From Harford County Government:
(Bel Air, MD) – – Harford County’s Restaurant Week was successful for the third straight year. Restaurateurs and patrons alike hailed the week as a big success, and are already looking forward to next year’s event. Karen Romecki of Conowingo agrees since she won over $1,000 worth of local dining by participating in the Restaurant Week contest.
“I never win anything so this is really cool!” stated contest winner Karen Romecki. I am so excited to have won this contest!” Mr. Romecki works for a defense contractor at Aberdeen Proving Ground and had gone out to lunch with friends and co-workers to Sweet Devotions where she entered the Restaurant Week contest. When asked where she would go first to dine out, Ms. Romecki said she had attended a baby shower at Mountain Branch and the food was awesome, so she couldn’t wait to have dinner at the Grille and Pub.
Over 3,500 contest cards were entered by patrons to win the Restaurant Week grand prize of $1,000 worth of dining gift cards from participating restaurants. The winner was picked at random by County Executive David R. Craig who presented their prize at the Mountain Branch Grille & Pub in Joppa, who was also recognized for being the busiest restaurant during the promotion.
“We love Restaurant Week – it’s great for business! commented Keith Davis, General Manager of Mountain Branch Golf Course Grille & Pub of Joppa. “The Restaurant Week promotion brought in a lot of new faces to our restaurant and many returned from last year. We hope to welcome them back throughout the year.”
Mountain Branch also won in 2011 and exceeded last year’s number by seven patrons for a total of 444 Restaurant Week customers. Mr. Davis said he thought the business brought in by Restaurant Week was even greater than that since tracking every customer can be challenging.
Restaurant activity during the promotion was tracked through the use of contest cards given out at each participating restaurant. Rounding out the top five busiest restaurants during the week were Liberatore’s, Pairings Bistro, Silver Spring Mining Company and Sean Bolan’s.
During Restaurant Week, Harford County participating restaurants offered special prix fixe menus for $20.12, plus beverage, taxes, and gratuity. Like last year, participating establishments are reporting a 10-15% increase in business during the event.
“We are very pleased with how well the promotion went this year said Wini Roche Tourism Manager and Restaurant Week coordinator. We want to thank everyone who supported our local businesses,” Roche remarked.
For more information on dining out in Harford County or other ways to enjoy the summer, visit the Office of Tourism’s website at www.harfordmd.com.
I think this promotion would have been even more successful if a list of the participating restaurants had been easily available. I looked in a number of place, including the Harford County tourism web site and I could not find a list. I was so annoyed by that shortcoming that I didn’t even make an effort to participate after that. If you have a list of participants, how hard could it be to publish it somewhere – like in the Dagger?
I absolutely agree. I looked on several websites as well and none of them gave a list of restaurants that were included in that promotion. Downtown has a link to go to that includes all the restaurants participating as well as the menu that is offered for the deal. It is a work in progress for Harford County and I hope they continue to run this promotion but work on the advertising a little more.
I couldn’t finda list either. Great idea that needs a little more thoughtful promotion next year.
You mean like the website for harford county restaurant week that listed every restaurant and linked to every menu for every restaurant?
A web site is only good if people can find it. Apparently 3 of us posting here couldn’t find it.