With the Second World War underway, food rationing was killing sales, and the government was proposing menu price controls. Butter, sugar and beverages were scarce and some restaurants were forced into “Meatless Tuesdays”.

Nine of the country’s foodservice leaders decided to create a unified voice — a national association to speak on behalf of restaurants and their challenges. And so, the Canadian Restaurant Association was born.

The cost of doing business was soaring and restaurants were struggling. Food prices in 1951 were five times the cost they were before wartime. But menu prices had only doubled since that same period.

The Canadian Restaurant Association helped its small business members discover the power of advertising to attract customers and took out its own ads in newspapers across the country to promote the restaurant industry.

With Canada in the grips of Trudeaumania, the Canadian Restaurant Association was over the moon when a news article published in 1968 said the prime minister commended the organization for “contributing greatly to Canada’s growth.”

Continuing its work raising the profile of the country’s restaurants, the association came up with a new slogan in line with the keeping up with the Joneses attitude of the decade: “It’s In to Eat Out.”

With more women entering the workforce, and the invention of VHS and home theatres, takeout food sales began to soar. Now known as the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, Canada’s national restaurant association promoted its members during a national Restaurant Week, reminding Canadians of the “pleasures of dining out.”

The association also ran cooking seminars and other programs to teach restaurant and hotel members how to provide exceptional service.

The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association took note of a new group buying program called Groupex (which it eventually acquired) that gives independent restaurants the buying power of chains.

Meanwhile, the association’s trade show — then known as HostEx — was selling out too quickly, leaving interested exhibitors without floor space, so it purchased the Canadian Food & Beverage Show to feed the need. Together these shows are now the RC Show!

Thanks to a successful cross-country media and letter- writing campaign, the federal government agreed not to eliminate the yearly basic exemption for Canada Pension Plan premiums.

This had a remarkable impact on the industry, saving Canada’s restaurants nearly $200 million over the course of seven years. During this decade, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association also expanded its regional presence, opening offices in Atlantic Canada and Western Canada.

By this decade, Canada’s restaurants were employing more than one million Canadians! Prime Minister Jean Chretien met with the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association to celebrate this milestone.

At the provincial level, the association successfully fought off a sales tax on restaurant meals in Saskatchewan and eventually got British Columbia to reinstate its restaurant meal tax exemption. Regional offices were opened in Quebec and Central Canada.

The 2010s marked a pivotal period for the association, spearheaded by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association’s (CRFA) rebranding to Restaurants Canada. This strategic shift was accompanied by the consolidation of the Food and Beverage Show and Host Ex to what we know today as the Restaurants Canada Show (RC Show)

Restaurants Canada modernized its operations with a new office location on Queen West as well as the introduction of industry research tools like the Outlook Survey, the launch of a new magazine and increased political advocacy with the association’s first Day on the Hill – further positioning Restaurants Canada as the leading voice for the Canadian foodservice sector.

Coming out of a pandemic, we continued supporting restaurants and meeting with key people to discuss the state of the foodservice industry and the financial challenges facing foodservice owners.

We reminded people to dine locally to support their community and offered support to restaurant owners with issues like the CEBA repayment.

The restaurant business is always evolving and so are we. Under the new banner of Restaurants Canada, we are communicating a stronger, unified identity on behalf of our members.

Representing the voice of foodservice, we will continue to ensure our growing community is heard. We look forward to spending another 80 years and more helping our members thrive as the future of foodservice unfolds.