The Edmonton Oilers\u2019 recent Stanley Cup run was an economic boost for the city \u2014 helping to fill restaurants near the arena and even some beyond \u2014 but the disappointing end to the season has also come with a slump for those dining rooms since.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe honestly make all of our money during (the playoffs). It is a big benefit, not only for the company as a whole, but also for staff,\u201d said Catherine Lesiuk, manager at Buco in Epcor Tower.<\/p>\n
Lesiuk said the playoffs kept the restaurant busy for weeks but, in the month since, it\u2019s been slow. Some of the concerts and events that have come through helped, but didn\u2019t spur as much activity as the restaurant hoped for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just preparing for the hockey season to come,\u201d said Lesiuk.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been more than one month since the Edmonton Oilers played in the Stanley Cup Final. Despite recently released data from May<\/a> indicating strong food and beverage industry activity, local restaurants reported a slow summer for business lately.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Oilers had an amazing playoff run, and that\u2019s great for a very small portion of the restaurant community, but there\u2019s a very large portion of the restaurant community that isn\u2019t in the immediate downtown core and actually suffers because they\u2019re not focused around playoff hockey,\u201d said Paul Shufelt, chef and proprietor of Woodshed Burgers and other local restaurants in the city.<\/p>\n Restaurateurs flagged similar concerns as the Oilers climbed higher into the playoffs, predicting a possible playoff \u201changover<\/a>\u201d that would curb local spending after the games were finished.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen some of that for sure \u2014 that sort of hangover. If it\u2019s $2,000 to go buy a Stanley Cup Final ticket, you spent all your fun money, and don\u2019t have those dollars to be going out and having a nice dinner, celebrating a special occasion,\u201d said Shufelt.<\/p>\n Apart from Woodshed, Shufelt is also behind other restaurants such as Hayloft, The Workshop and the Greenhouse, none of which are near Rogers Place. He said despite the city\u2019s talk about the economic impact of the playoffs<\/a>, he found himself questioning where that money went.<\/p>\n \u201cYou hear these numbers (that it) brought $250 million to the community. Well, where did that money go? Because it didn\u2019t land in restaurants and bars that were not all about the Oilers.\u201d<\/p>\n Having recently examined the activity in the restaurant and bar scene for the first five months of the year, Siddhartha Bhattacharya, senior economist with ATB, said activity in the industry looked strong compared to last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing kind of a pick up in the sales for food services and drinking establishments in Alberta, especially since March,\u201d said Bhattacharya, with restaurant sales up 5.2 per cent over the same period last year.<\/p>\n He attributed the positive outlook to a few things \u2014 population growth, renewed emphasis on spending locally, and a rise in travellers from the United States. The data also includes the first two months of the Oilers playoffs, and its accompanying effect on the food and beverage industry in Edmonton. While the industry might have looked good on paper up until May, Edmonton restaurants say that strength didn\u2019t persist.<\/p>\n Shufelt said he\u2019s noticed that sales are \u201cflat, if not down,\u201d for his eateries, but noted that private bookings have seen an uptick, which gives him some optimism. Lesiuk echoed Shufelt\u2019s observation, saying that except for lunchtime rushes from businesspeople in the surrounding offices, the eatery has been similarly quiet throughout the summer.<\/p>\n Bhattacharya said the reasons for the dip in activity observed by both restaurants could be a reflection of consumers tightening their economic belts after prolonged inflation hikes and higher interest rates, which could deter them from wanting to dine out. He also pointed to elevated travel to Banff and Jasper, noting that the restaurant activity could also be reduced because Edmontonians are travelling elsewhere.<\/p>\n Shufelt also said\u00a0 the weather has also literally put a damper on patios throughout the city because Edmonton has had more than 25 days of rain in the past two months.<\/p>\n \u201cI could probably count on one hand the amount of days we\u2019ve had the patio set up where it\u2019s actually been buzzing and busy. And we\u2019re two-thirds of the way through the summer at this point,\u201d said Shufelt.<\/p>\n Jumping from rain to cold to occasional smoke, Shufelt said this year\u2019s patio season has been mired by unpredictability.<\/p>\n Restaurants near the arena can take solace knowing that Rogers Place will host Tate McRae and Creed, which could help spending in the area. For restaurants outside of Downtown, Bhattacharya pointed to strong population growth in the province, even despite immigration changes, which he said can help bolster the customer base over the coming months.<\/p>\n zdelaney@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism:\u00a0Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add\u00a0EdmontonJournal.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0EdmontonSun.com<\/a>\u00a0to your bookmarks and\u00a0sign up for our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today:\u00a0The Edmonton Journal<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0The Edmonton Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers\u2019 recent Stanley Cup run was an economic boost for the city \u2014 helping to fill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[25058,198,146,5300,25060,5,4,24,25057,1901,3591,25059,4302],"class_list":{"0":"post-142356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-catherine-lesiuk","9":"tag-edmonton","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-edmontonoilers","12":"tag-food-and-beverage-industry","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-oilers","16":"tag-paul-shufelt","17":"tag-restaurant","18":"tag-rogers-place","19":"tag-siddhartha-bhattacharya","20":"tag-stanley-cup-final"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114939565641193942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}