Mayor Menino hosts downtown block party on July 23

(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)

The block party will take place on West Street in the Ladder District, home to the Brattle Book Shop (seen here), as well as restaurants including Max & Dylan’s Kitchen Bar, Fajitas & ’Ritas, and the newly opened Back Deck.

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has announced a downtown block party to be held later this month on West Street in the Ladder District, between Tremont and Washington streets.

The party will run from 4:30 – 7 p.m. on July 23, with a speaking program beginning at 5 p.m. at the Washington Street intersection. It will include live music, tastings of dishes from several new downtown restaurants, a ribbon cutting for the newly opened Back Deck restaurant, and a “special announcement.”

Back Deck, which opened in late June, aims to recreate the experience of a backyard barbecue, with décor that looks like a comfortable suburban patio and three charcoal grills serving up burgers (beef and turkey), steaks, chicken, salmon, and other staples.

In recent years Menino has worked to direct attention to new restaurants and businesses opening downtown, in an effort to show that the neighborhood remains vital despite the loss of Filene’s Department Store and the stalled redevelopment of the Filene’s site.

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