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My wife and I were lucky enough to vacation in Puerto Vallarta during their restaurant week and thought it was the coolest thing. Basically any place that participated offered a special menu where you could choose an app, main and desert for around $30.
A friend of mine in San Diego also raved about how great it was being able to try out places there[San Diego] for so cheap.
Should Columbus do something like this? Do we have enough places to participate? Would $30 be more than you’d normally pay for an app, main, and desert at most Columbus eateries?
I went to restaurant week in NYC and loved it. Only $35 for a three course meal at some of the best restaurants in the world. Insane.
Columbus did something similar a few years back, but for whatever reason it stopped.
They do this in Seattle too and I’d go out every night that week. It’s an awesome idea.
My vote would be yes. $30-35 is pretty cheap if we’re talking about the nicer restaurants here in town.
I’d eat out every night that week if they had one. Sounds like a terrific idea.
We already do!!!
most restaraunts only last a week!!
I suppose it sounds like a great idea for people who don’t work in the restaurant business, but for me, it sounds like a week of an unending, total nightmare.
Imagine you’re a store owner and you slash all of your prices by 75%. You wouldn’t make any money. I work in a restaurant where I typically make about $15 for each person I serve. A $30 dinner would almost cut that by 2/3rds. And it wouldn’t be our average clientele, to say the least.
I’m sure most people in other cities who have restaurant week feel about the same.
Just to provide a different perspective!
Imagine you’re a store owner and you slash all of your prices by 75%. You wouldn’t make any money. I work in a restaurant where I typically make about $15 for each person I serve. A $30 dinner would almost cut that by 2/3rds. And it wouldn’t be our average clientele, to say the least.
I’m sure most people in other cities who have restaurant week feel about the same.
Just to provide a different perspective!
However, i found that I soon became a bi-weekly visitor to a restaurant that was on that list. If I hadn’t have gone when it was cheap, I would have never discovered it. Plus, the entree is typically something special for these weeks, a meal that’s predetermined, so that gives chances for people to order off of the menu (read: BOOZE) so that will increase the prices and change how much work you actually have to put in it (I assume, as a waitress, if you have 3 tables ALL ordering the exact same thing for three straight courses, your job just got a whole lot easier).
Thought I’d ask the Central Ohio Restaurant Association (CORA) what they thought, and I got a quick response.
“We did one in 2001. It was quite expensive to produce – I raised $15,000 in sponsorship dollars which don’t go far to promote an event in Columbus. My counterpart in Dayton does one twice a year (they just completed one last week), but they have better luck with free local media partners.
We do produce the Columbus Food & Wine Affair which is taking place this year on September 7 at Franklin Park Conservatory – http://www.foodandwineaffair.com “
Yeah…the restaurants in NYC hate it, but a huge percentage of them still participate in it. It’s great for name recognition.
With no wait staff experience I can’t really say how horrible working this would be. One example I debated with friends before on is ‘Burger Night’ at Brazenhead, where on wed. nights their promotionally priced $3 burger brings hords in, I assume its a horrible night to wait on, but I also figure handing out the burgers takes away some of the difficutlies of multiple course offerings, but more importantly I figure the huge number of drinks make up for the low cost meals and the volume of folks on what would otherwise be an off nights also compensates.
As for how a restaurant week would do? well if you normally aren’t packed on a tuesday and wed you might have a full house, and while they aren’t ordering the normal $60 a person meal, only a $30 or $35 prix fixe menu, I would guess, but could be wrong that having two or three options would make the waiting simpler and the volume on an off night would make up for some of the decreased sales – like I said, this is just my guess on the whole thing – but sounds like a good system to me as you might find a new place to come back to and pay full price.
(On a side note Lisa, I wonder if there is a way waiters justify getting more tips on a $400 bottle of wine versus a $30 bottle of wine? Not knocking the biz, but thats one of the things that I’ve always had trouble wrapping my head around.)
“[i]We did one in 2001. It was quite expensive to produce – I raised $15,000 in sponsorship dollars which don’t go far to promote an event in Columbus. My counterpart in Dayton does one twice a year (they just completed one last week), but they have better luck with free local media partners.
Interesting… thanks for taking the time to look into this.
I wonder if there would be more interest in doing another one of these in 2008. I’d say the restaurant landscape has changed in Columbus in the past seven years quite a bit. Might be worth looking into again.
I would think an organization like Experience Columbus would do well to get behind something like this.
philly did two a year and it was pretty dope.
short north and grandview are saturated with great restaurants. i think these areas would work out well, maybe once a month, say second or third saturday of the month. could give people a chance to check out restaurants that they normally wouldn’t go to for a reasonable price. i really wish someone would organize a bar crawl too, although that would probably get pretty messy.
i was also in PV for the restaurant week this year, and it was a great event. we also have friends from DC who raved about the event each year. the limited menu would certainly make it easier for serving, and if you don’t see anything on the limited menu for everyone then you may have people selected normal fair as well. in PV, there were two levels of restaurants with the better ones at a $30 level and the others at $20. The top level were the some of the best I’ve ever dined in, anywhere.
i think this would be a great idea, and it would encourage me to venture to more places that i haven’t been to. i love to go to great local restaurants, but i do get stuck in the same ones.
I think it should be once or twice a year. Lets stop with the monthly gimmicks to get people out, instead lets use good food, service and new and innovative menu items to get people out.
Imagine you’re a store owner and you slash all of your prices by 75%. You wouldn’t make any money. I work in a restaurant where I typically make about $15 for each person I serve. A $30 dinner would almost cut that by 2/3rds. And it wouldn’t be our average clientele, to say the least.
I’m sure most people in other cities who have restaurant week feel about the same.
Just to provide a different perspective!
Problem Lisa, I think you’re having not balancing long term with short term thinking here. Granted, no one (including servers) are going to get rich during a restaurant week (although increased quantity could be an argument that they may). The concept is designed to affordably introduce people to the many fantastic spots to eat in the city as a whole, bringing them back time and time again.
So yeah, for a week let’s say your tips drop 30%…but for the next year your business ups 10% or more. Not a bad trade off.
I’d love to see this happen myself.
Though not exactly what’s being asked for, the Columbus Food and Wine Affair is growing and this year’s event looks to be the best yet: http://www.foodandwineaffair.com/index.cfm
While I still think I would be trying to get that week off work, I think I’m a restaurant week convert. If nothing else, it would be a time for some of the lesser-known restaurants in Cbus to get some recognition.
Just for the record – here is a story about the Cincinnati Originals’ Restaurant week:
http://www.gcindependents.com/