For the primary time since its inception, the autumn version of Center City District Restaurant Week will probably be a no-show.
A district spokesperson advised The Inquirer that the semiannual promotion of discounted restaurant meals would return in January.
“As our organization evolves, we’ve shifted our programming schedule to introduce new and innovative concepts, like Open Streets and Let’s Do Lunch, while continuing programs like [the seasonal] Center City District Sips and winter restaurant week that support our mission and are responsive to what we’re seeing in the data,” stated Giavana Suraci Pruiti, the district’s senior supervisor for retail advertising and occasions. She stated surveys have proven that the post-holiday winter months have remained the slowest season for eating places. “With finite staff and resources, we’ve made the decision to focus on that time frame,” she stated.
Translation: Restaurateurs have been pushing again on the thought of providing two weeks of specials throughout a usually busy September and would moderately spend their promotion funds within the gradual season.
Restaurateurs and employees have a love-hate relationship with restaurant weeks. Although they might appeal to extra clients, the full spend is decrease — so servers grumble that they’re working tougher for smaller ideas. At many pricier or extra bold eating places, the particular menus might have solely a passing relationship to the common menu.
At its debut in September 2003, Center City District Restaurant Week was a novelty, modeled on comparable promotions in New York City, Miami, and Washington and one of many first within the Philadelphia area. (Manayunk’s, which debuted in 2012, runs this week.)
That first yr, 43 Center City eating places signed on to supply $30 three-course dinners served over six nights. Discounted parking was additionally made out there.
The 2003 debut was accompanied by complaints from restaurateurs within the Old City District, who had been excluded. When the Center City District reprised restaurant week for a winter version in January 2004, any restaurant from the Delaware to the Schuylkill and from South Street to Vine might choose in. More than 100 now take part, with some providing discounted lunches.
Dates for the January version haven’t been set; it usually runs for 2 weeks, with dinners priced at $40 or $60 and two-course lunches for $20.