Restaurant Week a great success

New Haven (WTNH) - hungry marketing push has been implemented to bring customers into restaurants in New Haven is proving to be quite a success. Since Restaurant Week began, eateries taking part are seeing the fruits of their labor. Now, they're looking to take it to the next level.
 
There has been a big push this year from "Market New Haven" to promote New Haven as a true food destination.
   
A one week campaign is leaving many hungy for more.

The burners are hot, the tables are booked and for employees of the popular "Zinc" restaurant, in New Haven, there is no rest for the weary. And, that's a good thing, says manager Elizabeth Ciarlelli.

"This is over the top," she said. "It's really been so exciting to meet new people and get this kind of response from new and old people."

As the economy continues to leave a bitter taste in our mouths, finding flavor has meant discovering the culinary delights of the Elm City.  The first, and heavily marketed, Restaurant Week seems to be getting five-star reviews with its fixed priced menus: $16.38 for lunch, the year the city was founded, and dinners at $29, at 18 different eateries.

"It couldn't have come at a better time," Ciarlelli said. "Because it was a shot in the arm for everyone."

At "Ibiza" restaurant, a colorful mural on the wall shows a packed house full of smiling people.  Owner Juan Carlos says art imitates life, because he had to turn people away.

"We had extremely high demand," he said. "We need two people just to answer the phone. Maybe we could have done ten times the amount of people that we did."

Those restaurants involved in the week-long campaign say 70 percent of their business were new faces, with hungry people coming from as far away as New York. Plans for a spring event, as well as another fall week, are already in the works.

"I think the timing of New Haven's first ever Restaurant Week has been very opportune.  If there's one thing we can say about the downturn of the economy, it has stimulated this restaurant week interest," Anne Worcester, of Market New Haven, said.

It's been said there is no love more sincere than the love of food.  Couple that with a love of saving some cash, and you have people leaving New Haven with more than just full stomachs but fuller wallets.