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Dining Week draws record crowds / New restaurants open

03/05/2009

Source: Syracuse.com

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Downtown restaurants must be wondering if it should be Dining Week every week of the year.

The Dining Week promotion features 17 downtown Syracuse restaurants who work together with the help of the Downtown Committee to market special menus in the midst of the normally slow winter season.

For the first time, the promotion, known for its three-course, $25 menus, was extended to two weeks, Feb. 16 to 28. It drew a record number of diners into participating restaurants.

Customer and restaurant surveys found that more than 25,000 patrons participated in Dining Week, with more than 61 percent of respondents saying they experienced Dining Week for the first time this year, according to Downtown Committee Executive Director David Mankiewcz. One restaurant reported a 350 percent increase over its normal business.

Other findings of the surveys include:

* 65 percent of Dining Week participants live outside the city of Syracuse.
* 24 percent live outside of Onondaga County.
* 98 percent described their experience as excellent or good.

"The numbers are definitely up over last year," Pascale Wine Bar and Restaurant wrote on its survey. "We got quite a bit of return business from the first week during the second week. It draws a lot of people downtown that wouldn't normally come. We will definitely participate next year. It's been successful and we're happy."

The upbeat news was also an occasion to welcome a new downtown restaurant into the fold, The Black Olive at 316 S. Clinton St., where Mayor Matt Driscoll, Mankiewcz and others gathered this morning to welcome the owners, the Koumanidis, and release the Dining Week statistics.

Instead of the Syracuse tradition of the ribbon cutting, Driscoll, Mankiewcz and members of the Koumanidis family followed the Greek tradition of breaking plates in front of the restaurant.

The restaurant had been home to Quiznos, which closed suddenly in 2006.

The Koumanidis have significantly upgraded the space so that it no longer resembles a sandwich shop at all. It has an upscale-but-casual feel and offers traditional family recipes that draw on Greek, Moroccan, Spanish and Middle Eastern cuisines. They also plan on adding a late-evening tapas menu for the going-out crowd.

At the event at The Greek Olive, it was also announced that another restaurant will open downtown, Fresco Tortillas Grill, which will start serving March 16 at 214 Walton St. It is owned by restaurateur Gary Dong, who also owns Oishi Restaurant on S. Crouse Ave.

"We admire the spirit of these two proprietors," Driscoll said. "Even in this challenging economic climate, there are entrepreneurs who recognize that downtown is a lucrative business location."