Diners greedily gobbled up the second annual Beringer Denver Restaurant Week, eating 54,180 multi-course meals over seven nights. That’s more than double the 25,300 meals served last year, the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau said Tuesday.
Between Feb. 25 and March 3, 120 local restaurants offered dinner-for-two specials for $52.80 ($26.40 for one).
Sixty percent of the participating restaurants sold out during the week; 34 percent said they experienced record-breaking business.
“Across the board, it was a huge success,” said bureau spokesman Rich Grant.
Launched last year, Denver’s restaurant week was designed to elevate the city’s dining scene on a national level – and it appears to be working.
Top meeting planners last year ranked Denver 14th of 40 U.S. cities for good restaurants, up from 21st in 2004, according to a Gerard Murphy & Associates survey called the Metropoll Study.
Grant says the goal for next year’s affair is to crack the top 10.
“It’s amazing how important dining is to meeting planners and convention delegates,” he said. “Denver’s dining is catching up. Now we have to let everyone know about it.”
Duo, a tiny, 5-month-old restaurant in the Highlands neighborhood, had its single busiest night the Saturday of restaurant week, serving 161 guests. “It absolutely brought new people to Duo,” said co-owner Stephanie Bonin.
Each eatery paid $350 to $450 to participate, with funds going to marketing and advertising the event.
This year’s event was presented by the convention bureau and the Denver Newspaper Agency, which handles business operations for The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. It also benefited this year from the Beringer title sponsorship, which was secured for an undisclosed sum.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
