If the response from diners and around downtown Denver is any indication, the city’s 2006 Restaurant Week is off to a rousing start.
Sullivan’s, a LoDo steakhouse, is usually moderately busy with maybe 100 guests on a Sunday evening, said Jody O’Neill. By 9 p.m. O’Neill and her colleagues had fed more than than 200 people, and arrivals were still coming through the door. O’Neill said about 99 per cent of her customers came in for the special. Her estimate was backed up by assistant manager, Rachel Lyman.
“We had to open the library in the very back of the room because we were booked pretty solid,” Lyman said. “We had more than 400 Saturday night by this time.”
Until March 3, more than 100 area eateries will offer multicourse, prix fixe meals for $52.80 for two, $26.40 for one – not including tax and tip (for participating restaurants, go to denverrestaurantweek.com).
At Le Central on Saturday, Karen and John Shulstead of Castle Pines North celebrated her birthday with Beverly and Dale Kucera of Parker.
“Karen likes French food and although we’ve been here before, the four of us have never been here together,” Dale Kucera said. “We went online to see what restaurants were offering what. John gave Karen eight choices and here we are.”
Harried hostess Abby Johnson said Le Central is always busy on Saturday nights, but there was an unusually large number of reservations and walk-ins, many of them asking about the Restaurant Week special. By evening’s end the restaurant had sold 329 dinners and reservations for weeknights had also increased.
Pat Taylor, office manager for the Aurora Summit restaurant in Aurora, said the restaurant is participating for the first time. Aurora Summit, which specializes in steak and seafood, is offering Chateaubriand as one of its entrees and passion fruit mousse as one of the desserts.
“Friday and Saturday were better than normal, and the week is looking good,” Taylor said. “A lot of people are asking if we’ll take a reservations because they think it’s on a first- come, first-served basis.”
Meanwhile, The Capital Grille sold out Saturday, according to hostess Jackie Bowlen. During the week the restaurant is booked solid until 10 p.m., although there are some 5:15 p.m. dinner slots available, she said.
At The Fort, spokesman Elizabeth Weber said they sold out Saturday. The restaurant sold 360 meals this past Saturday and 270 on Sunday.
“Our mid-week bookings are definitely up from normal for restaurant week,” Weber said, adding that the restaurant is sold out Friday until 8:30 p.m.
Mizuna also is sold out and Vesta Dipping Grill is almost sold out, said Rich Grant of the Metro Denver Convention and Tourism Bureau.
Grant said the number of participating restaurants increased by 50 percent over last year, from 80 to 120. “An event like this is so word-of-mouth,” he said. “Everyone who had a good time last year has been looking forward to this year. We decided to start on Saturday so that it would have a water-cooler effect: People would talk about the good time they had over the weekend, so others would want to go too.”
Staff writer Ellen Sweets can be reached at 303-820-1284 or esweets@denverpost.com.
