Restaurants taste success in public vote
FOUR Stratford-upon-Avon restaurants are celebrating after being voted tops during the recent Stratford Town Centre Food Festival.
The four — La Marina Tapas Bar and Restaurant, Carluccio’s, Wildwood Kitchen and The Stratford Hotel — each won one of four Taste Trails that ran over the three-day event in late September.
Hundreds of festival-goers snapped up tickets for the popular trails, taking advantage of the chance to sample tasty treats from more than 30 restaurants, cafés, bars and pubs across the town.
Members of the public voted for their favourite venue from each trail. Antal Viszmeg, manager of Wildwood Kitchen, said: “The taste trail helped bring in lots of new customers, people who had never been to the restaurant before. It was a great way of getting our name out there.”
Steve Bradshaw, owner of La Marina Tapas Bar and Restaurant, said: “It went really well, we had an awful lot of people come in and the feedback was excellent. Since then we have already had bookings from it. Even on the Saturday night we had bookings from people who had been on the trail.”
Barrie Thomas, general manager of The Stratford hotel, said: “It was really good, we had a lot of people through our doors and their feedback was great.”
Carluccio’s manager, Jen Julian, said: “Taking part in the food trail was a great experience to share our love of food with so many people!”
The Taste Trails were just one highlight of the festival, which attracted more than 80,000 people to the town.
It was organised by Stratforward BID (Business Improvement District) in association with market operator Groupe Geraud and showcased Stratford as one of the region’s premier food and leisure destinations.
The festival included free demonstrations from Stratford’s own culinary talent as well as celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, plus workshops and the chance to sample food from more than 100 stalls lining Waterside, Bridge Street and Henley Street, and various markets including the local producers’ area.