Cost, convenience, and quality are making some U.S. imports harder to eliminate than others.
Restaurateur Donald Wingell says he jumped onto the don’t-buy-American bandwagon early.
A few weeks ago, a guest came into Wingell’s Cafe by Dhruvees eatery. In response to the threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose debilitating tariffs on Canadian imports, the guest said he was going to forego buying his coffee at Starbucks.
“I thought to myself, ‘I’m also going to do it,’” says Wingell, who owns two neighbouring restaurants on Beechwood Avenue. “I’ll be the first one in this neighbourhood to go all-Canadian.”
He was already part way there, since he already buys his chicken from Maple Lodge Farms in Brampton, Ont., as well as lamb and goat from Quebec and Ontario farms.
While Wingell used to buy fruits and vegetables from wholesalers Costco and Sysco, he has switched to shopping at the Canadian supermarkets FreshCo, Green Fresh and Produce Depot, where he can see where the produce has come from. “It’s marginally more expensive,” he admits.
Now, Wingell shuns U.S.-based Tropicana juice and opts for products made by Oasis, owned by Quebec-based Lassonde Industries Inc. He’s also given up on U.S.-owned Kraft cheese, preferring products made by Saputo and Black Diamond Cheese, both of which are Canadian.
Wingell also said goodbye to buying cans of Pepsi and Coke, and hello to PC Cola and Canada Dry. (However, that venerable brand, it turns out, is now owned by the U.S. company Keurig Dr. Pepper.)
Wingell is not alone. Other Ottawa restaurants and bars are cutting back on buying American goods, although it’s easier when it comes to beer, wine and spirits.
On a private Facebook group for Ottawa’s food and beverage professionals, proprietors have been trading tips this month about how to cut back on U.S. purchases. For food businesses trying to buy all-Canadian, the devil is in the details.
Evening Update
One restaurateur wrote: “I’ve asked my Sysco rep. I only want to use Canadian products. I have switched my ketchup to French’s ketchup. I stopped buying California wine and went to Pelee Island Ontario wine. People love it.”
Among the comments that he received were “Sysco is an American company” and “French’s is an American company.”
In his own post, Wesley Hunter, the co-owner of 1818 Farm and Cidery in Carp, commended restaurateurs for turning their attention to domestic goods.
“I am happy to see places researching and looking for Canadian alternatives to products they may carry in their restaurant,” he wrote. “Don’t settle on just switching your ketchup, take this as an opportunity to move towards self-reliance within your own community, province and country.”
He called a looming trade war between Canada and the U.S. “a wake-up call to the bigger issue and our reliance on filling consumers on imported goods to accommodate trends and dishes that our outside of Canadian production.”
In an interview, Hunter said that if they want to stick to local produce, chefs and restaurants need to better consider what they’re serving. “Why fish tacos with fish from Indonesia, pineapple from Hawaii and avocados from Chile?” he said.
Before he became a farmer and cider maker, Hunter managed restaurants in B.C., Alberta and Ottawa for more than a decade. “Menu designs were based around trends,” he said. Sysco was the primary supplier of imported goods, he added, because it offered the best deal. Shopping locally was viewed as “too expensive.”
Hunter said that serving locally grown produce also has health benefits. “A lot of those (imported) goods have been harvested and picked immature so that the quality and nutritional level is extremely low, or they have to be blasted with chemicals to be preserved and then they fall apart within two days,” he said.
But with locally grown items, “those goods will last weeks on end without going bad and the nutritional value is extremely high, which in the end is the point of food, is it actually good for you?” Hunter said.
Ian Carswell, the chef-owner of Black Tartan Kitchen in Carleton Place, says it is possible to rely on local farmers.
He says that one reason why he opened in Carleton Place was to be closer to nearby farms. “We are in our ninth year of business now and our network of local suppliers has grown exponentially,” says Carswell.
“Obviously, tender produce is harder to come by in the winter months, but it just challenges us as chefs to get a bit more creative, or results in a bit more focus on cellared veg, local meats and cheeses,” he says. “If it had to ripen on a truck to survive cross-country transport, was it really the best possible product to use anyway?”
The food purchaser for the National Arts Centre’s 1 Elgin restaurant has always focused on buying Canadian and local, says food and beverage manager Nelson Borges.
“We will continue to look at how we can improve this,” he says. “Most of our proteins, dairy and eggs are purchased from Canada already. Our opportunities are with fresh fruit and vegetables and we will continue to look at Canadian-grown and -produced items when possible.
“We are a Canadian institution and our obligation should be to promote as much of Canada’s food, wines and spirits as possible,” says Borges.
There’s a strong domestic market for alcohol. Some Ottawa restaurants and bars were quick to switch to Canadian booze this month.
Scott May, the owner of Q Bar inside the Queen St. Fare food hall downtown, wrote to his liquor distributors on Feb. 2 to ask for their help in sourcing more Canadian-made products. “We have decided to remove American liquor brands from our shelves and prioritize Canadian-made spirits, wines and beers,” May wrote.
At the NAC’s 1 Elgin restaurant, the wine list’s two American wines were moved, and sales of U.S. bourbon will be discontinued, says Borges.
At Absinthe Cafe in Hintonburg, Sailor Jerry, a spiced rum bottled in the U.S., is out and Newfoundland-bottled Newfoundland Screech is in, says chef-owner Patrick Garland.
“We’ve always been big on Canadian products, so the adjustment isn’t too drastic for us,” says Garland.
Guests are on board, he adds. “There’s definitely a growing interest in eating and drinking Canadian, and people seem keen on embracing more Canadian-made options,” says Garland.
But he and other restaurateurs argue that interprovincial trade barriers need to come down so that they can access great wines made elsewhere in Canada.
Caroline Murphy, the co-owner of Corner Peach in Chinatown cites the example of wines from Domaine Bergeville made in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. “They are an amazing vineyard fairly close by, but with all the added taxes it becomes way too expensive for us to sell their sparkling wine,” says Murphy.
“If Canada could just get rid of the dumb inter-provincial laws about alcohol it would make a world of difference,” says Champagne-Lagarde. “It’s easier for us to get alcohol from the States and Europe than it is from B.C. That’s just ridiculous.”
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