Grills Gone Wild Vol. 5

Seventeen restaurants located
within the heart of the city will be offering their best from Monday,
Feb. 18, through Saturday, Feb. 28, with the intent of making it known
that Syracuse has a wide variety of dilettantish dinner spots whose
dishes could satisfy even the savviest of palates.

“We’ve got a lot of nice restaurants tucked away in the city and our goal is to make people aware of that fact,” says Laurie Reed, marketing director for the Downtown Committee of Syracuse,
the group that fostered the idea. She adds that most every restaurant
that serves supper in the city is taking part in the event. 

“It does wonderful things for the
economy downtown,” continues Reed. “The restaurants will be more than
doubling their business during the event. But also, in a time when
money is tight, {Dining Week} provides people with a way to eat some of
the best food this city has to offer at a great value instead of
breaking the bank.”

The restaurants involved will all have
a special Dining Week menu featuring some of their best and most
popular selections. For a standard $25 fare at every restaurant, you
will get a three-course dinner with choice of appetizer, entree and
dessert (beverages, tax and gratuity are additional). “This is an
opportunity for the chefs to get creative and offer what they can for a
reasonable price,” says Reed of the variety and exceptional caliber of
food diners can expect.

If you plan on heading down during the
event, it might be wise to make reservations. Reed mentions that
several restaurants that participated in last year’s event were nearly
at capacity every night until closing time and some places even had to
turn people away, which is an anomaly for this time of year. “It’s
traditionally a slow month for restaurants,” she says, “and this was
intended to bring people downtown when they might not otherwise go.”

As there seems to be a different
festival every weekend during the summer, many of those people would
most likely opt to not stand amid the below-zero wintertime winds that
Syracuse blows, but this event does not have to worry about that.
“During one of our planning meetings,” Reed allows, “David Hoyne {owner of Kitty Hoynes} said that ‘no matter how cold it is outside, every restaurant will be at least 70 degrees.’”

The restaurants taking part in this year’s Dining Week are: Ale ’N Angus Pub, 238 Harrison St. (426-9672); Ambrosia, 201 Walton St. (426-8800); Anthony’s Pasta Bar, 126 E. Genesee St. (422-4669); bc Restaurant, 247 W. Fayette St. (701-0636); Bistro Elephant, 238 W. Jefferson St. (475-1111); Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, 246 W. Willow St. (476-4937); Empire Brewing Company, 120 Walton St. (475-2337); Enoteca by Dante, 215 Walton St. (479-9383); Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub, 301 W. Fayette St. (424-1974); L’Adour, 110 Montgomery St. (475-7653); Lemon Grass, 238 W. Jefferson St. (475-1111); The Mission, 304 E. Onondaga St. (475-7344); Opus Restaurant and Lounge, 218 Walton St. (701-1351); Pascale Wine Bar and Restaurant, 204 W. Fayette St. (471-3040); Pastabilities, 311 S. Franklin St. (474-1153); PJ’s Pub and Grill, 116 Walton St. (478-3023); and Syracuse Suds Factory, 320 S. Clinton St. (471-2253).

-Tom Kahley