At least 18 restaurants are participating in Homewood Restaurant Week from Friday, March 25 through Sunday, April 10. Most participating restaurants will have deals exclusive to Restaurant Week. Other restaurants, such as La Voute Bistro-Bar, will have special menu items only available for Restaurant Week.
Participating restaurants include Asian Harbor, Aurelio’s Pizza, Culver’s, Dairy Queen, Empanadus, Epiq Nutrition, Forever Yogurt, Grady’s Snack ‘N’ Dine, Home Slice, Juanchos Tacos, Jimmy John’s, La Voute Bistro-Bar, Maple Tree Inn, Mama and Me’s Pizzeria, Park’s Pastries and Catering, Red Bird Café, Twisted Q BBQ and Vida Tacos.
Chef Robert Burt at La Voute Bistro-Bar said that for Restaurant Week, they’re offering a “plat du jour.” Each day at La Voute, there will be a new dish available only that day. Every “plat du jour” special will come with a starter salad and a desert and will have a fixed price of $35, Burt said.
“If a patron wants to visit us each day of Restaurant Week, there’ll be something new and different each day,” Burt said.
One of deals available during Restaurant Week is free pizza upgrades at Aurelio’s. If patrons order a small pizza, it can be upgraded to a medium.
Mama and Me’s Pizzeria is offering half-price dine-in on thin crust pizza and calzones.
At Grady’s Snack ‘N Dine, anyone who shows proof they visited the business’s Restaurant Week page, can order a coffee, lemonade or soft drink for free.
Julie Lawton, director of the Homewood Business Association, said that this year the HBA and the Village of Homewood scheduled the restaurant promotion the same time as Chicago’s Restaurant Week so more people are aware of it.
“We want people to go into restaurants that maybe they’ve never tried before, or that they have but never really ordered certain things,” Lawton said.
Lawton said the organizers are hoping Restaurant Week will help an industry that was hit hard by the pandemic.
“A lot of restaurants shut down. None here in Homewood, thank God. But around the country, a lot of restaurants had to shut down permanently,” Lawton said.
Allisa Opyd, events manager for the village of Homewood, said that during previous years, Restaurant Week lasted only seven days, but this year, it has been extended it to two weeks. Opyd said this is because more restaurants are participating this year and an extra week will give community members more time to dine at them.
“We definitely want to do [Restaurant Week] every single year,” Opyd said.
A limited supply of free Eat Homewood T-shirts is available at Red Bird Café, Lawton said. These shirts were made for Restaurant Week for a previous year.
The village has a webpage about Restaurant Week, listing all participating restaurants. For most restaurants, visitors can click the logo to find out what deals or special menu items are available. If the information for a particular restaurant is unavailable, visit the business’s website or Facebook page for more information.