Have you ever spotted this logo in the window of your favourite restaurant and wondered what it means?
Feast On® is North America’s largest local food certification! A Feast On® certification verifies that a business sources their goods and ingredients from Ontario farmers and makers that have ethical and sustainable business practices.
To achieve certification, restaurants work with the Culinary Tourism Alliance team to audit their receipts every year and ensure that a minimum of 25% of their food and drink expenditure goes towards locally-sourced ingredients. For most of our partners, that number is much higher: in 2022, our Feast On® partners averaged an expenditure of 54% on local food and 64% on local drinks, and one restaurant even hit 100% for local drinks and 89% for food!
Need more convincing? Here are five reasons to get out and support your local Feast On® certified restaurants:
Reason #1: You’ll Enjoy Fresher Ingredients and Richer Flavours
If you’ve ever bought a tomato in the middle of January and been disappointed by the bland flavour, you’ll agree — local, in-season food just tastes better. Our Feast On® restaurants strive to use local ingredients in the menus, which means cooking with the seasons whenever possible: asparagus in June, blueberries in September, celeriac in January.
By sourcing from their neighbours and nearby markets, chefs can make better use of the season’s bold flavours and achieve lower costs and environmental repercussions. Win-win!
Reason #2: You’re Encouraging Up-and-Coming Chefs
Dining at a Feast On® restaurant will help you discover a huge array of passionate up-and-coming chefs who are doing exciting things in their communities, like the dynamic duo behind Ricky + Olivia, a new restaurant and bottle shop in the Leslieville neighbourhood of Toronto.
In Timmins, Brianna at Radical Gardens runs the city’s first farm-to-table restaurant on a farm and is renowned for her incredible sandwiches. Chef and Owner Cynthia Peters is doing incredible things at Maison Maitland in Southeastern Ontario. Colleges across the province are training the next generation of Feast On® chefs at restaurants like Bistro ’67 (Durham College, Whitby) and The Chef’s House (George Brown College, Toronto).
What are you waiting for? Go discover the next big thing at a restaurant near you!
Reason #3: You’re Supporting Local Growers and Makers
When you support and eat out at a Feast On® restaurant, you can feel good knowing that you’re supporting farms and purveyors in the area.
With every bite of arancini at SixThirtyNine in Woodstock, you’re supporting the makers at Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese. Pair your chicken from Sideroad Farms with a VQA wine at Down Home by Sumac and Salt and the local farmers will feel the love.
You’ve probably heard this stat making the rounds recently, but it bears repeating: For every dollar spent at a small business, 66 cents on average stays in the local community, as opposed to 37 cents for each dollar spent at a large national chain. When you keep your loonies local, you’re helping the community thrive.
Reason #4: You’re Promoting Creativity and Innovation
Innovation is the name of the game for Feast On® restaurants, which means that there are always lots of cool things for you to see (and taste).
Avling on Toronto’s east side is much more than a brewpub: their 4,000-square-foot rooftop farm produces fresh ingredients that are swiftly taken downstairs to the brewery and kitchen and used in the food and beer. In Orillia, a city north of Barrie, The Common Stove cooks all their locally-sourced meats and vegetables on a wood-fired grill. Feast On® restaurants are constantly pushing the envelope, and every meal at a Feast On® establishment is an opportunity to support their creativity.
Reason #5: You’re Expanding Your Knowledge and Palate
Menus that feature local, seasonal ingredients may occasionally have unfamiliar dishes on offer. If you’ve never heard of a sunchoke, good news — your server will be able to tell you all about it and explain why the sunchokes from Zephyr Organics are the absolute best way to try this ingredient for the first time. If you want to expand your culinary knowledge and palate, Feast On® restaurants are a great place to do so!
Want to train up the next generation of local food lovers? Bring your kids along. Not every Feast On® restaurant is suited for children, but many are, and trying out something new for lunch or dinner is a great opportunity to learn where their food comes from and why supporting local food systems is important.
So go for it! Take them out for a giant pretzel while you enjoy a craft beer and Ontario edamame at Trestle Brewing in Parry Sound, split a pizza while playing air hockey on the table at Graffiti Market in Kitchener, or split an order of poutine waffles at The Breakfast Pig in Sault Ste. Marie. The possibilities are endless and delicious!
Find your next Feast On® meal
Ready to start enjoying the best Ontario-made food and drink? Start browsing Feast On® restaurants and don’t forget to use #FeastOn on social media!
