Restaurants across Hamden welcomed in guests as part of the town’s 10th annual restaurant week. Through unique menus offering prix fixe options and buy-one-get-one deals, restaurants are able to draw in entirely new audiences and display their unique styles.
Nancy Dudchik and others working at the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce created the event in hopes of bringing awareness of the countless quality restaurants in Hamden to the residents of the town and beyond.
“I started it as a way to bring awareness to the diversity of our restaurants,” said Dudchik, president of the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce. “If you look at the listing, you have Italian, you have Greek, you have Spanish/Tapas restaurant, you have Mexican TexMex, you have American. Hamden’s got such a wonderful diversity of our restaurants, we wanted to bring more awareness not just to the people that live in Hamden, but outside of our borders.”
The listing that Dudchik mentioned includes 10 restaurants, most prominently Eli’s on Whitney and Luce. It also mentions Aunt Chilada’s, Cafe Amici, Freskos, Funcle’s, Ibiza Tapas, Ixtapa, Side Street Grill and The Playwright Irish Pub. As a part of restaurant week, each location will accompany their meals with music, all performed by Hamden musicians.
Those working in the Department of Arts and Culture in Hamden had the idea to provide local musicians with the opportunity to perform at restaurants during the weeklong event.
“The department of arts and culture is very, very active trying to come up with new ideas and new ways through a pandemic, but still be able to bring people together, still engage, still inform that restaurant week (is going on), still be able to do an event,” Dudchik said. “And still be conscious about social distancing but still supporting our local businesses is really what the Chamber is all about. We just need to bring awareness to … all the restaurants. Especially right now.”
COVID-19 has played a role in this year’s restaurant week. Those working at Ibiza Tapas explained that attendance has been down due to fear of indoor seating, given that the space is less open which may lead to a higher probability of contracting the virus. At one point, the Chamber of Commerce was hesitant to even host the event this year, but at the end of the day it seemed more essential this year than others that the event go on.
“This year more than ever, there was a moment of, ‘Do we do this?’” Dudchik said. “And we were like, ‘Absolutely. The restaurants, now more than ever, need this.’ We were excited to still be able to plan it for them.”
Dudchik explained that the restaurants are grateful as always for this event, but that Hamden residents themselves indulging in restaurant week is what makes or breaks it each year.
“These restaurants are all small business, entrepreneurs that need to be here,” Dudchik said.
“So we should all care about our local small businesses and supporting our community. Those are the businesses that live here, work here. We all dine (at) and support these local businesses, we need to protect them. And this is just another way to bring a stronger awareness to one industry, and it happens to be the restaurant industry right now, as well as local musicians, we’re supporting them as well. So this week really is a great opportunity for the community, and it supports all of our local businesses.”
To learn more about restaurant week and those participating, visit hamdenregionalchamber.com, as well as Hamden Regional Chamber and Hamden Restaurant Week’s Facebook pages.