Calling all food lovers! Hamden Restaurant Week is taking place from Monday, Sept. 11 to Saturday, Sept. 16. The week long event is put on by the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Bankwell.
The Hamden area will celebrate local restaurants in its seventh annual Restaurant Week, where eateries across Hamden will offer special deals on their menus.
Aunt Chilada’s, B & D Deli Works, Cafe Amici, Eli’s on Whitney, Freskos, Ixtapa Grille, Ristorante Luce, Mickey’s Restaurant and Bar, The Playwright, Side Street Grille, The Soup Girl and ZZAAM!, a new Korean restaurant in town, are among the participating places.
The majority of the restaurants will offer a Prix Fixe option for lunch and dinner; consumers will receive an appetizer, an entree and a dessert or beverage costing between $9 and $15 for lunch and $20 and $35 for dinner.
Other businesses will offer a buy one, get one free deal.
Freskos, located at 2323 Whitney Avenue, is offering a “Kali Orexi” Restaurant Week deal. Freskos is a part of the Chamber of Commerce and has participated in Restaurant Week for the past two years.
“What we have is a sandwich, it’s one of the pita sandwiches, which is the gyro,” Peter Vouras, Freskos owner said. “You get a small greek salad and a drink for $10… all that for $10.”
Ixtapa Grille is offering a Prix Fixe all-day menu for $19, which includes an appetizer, an entree and a dessert. Ixtapa also has Restaurant Week drink specials.
Eli’s on Whitney is offering a Prix Fixe deal for both lunch and dinner. Lunch at Eli’s will cost $13, while dinner will cost $25.
ZZAAM! Fresh Korean Grill, one of the newest eateries in Hamden, is offering a buy one, get one free bowl or burrito.
Other Restaurant Week deals and menus are available for preview at iloverestaurantweek.com.
Nancy Dudchik, president of the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce, started Restaurant Week seven years ago to showcase the town’s culinary variety.
“I felt that there was a need,” Dudchik said. “Hamden has such a diverse listing of restaurants from Irish and Mexican and Mediterranean and Spanish. There’s such a diversity of restaurants that I really wanted… to encourage people from in our town but also outside of our borders to come and experience all of our wonderful restaurants.”
Dudchik said Restaurant Week is a perfect time for consumers to celebrate and support local businesses and try something new that they may have never tried before.
For the last two years, Bankwell has sponsored Hamden Restaurant Week. The company is responsible for all the advertising of the event, including the Restaurant Week billboard on the corner of Whitney Avenue and Dixwell Avenue, while the Chamber of Commerce runs the event’s Facebook page and website.
Dudchik said Restaurant Week is a great deal for Quinnipiac students as well.
“(Quinnipiac students) are a part of this local economy and the more that they know about the opportunity and the deals that are going on, I think it’s good for them too, “ she said.
Sophomore Gabrielle White said she learned of restaurant week on Facebook.
“It’s good for college kids,” White said. “Quinnipiac is a big school, and I like the restaurants in Hamden, so it works out well.”
