Edmonton’s Downtown Dining Week kicks off Wednesday. With spring being a typically slow time for the hospitality industry, one restaurant in the downtown core hopes the annual event will help businesses get through the season and into summer.

Since 2018, Campio Brewing has served pints and pizza, noticing a slowdown during the spring, they’ve been relying on lunch crowds and Oilers game days to fill seats.

“The restaurant business is a tough industry. We’re also a brewery as well, so there’s a number of different challenges that we go through. But again, we just focus on our commitment to quality, consistency, and taking care of our people,” said Michael Paruby, the general manager of Downtown Campio Brewing Co.

Downtown Campio Brewing Co. (Leo Cruzat, CityNews)

But Edmonton’s downtown also deals with a sometimes negative perception.

Over on Whyte Avenue, some Edmontonians tell me they are still skeptical about the core.

“I find Whyte Ave is very walkable, yeah, I find you almost need a car if you’re going downtown, that’s what I’m finding,” said Laura, an Edmontonian CityNews spoke to.

Teresa Yu, another Edmontonian, said, “Parking is definitely my number one reason why I’m not over there. So if there’s more free parking, or like cheaper parking, or just lots where I could easily find parking that’s not charging me a lot of money.”

Customers in the Downtown Campio Brewing Co. (Leo Cruzat, CityNews)

But the Downtown Business Association says there is no shortage of parking in downtown, with 45 thousand across the core and Campio having its own lot, saying this is the perfect time to come and see how downtown has changed in recent years, particularly with the increase of office workers since the province forced employees back to the office.

“You know, over 800,000 unique visitors in 2025 to downtown. You know, so there are still a lot of people coming downtown. I think the narrative is that downtown is dead, but that is just not the case,” said Quinn Phillips, a spokesperson for the Edmonton Downtown Business Association.

Last year, participating restaurants saw anywhere from a 14 to 80 per cent increase in sales.

Drinks in the Downtown Campio Brewing Co. (Leo Cruzat, CityNews)

“A lot of people still don’t know about our food program. Any opportunity that we can showcase that to the community is always something we’re really excited to do,” said Paruby.

Campio is one of the 68 restaurants at the 12-day event, compared to 74 last year.