GVCC and Visit Vancouver USA administer ‘Savor the Couve’

The local restaurant pick-up collaboration dinner-for-two series sold out the first week

Courtesy of Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce

The Greater Vancouver Chamber and Visit Vancouver USA are partnering to administer a local restaurant takeout collaboration dinner, offering 100 five-course dinners for two, each Thursday through the end of January 2021. With contributions from restaurants around the area, a variety of local flavors and food vendors will be participating. 

Many Clark County restaurants are leveraging pandemic restrictions to gain exposure to clientele they wouldn’t necessarily reach while supporting local nonprofits at the same time. Savor the Couve is the realization of a collaboration effort first created by the owner of Beaches Restaurant & Bar Mark Matthais and owner of Main Event Sports Grill Jason Fish. During the weekly BBSI Restaurant Roundtable calls with restaurant owners and affiliates in the Greater Vancouver/Portland Metro area, Matthais and Fish suggested that in the current phase of pandemic restrictions, restaurants should prioritize the opportunity to collaborate rather than to compete. 

Savor the Couve will initially run for eight weeks beginning Thursday, Dec. 3 and being offered every consecutive Thursday through Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. Each week, five restaurants will collaborate on 100 five-course dinners for two diners, offered for only $100 an order. Of every order purchased, $25 is donated to nonprofit organizations around the region, rotating weekly. 

“Based on the collaboration dinners we’ve already offered, we are confident we’ll be able to sell out the 100 dinners each week,” Fish said. 

“The nonprofit partners we are working with will be promoting to their benefactors helping to assure each week is a sellout,” Matthais said.

The five courses each week will consist of an adult beverage (beer and/or wine), an appetizer, soup or salad, an entrée with a side, and dessert. The sold out Dec. 3 dinner will feature beverages from Trap Door, appetizer from Little Conejo, entrées with sides will feature Beaches and Main Event, and dessert will come from Bleu Door Bakery. The nonprofit beneficiary week one is the Humane Society for Southwest Washington. 

Visit Vancouver USA and the Greater Vancouver Chamber are providing recruiting, marketing and administrative support to assist with the successful series. 

“This is a time when we all need to work together, and with the current restrictions, this is an important series that can help restaurants and local nonprofits each week,” said Cliff Myers, president/CEO of Visit Vancouver USA.   

“Providing opportunities for local businesses to grow and be more vital, especially in this time of COVID restrictions, is what the Chamber is prioritizing during this time. We are proud to work with an engaged community and look forward to more partnerships and programs like these in the future,” said John McDonagh, president/CEO of the Greater Vancouver Chamber. 

Those interested in ordering dinner through Savor the Couve can go to www.VancouverUSA.com/SavorTheCouve to view the menu and place orders. 

Restaurants and nonprofits looking to collaborate on this series are invited to contact the Chamber at YourChamber@VancouverUSA.com

Joanna Yorke-Payne
Joanna Yorke is the managing editor of the Vancouver Business Journal. She has worked in the journalism field since 2010 after graduating from the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University in Pullman. Yorke worked at The Reflector Newspaper in Battle Ground for six years and then worked at and helped start ClarkCountyToday.com.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.