This year, Evanston’s second annual Central Street Restaurant Week will take place April 13-16. Participating restaurants offer rewards, like discounts or free desserts with purchases, to help bring in new customers and raise business.
Many restaurants on Central Street are independently owned, and Restaurant Week comes at the perfect time for them.
“April is a hard month for restaurants; we all want it to be spring but it’s not. An event like Restaurant Week can be a big help with business,” said Tom Carlin, co-owner and executive chef of Burl.
For Backlot Coffee, which offers a three-dollar discount on smoothies during the event, Restaurant Week also comes at the perfect time.
“The timing worked out well because we just launched smoothies, so things like this can bring in people who normally wouldn’t come in or wouldn’t know about an item,” said John Kim, owner of Backlot Coffee and co-owner of Desalvo’s Pizza. “It’ll help with visibility, which is exciting.”
Though individual success of each business is important, Restaurant Week hopes to bring an overall sense of community to Central Street.
“Restaurant Week is less about the individual spaces and places but more about the neighborhood and bringing people onto Central Street,” said Kim. “It’s about drawing more people into an area by having a collective voice in it.”
By using this collective voice, business owners hope to create an environment where all restaurants can succeed.
“[Restaurant Week is] a rising-tide-raises-all-boats kind of situation. Hopefully people will try Bluestone on one day, Desalvo’s one day and Burl another,” said Carlin.
However, the ultimate objective stretches beyond a single busy week in April.
“We want to bring in new guests who experience our community and will come back,” said Kim.
This desire for a long-term community impact is mirrored by Evanston residents who care about shopping locally.
“I like knowing my money is going to Evanstonians and not big businesses,” said junior Josephine Solar. “I have family friends who run businesses on Central, so it’s nice to know my money is supporting them.”
Ultimately, while the food is the initial draw, the true value of Restaurant Week is the light it shines on the entire Central Street shopping district.
“It’s great when people come and they see more of the things the community’s offering,” said Kim. “That’s the goal of business district events: higher visibility for everything that’s going on, whether it’s the game store, the bakeries that dot Central Street, the retail locations or the restaurants.”
