STARKVILLE — Starkville’s third annual Restaurant Week starts today, and Greater Starkville Development Partnership leaders say event has found its stride.
GSDP Special Events and Projects Coordinator Jennifer Prather said 31 restaurants had signed up to participate for the 10-day event that runs through March 22. That number is consistent with the event’s first two years, Prather said, despite the Partnership’s requirement this year for each restaurant to pay a $100 entry fee. In the past, participating restaurants only had to provide GSDP with a $30 gift card to help with promoting the event.
She said seven of those restaurants are new to the event, because they either opened or joined GSDP within the last year.
“We were very pleased to see we were consistent with the number of our restaurants returning,” Prather said. “I feel that’s attributed to the success of the event itself for our restaurants.”
At its core, Starkville Restaurant Week helps bolster revenue for restaurants the week after spring break — a time Prather said is typically slow for local eateries. But the spirit of giving actually helps drive traffic to the restaurants during the event, as patron votes will earn a local charity a $5,000 donation from Cadence Bank.
This year, restaurant patrons will choose between the Autism and Developmental Disability Clinic, Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army to receive the grand prize donation. Patrons will receive a ballot each time they order an entree at a participating restaurant, and they can vote as often as they eat out — a process Prather called “Eat. Vote. Repeat.”
The second-place charity will receive a $1,000 donation from Vollor Law Firm and third place will receive $500 from Scrub-ville.
GSDP accepts public nominations for charities each year, Prather said, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau Board selects the three finalists. Previous winners are the Oktibbeha County Humane Society and the T.K. Martin Center at Mississippi State University.
“For charities, this is such a unique opportunity to market and promote themselves, especially if they have tight budgets,” Prather said. “We like to see them get active, especially on social media, and have things like voting parties at the restaurants.”
Restaurants also benefit from the extra exposure. Prather said participating eateries typically report a 15-20-percent increase in sales for the week, and they often use the event as a way to especially push their signature dishes. Some even offer specials throughout the week, she added, and they are posted on GSDP’s website.
Patron participation has also risen since the event’s inception, Prather said, with more than 10,000 ballots cast in 2013 and about 16,000 cast last year. Prather said GSDP extended the event to 10 days last year to include dates for the MSU baseball team’s home series this weekend against Alabama. With the extension, and the influx of tourism inherent with a weekend home baseball series, Prather hopes to see cast ballots top 20,000.
“Last year, about 60 percent of the ballots we received came from people who lived outside of the Golden Triangle,” Prather said. “Restaurant Week included a home baseball weekend last year, too, and I think a lot of those votes came from (out-of-town fans).”
The restaurants themselves also bring excitement for the charities. Chick-Fil-A invites each charity to have a special night at the restaurant, marketing director Molly Martin said, allowing representatives of each the opportunity to share their work with patrons and encourage them to vote.
“We don’t promote that as a ‘voting party,’ per say, but it lets the charities educate our customers on what they do,” Martin said. “We’re excited , and we’re ready for Restaurant Week to be here.”
Starkville’s “Biscuit Lady” Michelle Tehan advocated heavily for Starkville Restaurant Week on social media and cast her share of ballots for local charities before she owned The Biscuit Shop on Jackson Street. This year, though, she will lead a participating restaurant stocked with plenty of ballots for her customers.
“What I like about this event is that it allows community participation from start to finish, all the back to allowing community members to nominate charities,” Tehan said. “This event brings the community and charities together, while also raising sales at the restaurants.”
Starkville became the second city in Mississippi to start a restaurant week, as GSDP followed the lead of Jackson’s wildly successful annual rendition. Now, Prather said, Tupelo and Oxford have implemented some form of restaurant week.
For Starkville, Prather said the growing pains of the first two years help establish a strong local event built to last.
“Now, it’s like second-nature to us,” she said. “It’s not as big of an animal to sell as it used to be because the people and the restaurants look forward to it every year. And it’s easier to promote because it’s more organized.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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