The festival and tourists revived Grande Alley

The Saturday and Sunday exhibitions of the Festival d’Te de Quebec (FEQ) sell out, mostly to local tourists, but also keep restaurants in Grande Alley Rolling ‘from Ontario.

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“The festival has brought people, but we can see that there have been a lot of tourists since June 24. A lot of people from Montreal and the region,” said Stefan Lapoint, restaurant manager at Retisserie Saint-Hubert Grande Alley, east and west.

“It looks like tourists have occupied the city of Quebec, you can experience it,” he said, adding that at least a third of his customers these days are from Ontario.

If international visitors are not at Rendezvous, Ontarians have been on the rise in recent weeks, confirm other restaurant owners.

“Since they reopened the border, we have a lot of English speakers. It’s fun and it’s nice to see tourists in town again, ”said Philippe Desrociers, owner of L’Inox Brewery.

Climate and atmosphere

This year, the Armory Festival will accommodate 500 people for the show. “Our tickets quickly found buyers in first and second sales,” said Samantha McKinley, communications director for FEQ.

“There are more and more people day by day from the Summer Festival,” said Alexander Morillon-Lowesque of Fight El Restaurant.

“For me, this is another exhibition hall,” said Stefan Lapoint, who is uncertain about the impact on attendance.

On Saturday evening, Saint-Hubert was packed: twenty customers had already gone to see the show. Even on Sundays, those who go to the festival are among the customers if not the majority.

According to Mr Lapoint, most customers, above all, go to Grande Alley for a festive or not atmosphere.

“Things are definitely moving, and temperature has anything to do with it,” noted Normandy Dowsset, owner of Tobagi Grande-Alley.

“When the weather is good, there are people,” he told Abdel Mellouki, the owner of Al Wadi Restaurant. “On weekends, we think there are more people than usual. The week has been quiet so far. “

Like other restaurants he has met, he believes FEQ’s limited principle will have little effect on traffic.

The staff wanted

However, everyone pointed out the headache of staff shortages, which were exacerbated by the emergency financial assistance paid during the epidemic.

While they usually receive resumes from teenagers and students during the summer, the latter they are very rare.