Concept
Restaurant Day is a worldwide food carnival when anyone can set up a restaurant, café or a bar for a day. It can happen anywhere: at your home, at the office, on a street corner, in your garden or inner courtyard, at a park, or on the beach – only your imagination is the limit.
Facts
Restaurant Day is the world’s biggest food carnival and happens worldwide four times a year. All together over 5300 one-day restaurants by estimated 22 000+ restaurateurs have catered for estimated 560 000+ customers in the past Restaurant Days.
- 21 May 2011: 45 restaurants, 13 cities
- 18 August 2011: 190 restaurants, 30+ cities, 4 countries
- 19 November 2011: 287 restaurants, 40+ cities, 2 countries
- 4 February 2012: 304 restaurants, 50+ cities, 12 countries
- 19 May 2012: 711 restaurants, 90+ cities, 19 countries
- 19 August 2012: 784 restaurants, 100+ cities, 17 countries
- 17 November 2012: 702 restaurants, 130+ cities, 25 countries
- 17 February 2013: 629 restaurants, 130+ cities, 31 countries
- 18 May 2013: 1701 restaurants, 200+ cities, 30 countries
One-day restaurants have so far popped up in 45 different countries including Aruba, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela and USA.
Next Restaurant Days
- 18 August 2013
- 16 November 2013
Awards
- 2011: Finland Prize, award given by Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland
- 2011: Cultural Event of the Year, award given by Helsinki City Library and Cultural Committee
- 2011: Food Phenomenon of the Year, chosen by Gloria Food & Wine magazine
- 2012: Best Event, Best of Helsinki vote by Helsinki City Tourism and Convention Bureau
- 2012: Best Mobile Service in Finland, award given by Teleforum
- 2013: Food Event of the Year in Denmark, chosen by Mat+Medier
Quotes
Restaurant Day is exactly the sort of project that will define our future. Restaurant Day has inspired the city’s population to question how things are run and to experiment and put forward new ideas of how daily life might be improved in the future. — Jussi Pajunen, Mayor of Helsinki (Monocle’s city survey on Helsinki in the May 2012 issue)
Restaurant Day has probably affected Finnish restaurant culture more than anything else since the new alcohol legislation of 1969 when beer was allowed to be sold in supermarkets. — Paavo Arhinmäki, Minister of Education and Culture (The speech for Finland Prize)
Restaurant Day changes Helsinki’s profile by placing the people in the center. Restaurant Day is new and surprising. It is culture by the people for the people. — Anni Sinnemäki, Head of the Library and Cultural Committee, City of Helsinki & Ex-minister of Labour (The speech for Cultural Event of the Year award)
Restaurant Day is a prime example of how food can give birth to a new type of communality.” — Johanna Mäkelä, professor of Food Culture, University of Helsinki (Helsingin Sanomat newspaper Jan 3 2012)
Organization
The real heroes of Restaurant Day are the thousands of fun loving people organizing and visiting amazing one-day restaurants. However, a tight and active group of volunteers is needed to make sure everything runs smoothly in the background. The event is facilitated by an association created by the Restaurant Day team. The members of board are Timo Santala, Kirsti Tuominen, Antti Tuomola and Jyrki Vanamo. Also tightly involved are Tuomas Sarparanta and Kati Tammisto.
Communications
Kirsti Tuominen
kirsti.tuominen@restaurantday.org
+358 50 487 1555
Chairman of the Board (Ravintolapäivä ry)
Timo Santala
timo.santala@restaurantday.org
+358 50 545 6781
Press photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/restaurantday/sets/72157628111804428/
The Restaurant Day photos can be used free of charge only as part of journalistic communication about Restaurant Day and with a single right of publication. All other use must be negotiated separately with the photographer. The photographers name and Restaurant Day MUST be credited alongside the published photo in all cases. The names of the people, the photo captions and the photographer information can be found on the metadata. Photos must not be cropped or edited in any way that might change the main composition of the photo.
In the case of print publication two copies of each magazine or newspaper MUST be sent to Restaurant Day, Mäntymäentie 2, 00250, Helsinki, Finland. In the case of web publication a link to the photos MUST be sent to timo.santala@restaurantday.org.
If these rules of conduct are not fulfilled and these photos are published against this license, a fee of usage of 200€ (+VAT24%) per photo will be billed. These rules of conduct are legally binding and by publishing any of these photos you agree to this licence.
If in doubt whether your intended use is part of journalistic communication, please ask more from our photo coordinator about the license.
Tuomas Sarparanta
tuomas.sarparanta@restaurantday.org
+358 50 500 4651