Restaurant Week to feature 215 Restaurants

215 restaurants in ‘week’ of specials
Summer treats
By Donna Goodison | Monday, August 3, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets


Summer Restaurant Week kicks off Sunday, and 215 eateries are hoping specially priced menus will draw crowds for lunch and dinner.

The number of participating restaurants is up by almost 25 percent from last summer, and some are extending their offers through the entire month.

Summer Restaurant Week runs Aug. 9-14 and Aug. 16-21, with two-course lunches for $15.09, three-course lunches for $20.09 and three-course dinners for $33.09 at restaurants in Boston, Cambridge and 17 other communities. Many restaurants also are participating on Saturday, Aug. 15.

The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau has taken to social networking for the first time to promote the event, using both Facebook and Twitter. Most restaurants’ menus also are already available online this year at www.bostonusa.com/restaurantweek.

“This is what’s interesting about the challenging economy,” said Larry Meehan, a GBCVB vice president. “Restaurants really zero in on their marketing, and with consumers the expectation is you’re either online, or you’re not in.”

The shaky economy resulted in a “good” but not great Winter Restaurant Week, because people were nervous about spending, according to Meehan.

Masa, with locations in Boston’s South End and Woburn, is throwing in extras to make its Restaurant Week offerings more enticing. Its Restaurant Week menus will be available through August, along with $5 margaritas and $5 half-liters of sangria. The restaurant also is opening for lunch during the regular Restaurant Week run.

Masa ran a lower-priced, fixed-price menu and the same drink specials last month and had its best July yet, according to general manager Jeffrey Hendershot.

“Our sales have been fantastic, and we wanted it to continue,” he said.

Massachusetts restaurants haven’t fared that badly in the past year, despite the recession. Of the three main categories of state sales taxes, the meals tax was the only one to come close to the previous year’s collections, according to the state Department of Revenue. Meals tax collections for the fiscal year ended June 30 were down only 0.5 percent to $630 million.

The marketing muscle behind Restaurant Week has made March and August the busiest months of the year after December for the Aquitaine Group, which owns Aquitaine, Gaslight, Union and Metropolis in the South End.

“It was never that way before,” partner Jeff Gates said.

The restaurant group, which also is extending its Restaurant Week promotion through the entire month, hands out coupons to Restaurant Week diners. For $33.09, they can come back the next month and order three items off its regular menus.

“A lot of the people that we have in for Restaurant Week don’t go out often,” Gates said. “Many of the reservations only come in twice a year. By doing the coupons in March and August, I get them back in April and September.”
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