In the dark chill of January, downtown Sacramento restaurants will be cooking up a deal for you.
Dine Downtown Restaurant Week will offer a $30 fixed-price menu, a significant discount for restaurants such as Esquire Grill and Mulvaney's B&L, as a way to increase traffic and patronage.
The Downtown Partnership, which has sponsored and organized the annual event since 2005, is making changes, including expanding the geographic area and the number of days for 2010, said Jennifer Snyder, a spokeswoman for the partnership.
The 10-day event set for Jan. 8-17 will include two weekends, a key factor for restaurants and diners who wanted more time, Snyder said.
Restaurants beyond the core downtown area, such as Mulvaney's and Paragary's in the midtown area, will join this year.
The event was moved from the fall to January three years ago because it is a particularly slow month for restaurants, Snyder said.
The promotion, which recently won recognition from the International Downtown Association, includes two dozen restaurants so far.
Paragary Group Restaurants, which has three restaurants participating this year, has noticed a marked increase in business during the event, said Callista Wengler, a spokeswoman for the company. "In this economy, that's huge," she said.
Some diners could be intimidated by the offerings at places like Esquire Grill with entrees up to $35, but the fixed-price menus offer a chance to sample the fare, from appetizer to dessert, and maybe return for more, she said.
"In the future, they're going to choose our restaurants," she said.
One of the Paragary restaurants, The Cosmopolitan, had so much success with a recent fixed-price special, the restaurant will debut a permanent one Friday at $30, Wengler said. Mulvaney's in midtown is also hoping to draw a different market into the restaurant, said Bobbin Mulvaney, the marketing director.
"If they see it's a fixed price, they know what to expect and they can see what we are," she said.
In an online survey conducted by the partnership, 95 percent of the 2,145 people answering the survey said they would participate in the dining event, which last year drew visitors from as far as Vacaville and Yuba City.
For white-tablecloth restaurants, which have suffered the worst during the economic downturn, keeping their share of the estimated $56.2 billion in California restaurant sales is crucial.
The idea of fixed-price menus for a limited time is gaining popularity in cities of all sizes.
• An event in Denver, the Mile-High City, features 225 restaurants, drawing 300,000 diners who pay $52.80 for two. The price reflects the number of feet in a mile.
• Corvallis, Ore., a town of 53,000, including 19,000 Oregon State students, launched its first Restaurant Week in January, with nine restaurants offering a $10 "chef's plate." By Tuesday, all the restaurants were booked for the week.
For a full list of Sacramento's participating restaurants and information on enlisting your restaurant, go to www.downtownsac.org/
Call The Bee's M.S. Enkoji, (916) 321-1106.
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