South Bend Restaurant Weeks boasts biggest year as local business rebounds
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South Bend’s Downtown Dining Association is midway through its largest ever Restaurant Weeks promotion.
The biannual, two-week-long event was created more than a decade ago as a way to boost business for about a dozen locally owned restaurants as dining habits changed after the 2008 recession.
This year, organizers say Restaurant Weeks is taking on a similar role, elevating the profile of 25-participating bars and restaurants as small businesses emerge from the pandemic and plan conservatively amid talks of another recession.
“This is, we think, a great way to showcase that downtown South Bend is the dining Mecca, the dining destination for our region,” Navarre Hospitality Group owner Kurt Janowsky said. “Hopefully, this gives people that don’t come downtown very often the chance to see how beautiful it is, how vibrant, how much activity is in and outside of all of the restaurants.”
Kurt Janowsky speaks about the appeal of participating in South Bend Restaurant Weeks.
Summer Restaurant Weeks kicked off on Monday and will extend through Aug. 6. This year, 25 local establishments are participating and offering deals that range from discounted drinks to a flat rate for multi-course samplings.
The Downtown Dining Association, which sponsors the event, has stepped back from its set pricing format of $11, $22 or $33 in recent years, allowing participants to adjust their specials as needed to match the rising costs of inflation.
For South Bend’s high-end dining establishments, the week offers guests a chance to try more of a menu at a discounted rate. And, staff enjoy it, too, sometimes trying out new menu items for the first time and making changes based on diners’ feedback.
Roselily, which opened its South Main Street location last year, participated in its first Restaurant Weeks last summer. Owner Eamonn McParland said Roselily now offers a five-course and eight-course tasting menu as well as an a la carte menu year-round after sampling tasting menus during Restaurant Weeks. It’s also served as a gateway to new diners.
“Some of the food that we do can be a little bit intimidating,” McParland said, “But, once they dine here and experience it, they’re very likely to respond.”
The annual Restaurant Weeks — two in the summer and two in the winter — are generally scheduled during periods restaurant owners would otherwise see a dip in sales due to summer travel or cold, winter weather.
Restaurant owners say they can see anywhere from 50% more volume and a 25% increase in sales during the promotion, adding between two weeks to a month’s business to their bottom line. It also offers restaurants the opportunity to pool their resources for shared marketing — a cost that can be especially challenging for new businesses starting up in the downtown area.
The association partners with one of the region’s largest employers, Beacon Health System, along with a couple of other local sponsors, to promote the event.
The association also gives 10% of its proceeds from the week back to Beacon Children’s Hospital and is adding a new, mobile dining pass this year allowing guests to build up points for each restaurant visited and earn prizes.
“It’s been a positive thing, I think, for South Bend,” said Mark McDonnell, owner of LaSalle Grill and LaSalle Kitchen and Tavern. “We have a lot of critical mass and we have a lot of walkability (downtown).”
The consortium of restaurant owners has long hoped the promotion would draw diners away from the plethora of chains popping up in Mishawaka and Granger’s suburban sprawl and say their businesses’ success is intertwined with South Bend’s success as a city.
Restaurateurs admit options to dine downtown in South Bend were limited when Restaurant Weeks began back in 2011. Janowsky opened Cafe Navarre — now a mainstay of the city’s upscale dining scene — just weeks before South Bend’s first Restaurant Weeks. And, the brunch staple PEGGS was still a Le Peep franchise at the time.
Wounds were also still fresh after Newsweek in January 2011 named South Bend to a now locally infamous listicle of America’s Top 10 Dying Cities.
“We knew we weren’t a dying city, but we knew we had to help change the perception and continue to help make it grow,” PEGGS owner Peg Dalton said.
Peg Dalton talks about Summer Restaurants Week as a part of downtown South Bend’s revitalization.
With time, Restaurant Weeks and its participating restaurants have grown, boosted by the opening of two new downtown hotels – Aloft in 2017 and Courtyard by Marriott in 2018.
2022 was a strong year for local restaurants, Downtown Dining Association organizers say, possibly due to a swinging back of the pendulum after closures brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And, the prospect of new development in the Four Wind Fields area just south of South Bend’s downtown core, is also bringing excitement to the local business community.
“COVID just put everything on halt and now with these developments…I’m starting to see it on the rise again,” said McParland, whose restaurant sits closest to proposed development near Four Winds. “I think we’re on the upward trajectory.”
Not all downtown restaurants participate in Restaurant Weeks, and for some, it may not make sense. Some restaurants with smaller staffs or limited dining space may opt to skip if taking on the extra volume during a special promotion is too much of a burden.
For others, like PEGGS, the financial incentive may not be as strong as it is for the restaurants specializing in multi-course dinner meals considering the affordability they offer year-round.
For Dalton, it’s about community building.
The promotion this week also overlaps with Downtown South Bend’s monthly First Fridays event, which the dining association says it hopes drives guests out to the city’s museums and performance spaces.
Downtown Dining Association organizers say they don’t worry about the concept becoming stale. If anything, they’re adding more events. The association’s regular Wine Walks came back stronger than ever after the pandemic, Dalton said, selling out and extending an additional 50 tickets beyond the event’s typical cap.
The association plans to continue those events and is looking to add a summer outdoor concert event next year as well as a “Mactoberfest” Mac n’ Cheese and Wine tasting event this fall.