Fri, July 10, 2009
Fine Dining for the Thrifty: Restaurant Week Comes to Boston in August
Although I’m not a true “foodie,” I do enjoy a good meal. I enjoy saving money, too. Restaurant Week enables me to do both simultaneously. Now in its ninth year in Boston, Restaurant Week offers an opportunity for locals to sample the offerings of pricey restaurants at a discount. Moreover, there are Restaurant Weeks in other cities.
The idea is simple: a group of local higher-end restaurants agree to develop limited fixed-price lunch and dinner menus and serve them during a specified week. The restaurants also agree to use a unified set of promotional prices. The weeks chosen are times when restaurant traffic is typically down anyway, so the restaurants benefit by staying busy at normally-slow times. The restaurants also get a lot of first-time customers during the promotion, since tight-fisted people like me are more likely to try a new restaurant if they’re getting a good deal.
Restaurant Week began in New York City in the early 1990’s; a decade later, Boston-area restaurants decided that doing it here could boost restaurant revenue during normally-sleepy August. The event was so successful that there are now two Boston restaurant weeks, in August and March. Over 200 restaurants participated in the March 2009 event.
During this summer’s Restaurant Week Boston 2009 – expanded to two weeks – restaurants in greater Boston offer fixed-price dinner menus for $30.09 and lunches for $20.09 during August 9-14 & 16-21 (some restaurants will offer the promotional menus over the weekend, but most won’t). While these prices admittedly aren’t cheap, they represent a nice discount over the regular prices of these restaurants. If you check the Restaurant Week Boston® site, it should soon have details, including a restaurant list, sample menus, and reservation links. In principle, American Express holders have the first shot at reservations, but I’ve never had a problem getting a reservation – you just need to plan ahead.
BostonChefs.com offers an “Unofficial Guide to Boston Restaurant Week,” including the ability sign up for an e-mail update when the list of participating restaurants becomes available.
What if you don’t live in Boston or New York City? No problem: there are restaurant week promotions each year in Nantucket, Newport, RI, Long Island, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charlotte, NC, Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, Denver, Orange County, and San Diego. In fact, smaller cities like Portsmouth, NH and Coral Gables, FL, have caught on to the idea as well.
If I missed your area, try googling “restaurant week” and the name of your town – you might be surprised! Keep in mind that Restaurant Week dates vary by locale.
Addendum, July 10th, 4:14 PM: How did I fail to notice Providence, RI’s Restaurant Week? Starting soon, July 15-25. Thanks, EH!
Update, July 15, 2009: Here’s a list of restaurants participating in Restaurant Week.