We’re in the in-between season now where we’re not quite hyped up for spring, but totally done with winter and it can difficult to drag ourselves out of hibernation. Well, is anyone up for a game of cards?
The Dartmouth-born great idea, Local Dine Deck is a card game where you’re guaranteed to win...discounts on food. It's the brainchild of marketing maven Ian Henman, who helps "small businesses beat up on chains" through his company Elevatz Marketing. He loves local food almost as much as he loves small, indie businesses—Henman's part of three local CSAs, for starters—and wanted a way to work with local restaurants. "But I couldn't really help put more bums in seats," he says. "I wanted a way to help out these smaller restaurants and put more people in them, people that will hopefully come back." So, inspired by a woman he met from Salem, Massachusetts, and her local food discount game Dinner Dealer, he started the Local Dine Deck.
Shuffle this stack of 49 sweet deals (valued at $300, sold for $20, with 10 percent of proceeds going to local food banks) and you’ll find cards that’ll point you to a local resto, offering either $5 off a meal worth $20 or more or $10 off a meal $30 or more, and a couple of wild cards for good measure. The list of participating restaurants is long and varied (from Dharma Sushi to Brooklyn Warehouse to Flipburger to Wild Leek and nearly everywhere between) meaning you’ll have enough random nights out to last until next year. Can’t pin down your craving? Pick a card, any card.
"A lot of people are excited about it because it will get them to get out and try new places," says Margo McGregor, Local Dine Deck's operations manager. "It eliminates having to make a decision, or going back to an old routine."
You can get a Dine Deck online for now, and soon they’ll be popping up at retailers across the HRM.
