Diners in Prince Albert showed great support during PA Poutine Week 2025 for Big Brothers Big Sisters youth mentoring programs.
A total of 1,428 poutines were sold across the city with $4 from each one sold going to charity, to help build life-changing mentoring relationships. Venice House on Central, a new entrant into this year’s Poutine Week, dished out a Potato Skin Poutine that got plenty of love during the week-long event. The restaurant ended up winning the Gravy Bowl for most poutines sold, and the Poutine Choice Award for most social media shares. The Trophies were presented on Thursday “It was a lot of fun,” said Venice House Manager Katie Yannacoulias. “The staff had a lot of fun challenging themselves and everybody got to work together for a great cause and even the customers coming in, everybody was willing to help out and we just had a lot of fun doing it.
Venice House sold 298 poutines to win their first Gravy Bowl Championship, plus and 8 passes to Prince Albert Xscapes. Their Poutine Choice Award also netted the staff 10 passes to Galaxy Cinemas.
To help boost sales, the Venice House staff held their own internal competition during the week.
“The staff is pretty competitive here, so they had a lot of fun challenging themselves to sell the poutine,” Yannacoulias said with a laugh. “They knew it was for a really good cause, so that also really helps.
Yannacoulias is a former volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters, so she was happy to support the week-long event too.
“When we saw that email (invitation) I knew that we were going to help, for sure,” she said.
Thomson, Development Coordinator at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Prince Albert said in a press release. “We want to thank Venice House for their hard work, but also want to acknowledge the contribution of every single restaurant who participated in making this event a success.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters Development Coordinator Natasha Thomson was on hand to present the trophies and passes. Thomson said the organization was grateful for the support from Venice House.
“We were happy to come in this year for the first time, and they really did great,” she said. Original Joe’s came very close to winning the Gravy Bowl this year with 267 poutines sold and popular Lulu’s Kitchen sold 208 poutines to come in third. The PAGCC Rock & Iron sold 156 poutines, and Boston Pizza sold 130 to round out the top five.
There were 11 Prince Albert restaurants that participated in the event. Together, they raised $5,712 for Big Brothers Big Sisters. The funds will help the organization recruit, train and support volunteers to mentor youths in the community who face adversities, helping them gain skills, build confidence and improve their mental health & wellbeing.
“It just warms our heart to see so much community support for this event. It’s a wonderful event and it’s really going to help us,” Thomson said.
–with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald
