Bargains on the menu - and a side of jitters
Restaurant Week is now bigger than ever, but will it be enough to draw out the diners?
Boston's winter Restaurant Week kicks off tomorrow, and frugal diners are not the only ones looking forward to the event. Restaurants, hungry for business, have signed on in record numbers this season: 224 establishments are participating, up from 176 last winter.
The semiannual promotion, offering three-course lunches this season for $20.09 and dinners for $33.09, has been an effective way to draw customers in the past and, restaurateurs hope, to persuade people trying a place for the first time to return.
But there are concerns that Restaurant Week won't be as well attended this time. Restaurant business is down in general. To stay afloat in this economy, many establishments have already introduced deals that are comparable to Restaurant Week prices. And increasingly, people just don't have the money to spend.
Organizers have introduced new measures to increase Restaurant Week's appeal this season. Some restaurants are offering a two-course lunch option for $15.09, as few people have time for long lunches these days.
"There's an urgency to get back to the office; this year three people are doing the work of 10," said Pat Moscaritolo, president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, which cosponsors Restaurant Week with
Though Saturday is traditionally a blackout date - the event officially runs March 15-20, then March 22-27 - more than half of the restaurants are including their busiest day in the promotion, most for the first time.
Ciao Bella on Newbury Street is among them; it has never offered the Saturday dinner special before. "We have to get as much as we can," said general manager Evando Ananias. "It's tough days these days."
More high-end restaurants are also taking part. "There are restaurants that would not have thought about participating in prior years," Moscaritolo said. "This downturn is more dramatic than any of us have experienced in our lifetime. It's a year like no other."
In the Financial District, Radius usually offers lunch menus only for Restaurant Week, but this winter it's doing dinner for the first time. "The obvious reason for participating this year is everybody's in a pinch," said co-owner Christopher Myers, whose other restaurants include Great Bay, Via Matta, and Myers + Chang. "It's really a citywide celebration in the middle of winter, when business is usually tighter anyway. And you really see people that have never been to your restaurant before. It would be nice to do Restaurant Month."
Mamma Maria in the North End hasn't participated since 2006 but will this year. "Let's face it, the economy's awful," said owner John McGee.
"People would call and say, 'Are you doing Restaurant Week?' " he said of why he decided to offer the deal. "The response has been pretty good, but your check average will be lower. So when the dust clears, it remains to be seen whether it will be profitable."
That awful economy has inspired so many deals being offered all of the time, one wonders whether they will undercut Restaurant Week. For example, Banq , in the South End, offers a three-course menu for $29.95 four nights a week from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. EVOO in Somerville has a $35 three-course menu every day. Italian restaurant Da Vinci had been offering three courses for $29 on Mondays and Tuesdays; it's now offering Restaurant Week menus for the entire month of March. To add value, it's throwing in a gift bag of items such as a certificate for a free car wash, a three-day pass to fitness center Equinox, a homemade cookie, and, of course, a $10 gift certificate to Da Vinci, in the hopes of bringing guests back. Stix Restaurant & Lounge is offering two lunches for the price of one and dinner for the price of lunch.
Even with free car washes and free lunches, can Restaurant Week compete in such a landscape of incentives?
Matthew Morrell of Brighton, who works at a jazz booking agency, considers himself a value-minded consumer. "I usually find deals," he said. "When I go shopping, I go to the clearance rack first." Because of that, he is attuned to the bargains that restaurants have been offering pre-Restaurant Week. "These days I've seen the deals go lower and lower, much better than $30 for a three-course dinner," he said. "I don't remember that before."
In recent months, he has had a three-course dinner at Brighton tapas restaurant Tasca for $15 and attended Summer Shack's "Cheap Date Night" for $40 per couple with his girlfriend, not to mention White Horse Tavern's $6 steak tips and the Draft Bar & Grille's 25-cent chicken wings, both in Allston.
"At this point Restaurant Week might have lost some of its fire because of all these other deals," he said. "It's not much different. You can go to a nice restaurant, but it's a limited menu."
Moscaritolo says Restaurant Week reservations were down slightly by yesterday; restaurants are seeing a general drop-off in business of from 10 to 40 percent outside the promotion, he says.
"It's definitely different than last year so far," said Ananias of Ciao Bella. "Last year by now we had so many days full, at least at nighttime, but it's not happening. We have a few, but nothing compared to last year. People don't want to spend money anymore, and it doesn't matter if it's $30 or $20. It hurt us this year."
For some restaurants, Restaurant Week is doing just what it's supposed to. "I think it's the busiest year ever," Myers said, referring to the reservations at Radius. "It's insane how busy it is."
Once the restaurant gets the customers in, employees will hand out comment cards, try to obtain e-mail addresses, and present gift certificates to the host of each table.
"To see these people again," Myers said, "you do everything you can."
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com. 