Brandywine Restaurant Week will run from Sept. 15 to Sept. 21.
The event includes more restaurants than similar events around the area, with more than two-dozen participants in Wilmington, Hockessin and adjacent areas of Pennsylvania.
No Newark-area restaurants are listed.
The restaurant week event features independently owned establishments (no Red Lobsters, Olive Gardens, etc.)
The event follows the prix fix format with two-course lunch menu items at $20 and two or three-course dinners at $35 or $55.
Restaurants range from steak houses to Mexican food.
Black Restaurant Week features the Wilmington Black Food Festival at the Queen in downtown Wilmington on Oct. 5 that will feature items from restaurants.
A list of participating restaurants is forthcoming.
About a dozen restaurants and food trucks participated in the 2024 event.
Closings abound
The closing of Gullcio''s in the Trolley Square Neighborhood was chronicled late last month in a lengthy piece from Delaware Online that featured comments from the former part-owner and a staff member.
The closing came as a shock to patrons and employees and followed an equally abrupt closing of Brio at Christiana Mall after a 15-year run that found employees finding locked doors when they came to work.
Brio was part of a troubled Italian food restaurant chain that declared bankruptcy protection for a second time.
The list of closings this year is long and recently included the long-running Concord Pike TGI Fridays, yet another concept that has been struggling.
Reasons for the wave of closings are many, but in my opinion have their roots in the Covid-19 pandemic. The Payroll Protection Program that offered grants and loans for restaurants that retained staff. That kept some marginal locations open.
When that money went away, inflation, changing tastes and high food prices dented profits. Mid-sized chains seem to take the biggesgt hit.
The one thing we do know is that restaurants have always had a high casualty rate, not always due to finances, but also from long hours and other pressures.
We also know that the dream of running a restaurant hasn't gone away.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.