Atlanta restaurant week extends through Aug. 16

By Leon Stafford

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Taylor Bay scallop ceviche with thai citrus marinade. Garlic herb stuffed chicken with English peas in a morel sauce. Carrot cake with ginger ice cream. All for $25.

Salivating yet?

Apparently some are. Foot traffic for Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week — which invited diners into some of the city’s toniest restaurants for a fraction of the cost — has been so good that organizers of the annual event extended this year’s run not once, but twice. Originally planned for July 27-Aug. 2, it expanded to Aug. 9 and then to Aug. 16.

And more is on the way. Back-to-back-to-back restaurant weeks are planned for now through October as an old concept ramps up with new purpose in the face of an economy that has taken the bite out of dining out.

Call it economic stimulus for the taste buds.

“It’s been amazing,” said Jimmy Monteleone, general manager of six-month-old BLT Steak at the W Hotel downtown, creator of the above mentioned menu. “We were booked solid four days of each week. We were seating people up to about closing time.”

Wilma Sothern, vice president of Central Atlanta Progress, which organized Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week, said the expansion was a test to gauge interest. In the past, the group found that many people would miss the dine out because they were on vacation or couldn’t fit a night into their schedule. More days offered more flexibility, she said.

“This is the first year that we’ve done this longer than a week,” she said. “It was a great success. You could probably see us doing this again for more than one week next year.”

While none of the other restaurant weeks — including the upcoming Midtown Restaurant Week — have planned to add additional days, most are seeing larger numbers of participating eateries. The growth is a reaction to diners looking for the best deals at a time when their wallets are being pinched.

The events spotlight everything from specific geographic areas to restaurant groups promoting their establishments. Other weeks are about specific niches, like Taste of Asia, which is designed to expand diner knowledge beyond Chinese takeout.

Ron Wolf, executive director of the Georgia Restaurant Association, said restaurateurs like it because they can get more bang for their buck by pooling their marketing budgets.

The goal, he said, is to attract new diners.

“If all I do is feed my regular customers, it won’t be successful,” said Wolf, whose organization is behind Taste of Asia, which runs now through Sunday.

There is a drawback. Though the diners come out, the restaurants break even at best because of the discounting, the operators said.

“We began this before the recession hit, but it’s relevant now more than ever,” said Hannah Huffines, spokeswoman for Concentrics Restaurants, which is gearing up its own restaurant week — Aug. 22-28 — at establishments under its umbrella, including Parish, Two Urban Licks, Room and One Midtown Kitchen.