La Rioja
Oct. 6, 2014 By Michael Florio
Another restaurant week is about to come to Western Queens.
More than 150 restaurants will be participating in the 11th annual Queens Restaurant Week—including 10 from Astoria and four from Long Island City.
Queens Restaurant Week, which includes eateries from the entire borough, will run from Oct. 13 to Oct. 30.
The participating restaurants will offer $14 lunch specials and $28 dinner specials. Each restaurant will determine its own specials.
“Some restaurants will offer a special that includes an appetizer, entree and dessert,” said Rob MacKay, Director of the Queens Tourism Council. “Others might offer an entree, dessert and wine.”
Restaurants that participate in the event are likely to see a 20 percent bump in business during Queens Restaurant Week, MacKay said, based on previous year’s experience.
The organizers are also touting the diverse list of restaurants that have signed up for the event.
“We have restaurants of every ethnicity you can think of,” MacKay said.
MacKay said that there are Ecuadorian, Dominican, Mexican, Italian, French, German, Chinese, Indian, Thai and several other types of restaurants participating.
In Astoria, restaurants such as the Astor Room, Bowery Bay, Grand Café, La Roija, SingleCut Beersmiths, Via Vai and Zenon Taverna are part of the event.
In Long Island City, Crescent Grill, Court Square Diner, Il Falco and Testaccio have registered so far.
MacKay said this is an exciting event for everyone involved.
“Some people use this to try new food; others use it as a reason to get together with friends,” MacKay said.
The event comes shortly after the Astoria Restaurant Week ended.
However, MacKay does not view these local events as competition.
“Over the years there have been many groups that have tried to set up neighborhood restaurant weeks–some fail and some succeed,” he said. “We cover the whole borough. It’s apples and oranges.”
For a full list of participating restaurants go to: http://www.itsinqueens.com/dq/RestaurantWeek/participants/
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