What’s behind the Christchurch Food Chase?
On the 24th August, we launched a little venture that we hoped would bring about a positive impact on our city: The Christchurch Food Chase.
The Food Chase is Canterbury’s answer to a local dish competition: 27 establishments have created to-die for dishes and, in many cases, paired them with a beverage. Having made it our mission to taste as many as possible over the past week, we can confirm, our city is delivering the goods.
I’ve had a number of people ask about the concept — from the flattering comparison to Wellington On A Plate, to the question of what led us to set it up.
The idea was one that was borne in the Narrative office a couple of years ago — when hospitality was still in the process of emerging in pockets across the city and it truly could feel quite disconnected. While the sense of opportunity of strong, as a small start-up ourselves, it was hard to justify whether we had the skills and bandwidth to pull this off internally.
Fast-forward to January 2018; in amongst the Buskers’ furore, we once again kicked around the idea of a need for some energy and pizazz. We reached out to some potential partners, didn’t get very far, and, once again, the concept went back on the shelf.
However, with the onset of June (remember that month that you saw less than 20 hours of sunshine in 30 days?), shit started to feel a bit bleaker than usual. Both literally and metaphorically. Firmly deciding that that ‘feeling’ isn’t reflective of the city that we choose to live and work in, we decided to pick the idea back up (yes, my team were slightly nervous about the lead-time).
With no confirmed external funding and our slightly audacious request to the restaurants to help us create this ‘thing’, we were selling a pipeline dream. We held a number of “go, don’t go” conversations; we played with the numbers and we looked at what needed to happen for this to work.
For us, it boiled down to the fact that even if a couple of restaurants had a slightly better fortnight, and local patrons were encouraged to try an establishment that they hadn’t ventured to before, the Christchurch Food Chase would be worth running.
Luckily, 27 restaurants later and with the help of a contribution from the Williams Corporation, we were able to launch on Friday, 24th August.
There’s a lot of concerned whispers about central city Christchurch at the moment: rentals, tenancies, transport, hospitality. And, we would say, yes, there are some challenges on the horizon. Personally, however, my concern is that the big-picture thinking and creativity that we saw post-quake is slowly being edged out by red tape.
Our challenge is to look for opportunities: as a city, we love great food & wine, and the Christchurch Food Chase has been a labour of love to help encourage more patronage and more support.
So — yes. Is the Christchurch Food Chase a tiny, MVP, version of WOAP? Sure (incidentally, they also had 27 restaurants on board when they first launched ten years ago #funfact). But, for us, it’s also about finding a chance to contribute to the type of city that we want Christchurch to be — and making that happen.
The Christchurch Food Chase is Canterbury’s answer to a local dish competition between participating restaurants and cafes: over 16 days, 27 establishments will have specially-created ‘Food Chase’ meals on offer.
There’s just a few days left to get involved — Christchurch, you’re invited to get out and try as many of the Food Chase Dishes as you possibly can — and rate each one. Head to http://christchurchfoodchase.com for more information.
Instagram: @christchurchfoodchase
Facebook: facebook.com/christchurchfoodchase