Fredericksburg's Restaurant Week Begins Amid Ongoing Pandemic
FREDERICKSBURG, VA – The coronavirus pandemic has presented a series of unprecedented challenges to small businesses across the country. But perhaps no industry has been impacted more over the past 10 months than local restaurants, which have been forced to endure a roller coaster ride of difficulties since the pandemic began last March.
As eateries in Fredericksburg continue to struggle, 29 local restaurants will participate in the city’s annual Winter Restaurant Week, which kicks off Friday. Like every other aspect of life impacted by the ongoing global health crisis, the weeklong culinary celebration will be different this year an an on-going effort to help local diners and restaurants — many of which have been forced to rely on creative measures to keep their doors open.
This year’s Winter Restaurant Week will focus on take-out, which is an aspect of the dining business that many of Fredericksburg establishments have had to depend on more than normal because of restrictions associated with the pandemic. Local tourism officials have deemed the event as “’Burg In A Bag” – which will run from Friday until Jan. 24 – which has been designated to support restaurants.
While past Winter Restaurant Week events have focused specifically on restaurants in the downtown district, this year’s Restaurant Week will also include eating establishments throughout the city for the first time as a way of lending hand to food-centric businesses throughout Fredericksburg.
“Restaurant Week is so important this year. January is known to be slow season for our restaurants but besides low winter customer volume, restaurants are now faced with the pandemic, too,” Danelle Rose, Fredericksburg’s tourism services manager wrote in an email to Patch on Thursday. “It's a double whammy! We hope everyone gets out this week and supports our city restaurants by ordering to go, delivery or safely dining at the restaurants.”
While the emphasis is on take-out, Rose said that some restaurants are offering dine-in services albeit at reduced seating capacities in some cases. Others are offering heated outdoor seating and local officials are encouraging residents to contact restaurants for specific seating arrangements.
A full list of participating restaurants can be found at the city’s Restaurant Week website. Each business is offering menu options with prices ending with 21 cents to commemorate the uniqueness of this year’s event. In addition, the city's tourism services website has an offer to purchase gift cards for a number of local restaurants which are good for 20 percent off during Restaurant Week.
This article originally appeared on the Fredericksburg Patch
