Restaurant Week Gives a Boost to Local Eateries

Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, which ran from March 15- March 28, allowed many local businesses to draw new customers, while re-acquainting regular customers with menu favorites at affordable prices.

Over 50 restaurants in Westchester County participated in this year's Restaurant Week.

Four years ago, Janet Crawshaw founded the epicurean event, which stemmed from her food and cuisine magazine, The Valley Table.

"The magazine is all about promoting and supporting local businesses.  We realized that Restaurant Week was another way to both seed our appetite for great food as well as to help stimulate the economy." 

Because of the recession, an increasing number of people are choosing to eat-in rather than eat-out. But Restaurant Week's prix fixe $20 lunch and $28 dinner menus apparently looked appetizing to a thrifty crowd. 

"It helped drive business during a slow time," Crawshaw said.

Her efforts seem to have reaped rewards for local businesses. 

Cheryl Just, manager of La Panetière in Rye, acknowledged that the recession had put a dent in business.

"Because of the economy we were doing poorly. The owner said that Restaurant Week is supposed to be great publicity.  And actually, it was. We were full every single day," Just said. 

Not only were restaurants packed, but they also drew diverse crowds. Manager Ruben Ochoa Jr. of the newly-opened restaurant Roasted Peppers in Mamaroneck noticed some new faces.

"A lot more people came from not only Mamaroneck, Larchmont and Rye, but also those from White Plains, Scarsdale and even Tuckahoe."

Attracting new patrons was part of Crawshaw's plan.  Two weekends were included within the fourteen-day timeframe in order to "make the event attractive to folks outside of the region and to encourage people to come up from the city.  We wanted to make it more tourist friendly," she said.

Crawshaw attributes Restaurant Week's success in part to new-media publicity efforts.

"We called on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to help spread the word.  Internet bloggers created a buzz that took off in a big way," she said.

Manager of the Rye Grill & Bar, Yomahira Carreras, attested to the restaurant's success, but says that it wasn't necessarily because of Restaurant Week.

"We did get a lot of people ordering off the Restaurant Week menu, but it didn't give us any new customers. We've been really busy ever since we opened only a year and a half ago," she said. 

The affordability of the Rye Grill & Bar's menu seemed to deter some customers, who likely took advantage of the event's prix-fixe menus to dine at more expensive eateries.

"We're not such an expensive restaurant so people go out to others," Carreras said.

In past years, those that chose not to participate in Restaurant Week saw a steep decline in business. 

Lisa McKiernan, one of the owners of Morgan's Fish House and Ruby's Oyster Bar & Bistro, decided to participate in the event after noticing how successful Restaurant Week was for other local eateries.

"The years we haven't participated have been slower for us. Last year when we didn't participate, we saw a negative impact–there were not as many customers," she said. "We decided to try it out this year to see how it went." 

This past year in particular, Crawshaw has noticed a dramatic increase in the number of participating restaurants.

"The economic recession that we're in has forced people to think more creatively and collaboratively and be willing to try some new things to stimulate interest in their business," she said.

As a first-timer, McKiernan was pleased with the increased turnout at her seafood restaurants.

"It was great. It was tremendous amount of new business–both regular customers taking advantage as well as newcomers."

Mckiernan said she is grateful for the boom in business.

"We're sad to see it end."