Fred Soofi was deeply discouraged when he saw a trade rift open between B.C. and Alberta, its neighbour to the east.
“Generally I always like peace, I don’t like war,” he told Global News.
Alberta said it would boycott B.C. wine after the province said it would look at limiting increased shipments of bitumen. All of this came amid the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, which would traverse B.C.
Coverage of the B.C.-Alberta wine war on Globalnews.ca:
Soofi, a restaurateur behind Coquitlam’s Pasta Polo and Club Ilia at Simon Fraser University (SFU), isn’t out to hurt Alberta.
But he is taking action to show solidarity with B.C.’s wine industry. And to that end, Soofi is serving only B.C. wine at his restaurants.
“We are producing really great wine in B.C.,” he said.
“So why not use them, that will change clients’ tastes too.”
Soofi said he wants to educate people on how to support B.C.
Club Ilia is located in an area frequented by students.
“I want to educate them how you can protect your province, how you can love B.C., maybe a type of message to students in this society,” he said.
READ MORE: Quebec activists buy up B.C. wine in ‘solidarity’ with the West Coast
And he hopes that other restaurants follow his lead.
“If they do that, I believe we can upset what Alberta is doing to B.C. wine, because we have so many restaurants,” Soofi said.
“I think that is going to have a huge effect on wineries, which would be great support for them in B.C.”
Robert, a Club Ilia customer from Alberta, supported Soofi’s action.
“As a business owner in the province, you have to support your province,” he said.
And Soofi may be making a very prudent business decision, if White Spot’s experience is anything to go by.
The restaurant chain brought in a wine menu with product exclusively from B.C. six years ago, and it has “never looked back,” said Cathy Tostenson, vice-president of marketing and menu development.
READ MORE: B.C. government announces April will be ‘B.C. wine month’
“We had a few guests perhaps that were missing a California wine,” she told Global News.
“But 99.9 per cent of our guests were so supportive, and we have seen really healthy increases every year in our wine sales.”
Those increases are in the double digits, she said.