New Day, New Eatery

What sounds good for dinner? Ooh, what about that new spot on the Mile? Oh, that other place downtown is always good, too.

Well, if you have a week, you can get it all. Stockton eateries are opening their doors and offering deals with Stockton Restaurant Week, which kicks off today.

“Restaurants are such a key part of bringing visitors in,” said Wes Rhea, director of the Stockton Conference and Visitors Bureau. The purpose of this event is “mainly to get locals to support local restaurants so they’re here for visitors in the future.”

The event focuses on the dining experience available at the local level rather than chain venues.

“It’s the family-owned (restaurants) that tend to get hurt in this kind of economy,” Rhea said.

Each restaurant has a choice of creating a fixed-price, three-course lunch or dinner menu (or both) at the price point of $9.95 (lunch only), $15, $20 or $25. And this year, the event is partnering with The Haggin Museum and the Stockton Symphony to offer discounts. The Haggin admission will be just $1 with presentation of a participating restaurant receipt, and the symphony will take 10 percent off the ticket price for its Sept. 23 and 25 performances.

“We thought it’d be a great partnership and we could create a very memorable evening for Stockton residents and people near Stockton to come in and go to restaurants and go to events,” said Julie Ford, marketing associate for the Stockton Symphony. “I think we’re going to reach people that maybe need that extra step to go out.”

For participating restaurants, it can be a great opportunity to build a customer base.

“We’re fairly new, we’ve only been open for two months, so this is a fantastic opportunity for us to get our name out there,” said Matthew Grizzle of Midtown Creperie & Café in Stockton. “There are still quite a few people in town who don’t even know we exist. (I’m excited to bring in) crepe fans in general, or people who have never tried it before.”

In addition to typical menu items, the creperie will offer a chicken chardonnay crepe during Restaurant Week.

The special pricing continues through Sept. 25. Check out the other restaurants’ menus at visitstockton.org/Dining/Stockton-Restaurant-Week.

~Published In The September 19, 2010 Edition Of The Stockton Record~