Food lovers in the Clark County area can once again experience a variety of Vancouver-area restaurants at a special price during the entire month of October as Dine the Couve returns for its sixth year. Participating restaurants throughout Vancouver will offer “3 for $20” or “3 for $30” menus.
“Six years ago when the program was started, a main goal was to bring Vancouver forward as a dining destination,” said Visit Vancouver USA Director of Marketing Erica Lindemann, in a news release. “For the past couple of years, the goal of supporting our local restaurants and helping bring new and returning customers in to keep their doors open as emerged as a priority.”
Lindemann said there will be a few new features to this year’s Dine the Couve, the first one being the Dine the Couve Restaurant Pass. Lindemann said they decided to do a pass this year because it is a really central and mobile-friendly place to host all of the information, and she said the passes have proven to be easy to use for customers. Visit Vancouver has done a Retail Pass and an Outdoor Summer Spots Pass that Lindemann said were both pretty successful.
“While we send out pre- and post-surveys to get restaurant feedback in order to adapt the dining program from year to year, we think the pass will also help us attain statistics that we haven’t been able to track in the past,” Lindemann said. “We will still host all the participating restaurants and their special menus on our website, so people don’t have to use the pass if they don’t want to, but I think we’ll still be able to gain some knowledge from those that do sign up for the pass and make check-ins.”
So, how will the pass work? Restaurant goers can sign up on Visit Vancouver’s Dine the Couve webpage for free. They will then receive a text and an email with a link to the pass, and it can easily be added as an icon on their phone’s home screen, so it can be referenced whenever needed. Participants can then find categorized lists of the participating restaurants; click on a restaurant to find their contact info and special “3 for $20” or $3 for $30” menus. When ordering from a Dine the Couve menu, those using the pass can find the restaurant’s unique pin number on their Dine the Couve table cards – or ask a server – and enter it into the pass. Order from five Dine the Couve menus – and enter the five pin numbers into the pass – throughout the month to be entered to win a $100 gift card to the participating restaurant of our choice.
Another change to this year’s Dine the Couve are the price points.
“Not only are the actual prices different than years past, but we are offering two price points,” Lindemann said. “This is based on restaurant survey feedback, and the pass will allow us to keep these categories organized. Our hope is that by offering two price points, a larger variety of restaurants will be able to participate and the program won’t exclude as many restaurants that have wanted to participate in the past. We know that we will never be able to align the program with every restaurant’s business model, but we do the best we can to make the program approachable for most restaurants, cafés, breweries, etc.”
Something that was new last year to Dine the Couve because of the pandemic was that some participating restaurants offered their Dine the Couve specials as take-out as well. This year, the Dine the Couve webpage will again list which restaurants offer their Dine the Couve menu to-go.
With 32 restaurants signed up to participate in this year’s Dine the Couve, Lindemann said they are right around where they have been hovering for the past three years.
“The number is slightly less because of restaurant closures during the pandemic (some that have participated every year are no longer operating, like Vancouver Pizza Company and Eatery at the Grant House) and a handful of restaurants have declined due to staffing and supply shortages,” Lindemann said. “Ultimately we want this program to help local restaurants, so if it doesn’t do that we totally understand and respect that that can change from year to year, too.”
Newcomers to this year’s Dine the Couve include Auto’s Pub, Brian Carter Cellars, Be Well Juice Bar, Hidden House Market, and The Heavy Metal Pizza & Brewing Company. Also joining Dine the Couve this year are several newly opened eateries, including The Sedgwick, Mav’s Taphouse and Kafiex Roasters’ Gastro Café.
To view the entire list of restaurants that are participating in this year’s Dine the Couve, visit the Dine the Couve webpage.
