Christmas is coming early through Trinidad and Tobago Restaurant Week.
As the popular annual culinary festival plans its first full-scale return since the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be plenty of exciting releases and giveaways for restaurants and diners alike, says event creator Shira Mohammed.
TTRW 2023, which runs from September 23 to October 2, “will marry both in-house dining and street service, Mohammed said.
“As we celebrate our tenth year, we have reduced the restaurant participation fee in an effort to help with the sudden increase in costs so that they can maintain their prix fixe menus at an affordable price for diners to enjoy . We are celebrating by giving back.”
Many restaurants across the islands have had to close their doors permanently during the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, Mohammed lamented. The downturn also had a negative effect on TTRW as it was forced to stage virtual versions of the last two editions of the festival.
“We encouraged people to create entertaining environments and enjoy a restaurant meal in the safety of their own home, while customers were happy to take advantage of the reduced-price menus and expected to break the monotony of being indoors. .” she remembered their strategy.
The bee’s marketing chief, however, says that since the return to full operation, several new restaurants have risen from the ashes of the pandemic to inject much-needed new life into the local industry. About 80 restaurants have already confirmed their interest in this year’s edition, she added.
“Some of our favorite restaurants have closed for good and will be sorely missed, however, we are happy to see the birth of new establishments as they open their doors to dine-in for the first time in their existence. Restaurant owners are eager for TT Restaurant Week and the response so far has been overwhelming, we predict around 80 restaurants will be on board for this year’s celebrations.”
A labor of love
Lighting the fire under TTRW took a lot of work, research and convincing skeptical restaurateurs that it was a concept worth their investment, Mohammed said.
While there were successful examples of restaurant week internationally, Mohammed and her team quickly learned that getting the recipe right for local consumption required creating a menu specifically tailored to this market.
“That meant looking at the mechanics, changing to fit our culture, meeting with restaurants to introduce the concept, changing, meeting with potential sponsors, changing the plan even more and going back to restaurants with a final proposal.
“Finally, after two long years, we managed to organize our first TT Restaurant Week in September 2013. September was the month highlighted by restaurants as the slowest month of the year, we took on the challenge to change this by organizing a culinary festival. some say it was a crazy effort.”
Only 15 restaurants participated in the first staging of TTRW ten years ago. They were rewarded for their vision with full night bookings and even resorted to organizing second and third dates to meet the overwhelming public interest.
By the third year, in 2015, over 50 restaurants were participating in TTRW. That number soon doubled dramatically, as regional and international interest saw diners fly to T&T for the week-long festival.
“The event became a staple in the national events calendar and diners were no longer just foodies. More and more the word spread and in the seventh year we had not only residents patronizing over 80 participating restaurants, but also members of the diaspora. Trinbagonians living abroad are planning ahead and booking flights to be in their homeland to take advantage of the food craze,” she said.
Mohammed said the next objective for TTRW is marketing the festival to the wider global market. The ambitious creator of the festival believes it has the very real potential to grow into an internationally acclaimed culinary experience.
“Our next big step is to take TT Restaurant Week to the world. We plan to have celebrity chefs, YouTubers cover the event and broadcast it to millions plus viewers.”
