Boston Restaurant Week has become a staple dining event in the city. Twice a year, customers are invited to come out to the local hot spots and order from special prix-fixe menus for both lunch and dinner in an effort to get Bostonians more acquainted with the various restaurants right in their backyard. Whether you love it or are over it, it’s a fixture in the city’s dining scene.
Usually, two price points are affixed with Restaurant Week that often change by the year. Last fall, for example, Restaurant Week two-course lunches cost $15.13, three-course lunches cost $20.13, and dinners cost $38.13. Some restaurants provided add-ons for extra cash, but the flat prices remained the same.
As Boston Restaurant Week prepares to return from March 16-21 and March 23-28 this year, however, the event we’ve come to know is facing some changes. First of all, it won’t be referred to as Restaurant Week, instead taking on the moniker Dine Out Boston, the “new” Restaurant Week of 2014, brought to us by the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau (GBCVB) along with American Express.
Along with a new name, Dine Out Boston will give participating restaurants and chefs three different price points to choose from for lunch and dinner. After that, the chefs are free to create a specialized menu as they see fit. This year, guests can expect to see Dine Out Boston prices set at $15, $20 or $25 for lunch and $28, $33 or $38 for dinner. The menus at these price points are no longer fixed at a certain number of dishes either, with chefs choosing how many courses to prepare.
In an official release, President and CEO of GBCVB Patrick Moscaritolo, said that the decision came as a result of wanting to offer guests and restaurateurs a customizable dining experience along with significant savings. He said:
After speaking with restaurant owners, diners, and the Convention & Visitors Bureaus in other major cities, we made the decision to restructure the pricing and course requirements traditionally associated with restaurant week offers. Dining is a destination of its own and we’re confident that these changes will whet the public’s appetite for a new type of value dining experience.
The complete list of participating restaurants and menus for March 2014 will be released later this week, but a few restaurants, including Mistral, Capital Grille, Davio’s and Rialto, are confirmed to be signed on for the first Dine Out Boston. Check back at the week’s official website for more information and updates.
