Smoke's Poutinerie

History

Ryan Smolkin, the founder of Smoke’s Poutinerie, worked alongside Toronto restaurant consultants, The Fifteen Group, when starting out in order to gain experience in the restaurant industry. Alongside the help of The Fifteen Group’s chef, the original gravy recipe was developed.

In Toronto in 2008, its premiere location was the first poutine-exclusive restaurant in that town. Smolkin was inspired by Montreal restaurant La Banquise, which serves many different kinds of poutine. Smolkin frequents La Banquise whenever he visits Montreal.

In 2012, the restaurant had locations across Canada in Toronto, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Oshawa, London, Guelph, Winnipeg, Kingston, Ottawa, Waterloo, Windsor, Mont-Tremblant, Saskatoon, Regina, Fredericton, Halifax, Montreal, Calgary, Moose Jaw, Kelowna, Vancouver and St. John’s and with new franchises in the works in Kingston, Barrie, Edmonton and Whistler.

In December 2014, Smoke's opened a location in Berkeley, California, its first in the United States.

In 2015, the franchise's owners stated that they planned to expand the company internationally and would "open 1,300 restaurants around the world by 2020 devoted mainly to fans of poutine."

In 2016, Smoke'sPoutinerie owned 76 restaurants in Canada and 5 in the United States.

Products

Smoke’s Poutinerie is a poutine-exclusive restaurant and offers more than 20 different types of poutine, as well as the option to mix and match and make your own. A basic poutine is $5.50CAD and includes the traditional dish of fries, gravy, and cheese curds, or a loaded poutine is $9.99CAD with various alternative toppings depending on location. The Poutinerie’s based in Canada use Quebec bacon, and an original, powdered gravy with no MSG.

In 2016, their menu includes three Vegetarian options, and Gluten-free options are suspected in the near future.

Product Expansion

In 2015 and 2016, Smolkin has opened four Burritories and five Wieneries where the companies vision of food toppings that are out of the ordinary continues.

The headquarters located in Ajax, ON was officially converted into a ”three-restaurant food court” including a Poutinerie, Burritorie, and Weinerie.

Poutine Eating Championship

The Annual Smoke’s Poutinerie World Poutine Eating Championship crowns a new champion each year, and in 2016 a world record was broken for poutine eating. The event includes 3 levels of poutine eating including amateur, professional, and Destroyer. Throughout the day Smoke’s Poutinerie provides free poutine all day from 10am-4pm, musical entertainment, games, prizes, and giveaways.

In 2016, the event focused on raising money for the Friends of We Care charity and raised over $50,000 to send disabled children to camp.

Competition

Smoke’s Poutinerie has developed increasing competition from other Canadian Poutineries over the years including Poutini’s House of Poutine which opened its second location in Toronto, ON in 2015, and Poutineville which has 4 restaurants in Quebec and one in Ontario.

Further competition has come from corporate businesses. In 2013, McDonalds expanded it’s poutine product from being only in Quebec, Canada, to the entire country of Canada. In 2012, Wendy’s added poutine to their menu as Canada’s national dish. Since McDonalds and Wendy’s more companies have added poutine to their menus including Burger King, A&W, and New York Fries.

Expansion

Smolkes marketing campaign focuses on “word of mouth and publicity stunts instead of traditional advertising.

By 2020, Smoke’s Poutinerie plans to open 1300 restaurants, 800 in the US, and hundreds more across Western Europe, the Middle East, Australia, and in the Asia-Pacific region. Using master franchise or license agreements, the plan is to expand over 150 stores internationally starting with the Middle East and the U.K. In the US, they will offer multi-unit agreements. Smoke’s Poutinerie has already started on this development by having sold locations to American franchisees.

The company is focusing on opening 725 poutineries internationally at venues such as college and university campuses, sports stadiums, airports, and casinos.