borrow.
All the preparations have occurred in recent weeks after the couple has set up on the transformation of the Barworld, a catering establishment which they run which run through different themes, in Canadian paradise.
The Grizzly Grizzly Pop-Up internship bar lasted about two months. The Canadian theme will probably remain longer.
Kapalka joking about management until 2028, when the United States eliminates its next president, but hopes that the political tide will make it useless even earlier.
“I hope there will be a different diet at some point there,” he said. “I would look forward to deactivating it if there was no longer any.”