5-star Food at 3-star Prices

By Francis Ma
GateHouse News Service
Posted Mar 05, 2008
Boston —

Stop walking past that high-end restaurant in Cambridge or Boston and just walk in to get that five-star food and service people have been raving about.
That’s the point of the third annual Winter Restaurant Week, when establishments entice customers with lower prices to their legendary fare. The event takes place in and around Boston, and Cambridge restaurants have joined the fun in a big way.
It’s a chance for restaurants to re-introduce themselves to the public and for people to try out places they were always curious about. And with places like Cambridge’s The Elephant Walk, which serves Cambodian and French dishes, it’s a chance to serve something that was previously absent from the regular menu.
“We have a couple of new things on our taster’s menu,” says co-founder Robert Perry. “For starters, we have a sesame salmon tartar (it’s raw) fused with sesame oil and scallions. And for entrees we have a caramelized catfish and a lamb sirloin.”
Stomach growling yet?
During the week, restaurants will have a predetermined menu with a three-course meal for lunch ($20.08) and dinner ($33.08). That’s a nice discount.
“We got a little uncomfortable charging $33 for Cambodian food,” admits Perry. “So for us, if they order a Cambodian dish, the price will be $29.”
Perry said the tasting menu will also include the restaurant’s most popular dish, the Loc Lac.
“It’s cubed beef tenderloin with caramelized mushrooms and black pepper over a bed of lettuces,” explained Perry. “It’s very popular and very good. I think I have it at least six times a year.”
At Harvest of Harvard Square, they’re using Restaurant Week as a way to reintroduce themselves to the community since they recently did some renovations.
“It’s updated and revamped,” says general manager Ivan Law. “This week brings in a lot of people who wouldn’t normally come to Harvest. We like that, we like to see new faces.”
In fact, Law says that’s one of the many benefits the event gives Cambridge restaurants, a place where it’s easy to get used to the local regulars.
“In Cambridge, people like what they like and know what they want,” explains Law. “But sometimes, especially if you’re in a creative role like a chef, it’s hard to break something new in the community.”
Law doesn’t know the specifics of Harvest’s tasting menu, but did reveal that their two entrée choices will be a fish and a meat.
And some places, like Mary-Catherine Deibel’s Upstairs on the Square, enjoy the event so much that they’ve extended the tasting menu past the event.
“We have a Restaurant Month,” laughs Deibel. “It’s from March 3 to the 31 and happens everyday of the week. It’s an opportunity to do more and for more people to discover us.”
But this is more than an effort to make your mouth water over discounted exotic food and to discover new restaurants. It’s also a way to drum up more business for restaurants during a historically slow time in the industry.
Perry says restaurants see a lag in customers during the winter and summer months. Having two restaurant weeks a year that fall within those months is a win-win situation for restaurants and the local economy.
“Roughly figuring, the restaurant gets about 30 to 35 percent busier thanks to Restaurant Week,” says Perry. “We see a big increase in sales. It’s like a music festival in the sense that it attracts more people, more than what you would get on a Tuesday night.”
Restaurant Week was implemented in the summer of 2001, a year after New York City started theirs. The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau (GBCVB) saw that idea as an opportunity to showcase the culinary side of Boston and Cambridge, and also piping more money into the local economy.
Pat Moscaritolo, president and CEO of the GBCVB, said the first Restaurant Week only had 36 restaurants and lasted only five days. For this year’s Winter Restaurant Week, there are 172 restaurants involved and the event will last 12 days.
“And we’ve never had a restaurant leave the program,” says Moscaritolo. “I did an analysis of last year’s Restaurant Weeks (both winter and summer) using average party sizes and found that $3.5 million in additional revenue was pumped into the restaurant industry.”
What Moscaritolo learned was that while people were saving money on extravagant meals at high-end places, they were using the extra money to splurge on wine. Expensive wine.
“A general manager of a Boston hotel told me that these weeks were the larges for wine sales,” laughs Moscaritolo. “That is exactly how people behave. I just saved money over in this pocket, so I’ll spend some more and I’m still even at the end of the night.”
A lot of restaurants, such as Elephant Walk and Upstairs on the Square, have gone a step further and have wine suggestions with the tasting menu items.
However, with the rising cost of oil, a housing slump and the possibility of a recession, spending money on a frivolous night out at a restaurant with expensive wine may be the last thing people want to do.
“We recognize that with the dreaded ‘r’ word, people will start to cut back,” admits Moscaritolo. “America Express is a partner in this. They have a program that, if people go three or more times to a participating restaurant and use their Amex card for the charges, they will get a $25 gift card.”
Granted, this is a program for people who historically take advantage of Restaurant Week five to seven times. And if this year will be the first time for you to experience Restaurant Week, Moscaritolo has some advice.
“Make reservations,” says Moscaritolo. “We partnered with a program called ‘Open Table’ on our website where you can reserve a table a couple of days in advance. I always say that after Opening Day tickets for the Red Sox, the most sought-after ticket in town is for Restaurant Week.”
Restaurant Week
March 9-14, 16-21
$33.08 for dinner
$20.08 for lunch
Various businesses in Boston, Cambridge and the Metro West
For more info, visit www.bostonusa.com