Hoping to squeeze into Canoe this Winterlicious? You’re out of luck (Image: Jen Chan from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)
With the end of Winterlicious in sight, we got curious about how this year’s prix fixe madness was going. “Stronger than last year,” said Pangaea owner Peter Geary, who credits social networking with driving last-minute reservations throughout the festival. “Even last night, you could see people taking photographs of their meals and tweeting,” he told us (apparently phones at the dinner table are no longer a faux pas). The folks over at Canoe also noticed the impact of word of mouth, saying, “As soon as we change our voice message to say we have some availability, the phones go crazy.” While quick-fingered foodies have snapped up all of Canoe’s remaining tables, there’s still hope—the people at Scarpetta, Biff’s and Jump all advised diners to call last-minute, since no-shows are still very much a Winterlicious tradition. We also talked to the 10 restaurants whose menus got the most hits from our list of the 61 best bets to find out whether and when tables are still available.
Every year, some restaurants decide to opt out of the prix fixe madness of Winterlicious and offer their own special menus and bargains outside the strictures of the official program. “We do it to give Winterlicious a bit of competition, to bring people in,” Elle M’a Dit’s Gregory Furstoss told The Dish. “But we don’t have to have the pressure of being under Winterlicious—we don’t have 200 people booked!” Meanwhile, Ross Bonfanti of midtown’s Il Sogno Ristorante launched his winter prix fixe back when it was tough to get into the official festival and now, several years later, feels no need to jump on board. “I have a good thing going,” he told us. After the jump, a roundup of winter prix fixe menus and deals. 
Get those dialing digits ready: Toronto Special Events has just announced the slate of restaurants for Winterlicious 2012. The prix fixe extravaganza has now reached its 10th year, and it’s come such a long way from the winter pick-me-up for 36 Toronto restaurants hoping to draw people out of their homes and into the cold night. This year, 175 restaurants have signed up—up from last year’s 150—and prices have stayed the same: lunch menus will go for $15, $20 or $25, and dinner menus for $25, $35 or $45 (see charts below for a breakdown). The madness kicks off on January 10, when American Express cardholders can start making their reservations. The lines open up to the plebs on January 12, and the menus themselves will be served from January 27 to February 9. Tickets for the associated 
