Since the start of the war in Ukraine, poutine is an emblematic Quebec dish that has caused some setbacks at the Strasbourg restaurant Les Poutinistes, a specialist in this invigorating dish, some seeing it as a game that has become inappropriate with the name of the Russian president.
“It’s surprising what is happening to us,” says AFP Christophe Fliegans, the manager of this case opened in 2019, who estimates that “between 30 and 50%” the drop in its turnover since the start of the conflict.
While take-out sales on delivery platforms of this specialty based on fries, cheese and brown sauce worked well, especially with students, “things changed quite quickly” after the start of the invasion of Ukraine. by Vladimir Putin’s Russia on February 24, 2022, he recalls.
Elsewhere in France, other restaurants offering the same dish, notably in Toulouse and Paris, began “to be heckled”, explains Mr. Fliegans.
“We were insulted”
At first, the Strasbourg Poutinists were only entitled to “a few comments on social networks, nothing more”, continues the restaurateur.
The establishment then decided to add “a Canadian flag emoticon” next to the word “poutine” on the delivery platforms.
But a little later in the year, during events where they offered the famous Quebec dish, things turned sour: “We were insulted several times,” says Mr. Fliegans.
“A guy even told us: ‘You just have to add Hitler to the side'”, recalls the manager, who recognizes that these people constitute “a minority”.
The drop in poutine sales, no doubt accentuated by an inflationary context that encourages consumers to “pay more attention” to their spending, has pushed the restaurant to look for other solutions.
“We launched two months ago bowls of fries with different sauces”, in short, derivatives “of poutine without being poutine”, explains Mr. Fliegans.
“For the moment, it’s going well but it doesn’t have the same impact as poutine”, admits the restaurant owner from Strasbourg, who tries to console himself: poutine existed before Vladimir Poutine and will exist after him, “it’s a certainty”.