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The dates for the widely popular winter edition of Long Island Restaurant Week are set.
Eight days of foodie fun for the first time in 2022 will run from Sunday, Jan. 23, through Sunday, Jan. 30, all across Long Island.
This is a classic win-win for patrons and restaurant owners alike, says Steve Haweeli, president of Long Island Restaurant and Hospitality Group, which operates the tri-annual event.
Click here for participating restaurants in Suffolk County. Click here for Nassau.
The list is growing by the day.
“January, landing between the holidays and Valentine’s Day, is a notoriously slow time for local restaurants, so this is a great way to get out of the house, eat well, and help a restaurant owner through the winter.”” Haweeli said.
How it works is simple
Depending on the place, you’ll have options for three-course dinners priced at either $25, $35, or $42. (Some restaurants will even offer all three options.) Every participant is required to offer three options per course (appetizer, entrée, and dessert) for dinner. Restaurants may also offer a two-course $20 lunch.
For restaurants looking to sign up, click here.
“This is an opportunity to get these people into your restaurants, perhaps for the first time experiencing your food, service and atmosphere,’ Haweeli explained.
The idea is that many of them come back, and some become regulars.
“That’s why restaurant weeks are so popular throughout the U.S., in cities and small towns,” he added. “They’re powerful and they work.”
Some background
The idea for an island-wide event evolved from the company’s original Hamptons Restaurant Week, which started in 2003. (Back then it was $19.95 for three-courses!)
“We had been seeing the success New York City was having with their restaurant week,” Haweeli recalled of the initial idea for the event.
The efforts proved wildly successful, and Long Island Restaurant and Hospitality Group later expanded its efforts to the entire island in 2008.
Back then, Long Island Restaurant Week only happened in the fall.
“Then there began to be a clamor for a spring restaurant week, so we added that a few years later, then a winter restaurant week in 2016,” Haweeli said. “Restaurants are a huge part of our communities, so we want to support them early and often.”
Click here to learn more.
