Dig in downtown Restaurants fired up for new food festival By: Eva Wasney Posted: 5:19 PM CST Tuesday, Mar. 3, 2026

Winnipeg has a new food festival on the menu.

The inaugural Dine and Discover Downtown, hosted by the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, runs from March 11 to 22 with 31 neighbourhood restaurants participating.

Kate Fenske, CEO of the BIZ, was enjoying a meal of popcorn shrimp at Capital Grill & Bar on Broadway when the restaurant’s owner, chef Wayne Martin, pitched her on the idea of a food festival focused on Winnipeg’s central neighbourhood.

The pandemic was lingering at the time and local eateries were suffering from a lack of foot traffic.

“He had this idea: how do we encourage community and make this about championing all downtown restaurants?” Fenske says.

Martin was inspired by downtown dining events in bigger cities, such as Toronto and Vancouver, where he cooked prior to opening Capital in Winnipeg.

“It was well received in those places, so I thought, why not try it here. It’s taken four years to finally come to fruition and I’m really excited about it,” Martin says.

“It’s taken four years to finally come to fruition and I’m really excited about it.”

Dine and Discover Downtown includes restaurants, cafés and bars scattered between The Forks, the Exchange District and Assiniboine Avenue. During the 12-day festival, participating eateries will serve special meals and signature menu items at a discounted price, ranging from $15 to $60.

At Capital, Martin is serving a three-course prix fixe menu for $60 with soup or salad and an entree of either braised beef short rib, pan roasted salmon or roasted mushroom risotto. Diners can choose between a dark chocolate tart or a sticky toffee pudding for dessert.

The event lands in March to avoid the Valentine’s Day rush and to work around Winnipeg’s already packed annual food and drink festival calendar.

Unlike other fests, participation is free for restaurants and there’s no element of competition.

“It’s something positive; lots of restaurants aren’t very busy during the winter season when it’s cold out, especially downtown,” Martin says. “And the best part is it brings people downtown and helps them realize, hey it’s not as bad as people think it is.

“I’ve been here seven years and I enjoy it — I like being downtown.”

Lily Zhao, owner of Poké Mono, is excited to meet other downtown restaurateurs.

“I want to connect with the community because as a newcomer it can be hard to do. I think this is a good start,” Zhao says of participating in Dine and Discover.

She’s also looking forward to attracting new customers. Zhao opened Poké Mono, a counter-service eatery serving Hawaiian-style poke bowls, on Edmonton Street in 2020, two weeks before the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Manitoba.

“I want to connect with the community because as a newcomer it can be hard to do. I think this is a good start.”

“We survived and we’re so grateful for everyone who supported us,” says Zhao, who has since opened two more locations in Southdale and Garden City.

“We get a lot of new customers, but downtown is a huge community and there’s still a lot of people who haven’t tried it yet.”

Poké Mono will be selling salmon or tuna bowls with sparkling water for $15 during the event.

Hosting a food festival is a first for Downtown BIZ and Fenske says the event is part of the organization’s new three-year strategic plan, which follows a year of major neighbourhood transformations, including the reopening of Portage and Main to pedestrians and the redevelopment of Portage Place.

Other new initiatives include art and music in the city’s skywalks and Downtown’s Got Talent, a showcase of Manitoba musicians and performers coming later this year.

“How do we work together to create the neighbourhood that we all want, that Winnipeggers can be proud of? Because downtowns are how cities are judged,” Fenske says.

“We know we have a lot of work to do, we know there’s challenges, but there’s such a great community here, there’s lots of optimism.”

Visit downtownwinnipegbiz.com for more information about Dine and Discover Downtown.

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