Runaway Picnic Pop-up Offers Designer-Curated Escape
July 12, 2021
Think of fine cutlery, china and crystal set atop a linen-clad table adorned with cushions and set in a park, on the beach or in a quiet forest clearing. The food and drink would be whatever your appetite desires, produced locally by chefs from across the city.
This was the idea of Juwana Abu-Zeinah, a graduate of Algonquin’s Bachelor of Interior Design Program and former faculty member, who operates Runaway Picnic in addition to her full-time job as an interior architect. She will be making a virtual return to the College on Thursday, July 15 to talk all things ‘tablescaping’ as one of the vendors during the annual Summer Market event.
Runaway Picnic began when Abu-Zeinah found the pandemic taking a toll on her mental health. She couldn’t see friends or colleagues. She was “feeling the absence” of social connection and wanted an escape.
“Because everything was closed, I asked ‘what do you do for joy?’” said Abu-Zeinah. “I really felt passionate about helping people with their mental health and surviving the pandemic.”
She booked a rare holiday at a cottage away from the city, and then started thinking about how nice it would be to prepare a full-scale picnic for her family, like an intimate wedding reception set outside. The family picnic was a hit and she began hosting more elaborate, themed picnics back home. The public spotted her picnics and started to suggest it might make a great business.
“Eventually I felt like Ottawa truly deserves something like this. There was nothing in the market like it,” said Abu-Zeinah, whose full-time job involves designing the interior of the Algonquin College Students’ Association new Jack Doyle Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC).
“I pulled some strings and I launched the business as something I do on the side, mostly on the weekends. So far it's been very good and I'm happy because I'm spreading joy. This is like more of a social project to me than anything else.”
You can think of Runaway Picnic, billed as Ottawa’s first luxury pop-up picnic, as many businesses rolled into one. It’s a mobile restaurant, event planning, local tourism and rental business, and no request is too elaborate or too intimate.
“The sky is the limit. My goal is to bring that connection back to you and your loved ones. Whether it's friends, whether it's a boyfriend or girlfriend, or just family members,” she said, adding she sources her food from local restaurants and her team can fulfill almost any menu wish.
Clients have included a boyfriend going all out to surprise his girlfriend with a luxurious picnic that required an entire park setting to be reimagined, to a daughter customizing a 50th birthday party picnic for her father with an enchanted forest theme.
“My only enemy is the rain,” said Abu-Zeinah, who runs the business year-round, and has set up picnics in the snow for clients.
To register for the Summer Market’s slate of events, including Abu-Zeinah’s ‘Tablescape with a Pro’ session, please check the link here