At least two Ottawa restaurant owners say they were happy to remove American wine and liquor from their menus, even before the LCBO started withdrawing those products from the shelves.
On Tuesday, in response to the trade war between the U.S. and Canada, the LCBO said the provincial government had directed it to “cease the purchase of all U.S. products.” The LCBO, which is responsible for $965 million in annual sales of American alcohol, is the primary seller of alcohol to licensed Ontarian businesses, meaning it isn’t just the consumer that will not be able to purchase American booze – restaurants and bars across the province also will be forced to remove American options from their drink lists.
In Ottawa, the owner of Beckta Dining & Wine, Play Food & Wine, and Gezellig posted on Instagram that American wines have been booted off his wine lists, but that it would have happened regardless of the change at the LCBO.
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“We feel very strongly that Canadians need to band together right now and do our part to be able to help our government,” Stephen Beckta said. “Each (of the three restaurants) has a different amount (of American products.) I would say, in total between the three places, maybe 60 products (have been removed,)” Beckta told OBJ on Wednesday.
Beckta, who also operates Curated by Beckta, a curated wine business, said he doesn’t envision the change affecting his businesses in any negative way.
“Most people are very understanding and encouraging of the move. I’m sure (guests) are going to be fine drinking a lovely Canadian rye instead of the bourbon in their old-fashioned for the next little while until the tariff war is over,” he said.
Beckta said his restaurants have always been big supporters of Canadian products, with their best-selling wine being their own private label, Blanc de Beckta.
“We’ve had our own private label of Canadian wines since we opened 22 years ago. Our Blanc de Beckta, which is exclusive to our three places, is done (in partnership with) Cave Spring Cellars in Niagara. We sell through about 1,000 cases a year between the three restaurants and it’s a wonderful product and gets great response from our guests,” Beckta said.
Mike Campbell, general manager and co-owner of Stolen Goods Cocktail Bar on Sparks Street, made the decision to eliminate American products from his drink menus when tariffs were being talked about in February. As of Tuesday, all American ingredients had been removed from both his food and drinks menus, he said.
Campbell told OBJ that he would have made the decision to pull American ingredients for food and drinks regardless of the LCBO’s decision on Tuesday.
Across both menus, Campbell said about 30 ingredients have been removed and replaced with Canadian alternatives.
“Currently, the effect (on business) is the cost of some of our ingredients have gone up, but we’re hoping the benefits of buying Canadian outweigh the difference in cost,” he said.
Though Stolen Goods has always been Canadian at heart, Campbell said that yesterday’s moves by U.S. President Donald Trump solidified that sentiment.
“This was kind of the further push to solidify that this is what we want to do,” he said.
With a menu that changes quarterly, Campbell said the focus will be on finding Canadian alternatives for the American products used before.
“We do change our menu every quarter. Next time around, it’ll be a little easier to start from a base of everything coming from Canada as opposed to, at this point, trying to change things that people already enjoy and want to come back to have,” he said.
While most of his sources of protein, such as pork, chicken or duck, have always been Canadian-sourced, Beckta said he has had to find Canadian alternatives for the few American items on his food menu.
“We’ve always been very locally focused. For the few products that we do have from the States, it’s relatively easy to find alternatives. We have a gem lettuce salad that we used to buy from California and now it’s coming from Spain. Humboldt squid is on our menu, but instead we’ll come up with a great shellfish dish from Canada,” he said.
He said the switch will be relatively easy for smaller restaurants, but larger chains will have a hard time batch-sourcing Canadian alternatives.
“Where it’s more difficult is for chain restaurants that do group purchasing months in advance. If they use American tomatoes or lettuce for pizzas and burgers, it’s going to be a lot tougher for them because they can’t just reach out to a Quebec hydroponic farm for their lettuce,” Beckta said.
Though tariffs may have pushed Campbell to make the switch to all-Canadian, he said the change is here to stay, regardless of what happens with the trade war.
“We will continue this moving forward, indefinitely,” Campbell said.
Beckta said he plans to reinstate American options if the tariffs are revoked, but hopes his current move will inspire more people to support local and Canadian businesses.
“There’s a lot of apprehension right now. People don’t really know what’s going on and I think they’re nervous and so they’d be nervous to spend money. But I think it’s really important right now that we support our local businesses, regardless of the industry, and do whatever you can in order to buy Canadian products, certainly during and hopefully after this,” Beckta said.
He also hopes interprovincial trade relations will improve, allowing businesses to support each other more seamlessly.
“What I’m really hoping that comes out of this is that we have a much more resilient economy by removing the interprovincial trade barriers. I’d love to have more B.C. wine on our list, or Nova Scotia wine, or even Quebec wine – products from all over the country. I really hope that we, as Canadians, take this opportunity to reinvestigate and lower or remove our interprovincial trade barriers to be able to help all of our businesses and consumers,” he said.
