Spring 2023 St. Johns Bites
St. Johns Spring Bites
When: April 15th – May 15th
St. Johns Spring Bites also kicks off on April 15th. Just for grabbing your usual beverage or meal at our varied restaurants, cafes, bars, or food trucks, you can win a $50 gift certificate to local shops. All you do is Instagram a photo of your food or beverage and tag the business and #stjohnsbites. You’ll be automatically entered to win one of the three weekly drawings. That’s 12 chances to win!
Whether you’re a regular or have been meaning to try a new local spot, St. Johns Bites is a great time to sample the food and drink right here in our neighborhood. Jumpstart your chances of winning a $50 prize when you circulate during the April 15th Spring Fling, and finish with a bang at the May 13th St. John’s Parade and Bizarre.
Thank you to Venture Portland and Prosper Portland for their ongoing support of our district events.
We can all use a little Spring cheer, so let’s show our local businesses how much we appreciate them.
Fall St. Johns Bites :
September 20th – October 20th at all St. Johns restaurants, bars, coffee shops, food trucks, etc.
Visit a St. Johns food establishment and post a picture of the meal to Instagram. Include the #stjohnsbites hashtag and tag the restaurant in your Instagram post, and you are entered to win a $50 Gift Certificate to that business. Three winners are chosen each week!
St Johns Bites started in 2019 as a passport event to engage our many wonderful restaurants, food trucks, bars, and other food & drink related businesses with the St Johns community. Participants could pick up passports at local businesses and try different specials, and get a passport stamp for each one that they completed. The passports could then be turned in to be entered in a drawing to win a prize. We worked with local artist Alshiref Design to come up with some marketing artwork that was a clever play on his design for our banners. Three lucky winners received gift cards!
With 2020 came the Coronavirus pandemic, and with it new safety precautions that did not allow for indoor dining or any activity that could spread potentially the virus. Our food and drink businesses quickly pivoted to create menus more suited to curbside pickup and delivery. We knew we wanted to support them so we decided to do the event again, but as an online Instagram contest, open to all businesses within our boundaries. Participants just had to post a public Instagram photo showing their food or drink, tag the business and use the hashtag #stjohnsbites.
Because we did not spend money printing passports, we decided to put this money back into the district by purchasing 12 $50 gift cards from the businesses in the winning photos. Another upside of this was that no matter if a photo won or not, the community did some great marketing for the businesses and got to try some new places and share their experiences! The community spirit of support and sharing meals together virtually was truly uplifting.
In 2021 we have committed to doing this event twice, once in April/May, and once in September/October. As the seasons change, it will be fun to see all of the dishes and drinks that our neighborhood has to offer!
We are able to host St. Johns Bites thanks to being a part of Venture Portland’s Catalytic Investment Initiative and sponsors from our membership.
If you are interested in being a sponsor or volunteer for St Johns Bites, email us at info@stjohnsboosters.org.