Break out your “fat” pants: The first-ever Arizona Restaurant Week kicks off Saturday.
For seven gluttonous days, diners can enjoy three-course meals for just $29 at many of the Valley’s finest restaurants, such as Cowboy Ciao, Bourbon Steak, Roka Akor, Talavera or Roaring Fork.
“I think it’s gonna be a nice way for people to get out and try a variety of restaurants for a decent price,” says Dave Dabruzzi, one of the owners of Humble Pie pizzeria and wine bar in Scottsdale (pictured at right).
Restaurant Weeks have become popular events in more than 100 cities across the country in recent years. The Valley is finally joining the party, thanks to Scottsdale-based restaurateur Sam Fox.
“We talked to a few people and nothing really got going, so we decided to talk it upon ourselves to make it happen,” says Fox, who put together a partnership with the Arizona Restaurant Association and the Scottsdale and Phoenix visitors and convention bureaus.
The group hoped to sign up 20 to 30 restaurants for the inaugural week. Instead, they got nearly 100. Each came up with its own menu of signature dishes; many of the three-course meals are valued at far more than $29.
• See the list of participating restaurants and their 3-course menus
• Previous: 80+ eateries to participate in AZ Restaurant Week (July 28, 2008)
“We said, ‘Let’s look at this as a great opportunity to get new people or existing people into our restaurants and excited about going out to dinner again,’” Fox says.
The reaction from the dining public has been overwhelmingly positive. Fox’s participating restaurants — Olive & Ivy (pictured at left), Bloom and The Greene House — already have seen a 50 percent spike in reservations for the next week.
“We’re a little concerned about people not being able to get in,” says Fox marketing director Debbie Porter. “We’re really trying to encourage advance reservations.”
Bourbon Steak, a new steakhouse from celebrity chef Michael Mina at the Fairmont Scottsdale resort, also has been swamped.
“Reservations are insane,” says Patric Yumul, vice-president of operations for Michael Mina Restaurants. He expects the restaurant to book up to 200 reservations each night during the week.
At Cowboy Ciao and its sister restaurant Digestif in Old Town Scottsdale, marketing director Marianne Markogianis looks at a list of reservations for this weekend and notes, “I see a lot of new names.”
While the public’s appetite seems to be whetted for Arizona Restaurant Week, there have been challenges for some restaurants in meeting the $29 fixed price, which excludes beverages, tax and tip.
At Humble Pie, where pizzas are $10 to $14, Dubruzzi admits, “I could offer my most expensive appetizer, most expensize pizza and most expensive dessert and be right around that $29.”
To give diners an added value, he says, the pizzeria likely will offer a free glass of wine or other beverage, a bonus that Markogianis says Cowboy Ciao (pictured below) also is considering.
At the other end of the spectrum are pricier restaurants like Bourbon Steak (pictured at right), where most appetizers are around $20 and 11 of the 12 steaks on the menu are more than $45.
The steakhouse will offer a choice of three less expensive entrees: prime beef shortribs, skirt steak or sand dabs.
“If you’re looking at it with the mentality of just maintaining your costs, it can be a challenge,” Yumul says. “Our outlook is bringing people into the restaurant that might not have come in before.
“The portions might be slightly reduced, but the ribs are still braised the same way. They’re the same cut. The same care is put into them.”
Whether or not steep discounts actually help restaurants gain regular customers is debated. When he worked for the Mastros Group, which operates such upscale eateries as Mastros Steakhouse and Marco Polo Supper Club, Humble Pie’s Dabruzzi recalls the effect of a two-for-one special.
“It brings in the same group who comes in for a grand opening, for the free appetizers and cheap drinks,” he says. “You never see them again.”
And servers at upscale restaurants aren’t exactly thrilled waiting on a budget-conscious clientele. In New York, for example, the surly service during Restaurant Week is legendary.
“Our servers (at Mastros) could have killed us,” Dabruzzi admits. “It brought out people who never would have gone to the restaurant before. They tipped on what check was, not what it should be.”
But many restaurants feel pressured to participate in their city’s Restaurant Weeks, despite the problems.
Based on Restaurant Weeks in Las Vegas and Miami that Bourbon Steak has taken part in, Yumul says, “Restaurants that don’t participate have guest counts that are down that week.”
Most restaurants participating in Arizona Restaurant Week are in Scottsdale, and several are in Phoenix. Only a couple are in Tempe and Chandler; there are none in Mesa or Gilbert.
“We really tried to reach out to people,” restaurateur Fox says. “I didn’t want it to be (mostly Scottsdale restaurants).”
But owners of several upscale restaurants in the south East Valley say they were left out.
“We would absolutely love to participate in the Arizona Restaurant Week,” says Jay Wisniewski, owner of Caffe Boa in Tempe. “We were absolutely never contacted once to be included.”
Robert Morris, owner of Cork in Chandler, tells a similar story.
“I didn’t hear from them at all,” he says. “People ask (why Cork isn’t participating), and I tell them I wasn’t invited.”
Says Brian Banasek, whose S’Bistro in downtown Mesa serves escargot, foie gras and filet mignon: “I never heard about it.”
Still, after years of trying to start its own Restaurant Week, Arizona is poised — finally — to come to the table.
And organizers already are thinking of next year, when they hope to enlist at least another 50 restaurants, including restaurants in Tucson and Flagstaff to make it a statewide event.
Restaurants owners such as Wisniewski, Morris and Banasek say they are looking forward to joining the promotion in 2009.
In the meantime, Valley restaurateurs are excited about Arizona Restaurant Week’s potential.
“September is bad restaurant month,” Humble Pie’s Dabruzzi says, “so anything you can do in the month of September to get few more people through the doors is a good thing.”
Arizona Restaurant Week
What: Nearly 100 of the Valley’s top restaurants offer three-course, prix-fixe meals.
When: Saturday through Sept. 26
Price: $29 per person, excluding beverages, tax and tip. Reservations are recommended.
Info: arizonarestaurantweek.com
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