Festivals add sizzle to local restaurants

It's like a defibrillator, reviving restaurants in the flatlin-ing months of January and February.

Dine Out Vancouver Festival, now in its 10th year, begins Fri-day and runs to Feb. 5. Restaurants will be offering three-course menus for $18, $28 and $38.

Participating restaurants must be members of Tourism Vancouver (costs between $500 to $600 a year) and pay a $125 to $300 Dine Out Vancouver fee (depending on when restaurants sign up). This year, there are 232 restaurants on board.

"Weekends at some of the participating restaurants are already booked up," says Lucas Pavan, Dine Out Vancouver coordinator for Tourism Vancouver.

Each year, the number of Dine Out events grows. This year, there's something for street-food fans. Street Food City will be a food cart and truck roundup on the north plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery on Jan. 24, 25 and 26. "Some of them will have discounts, some will have free items and some will have surprise offerings," says Pavan. Nine food trucks and carts will be there from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

As well, the festival includes cooking and mixology classes (includes dim sum, izakaya, Hawaiian food and cocktails) and culinary tours. It also features events such as an after-hours dinner at Granville Island Public Market and pop-up meals such as a nose-to-tail communal dinner at Save-On-Meats and dinner in a commercial catering kitchen.

When Dine Out Vancouver began in 2003, 57 restaurants joined. This year saw the biggest jump in participating restaurants, says Pavan. All restaurants, menus, and events are listed on the Tourism Vancouver website (www.tourismvancouver.com/ dov).

Dine Out partners with hotels that offer discounted packages. "It drives the festival as a destination event," says Pavan.

Last year Open Table, the online reservation service, logged some 17,598 bookings for Dine Out Vancouver member restaurants. "That doesn't include walk-ins and phone-ins," says Pavan.

A new, parallel east Vancouver festival is being launched this year. Feast Van is smaller scale, with a charitable component. It takes place over the same period as Dine Out Vancouver but participants are located on the east side. Three-course meals will be $20 for lunch and $30 for dinner, and some will offer "deluxe" menus for $5 more.

Feast Van (www.feastvan.com) founder Joe Chaput says a portion of sales will be donated to Vancouver Inner City Backpack Food. "We wanted to do some-thing to give back to the community and at the same time, try to generate business in a quiet time of year," says Chaput, owner of Au Petit Chavignol.

"We want to generate some money for a good cause."

Vancouver Inner City Backpack Food is a food program for school-children. "You want kids to do well in school. When they're hungry, they're not concentrating," says Chaput. "The charity puts food in backpacks to keep them nourished." A dollar from each Feast Van prix fixe meal will go to the food program.

Ten restaurants have signed up in this inaugural year. They are Au Petit Chavignol, Cafeteria, Cam-pagnolo Roma, Founders Lounge, Fray, Les Faux Bourgeois, The Red Wagon, Two Chefs And A Table, Vancouver Alpen Club and The Waldorf. Also, cheese purveyor Les Amis du Fromage and R&B Brewing Co. will donate a portion of sales of one of their products.

Next year, Chaput says, the event will go bigger.

Blog: vancouversun.com/miastainsby Twitter: @miastainsby VANCOUVER SUN RESTAURANT GUIDE: vancouversun.com/restaurantguide