Hub City Foodies: N.B. man sharing love of local restaurants online

Hub City Foodie highlights N.B. flavours Jason Gallant is on a culinary mission to highlight New Brunswick’s flavours through Hub City Foodie.

When it comes to good food, drinks and all things local, Jason Gallant has all the delicious details.

He has made it his mission to point foodies in the right direction.

“I think Moncton’s quality is we’re too humble as far as people and we’re not out there to brag so I‘m like, ‘I’m going to be the person to go out and brag for you and tell everyone how amazing you are,’” he said.

Gallant launched Hub City Foodies five years ago as a way to promote local restaurants, breweries and wineries.

“I fell in love with cooking myself and started doing pop0-ups at some of these breweries, the wineries and really it’s just to get people out into our amazing city and visit all the amazing restaurants, breweries, and wineries that we have and local shops,” he said.

While it started off small, it’s grown into something much larger over the years.

“We like to collaborate with Hub City Foodies because Jason is a great guy and he puts on amazing events,” said Alan Norman, the owner of Tire Shack Brewing in Moncton.

“Everyone always has such a great time with his events so it was just a no-brainer and a natural fit for us.”

So far, Norman says he’s worked with Hub City Foodies on a number of events, including beer bus tours, which have been extremely successful.

“People seem to really love those. He fills multiple buses with tons of people, brings them all in and everyone has a great time. We give them a bunch of beer and send them on their way. So easy-peasy for us and a great experience for the guests,” he said.

Adding, “the more that we can work with people from the community and be a part of the fabric of it all, that’s really what counts to us and what we find is really important.”

Tire Shack Brewing is just one local spot that Gallant has collaborated with.

“They won the number one brewery in Canada, they still hold that title,” said Gallant.

“We have Black Rabbit Restaurant which was one of the top 35 new restaurants in Canada a few years ago. We’ve had Les Brumes du Coude on the top 100 Canadian restaurants in Canada.”

He says his love for food started recently, about 10 to 15 years ago, when his parents switched from fish sticks and fries and started cooking amazing meals in their own home.

Now he does everything from promoting local spots, to beer and wine bus tours and his own pop-up and private dining events.

“One of the things I love the most is bringing the local experience into one’s home. So that’s taking local ingredients that we have in our city from the markets, from the local grocery stores and making a nice meal for people,” he said.

One of his long term goals is shutting down Main Street in Moncton to host a big foodie event, but for now he’s staying busy.

During the pandemic, his youngest daughter bet him that he couldn’t get 100 followers on TikTok, which took Gallant’s social media career to a whole new platform.

“I started making some silly content. I try to make it super clean and it’s all to try and promote either New Brunswick, Canada or our city as much as I can and making it fun and playful and just for people to see,” he said.

His account is filled with delicious food, fun things to do and several posts flex his funny bone.

“Growing up I always wanted to be a comedian, but I absolutely hate talking in front of people so when TikTok came out I said ‘wow this is great. I can try my little bits’ and all of a sudden it started taking off,” he said.

“I think I have close to 15 million views on my TikTok’s now, which is insane but it’s great because it’s not just in Moncton. It’s getting across Canada and in the U.S. even.”

As for what’s next, Gallant says there are a lot of things coming down the pipe line both short term and long term for Hub City Foodies and, of course, he will continue to promote his love for his home town online.

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