Only 30 Restaurants in Harford County?
Dear Editor,
Please help me for I am confused. Harford County Restaurant Week, or is it Bel Air Restaurant Week, runs from January 20th to 29th. I thought this was something to promote the local restaurants in Harford County, but it doesn’t seem like it. When you read the list at http://harfordcountyrestaurantweek.com/, there are only 30 establishments listed, none of which are located on Pulaski Highway may I add, however, the low numbers and where they are located have me baffled. Here’s the breakdown:
Out of the 30 Restaurants listed:
- 18 are in Bel Air
- 4 are in Havre de Grace
- 2 in Abingdon
- 2 in Fallston
- 1 in Aberdeen
- 1 in Joppa
- 1 in Edgewood
- 1 in Forest Hill
- and of the 30, 6 of them are Pizza Hut
There seem to be several restaurants missing, and good ones at that! Shouldn’t this be something that all the LOCAL Restaurants are automatically a part of, or do they actually have to pay to be a part of this? I think thousands of people from Harford County and surrounding areas are missing some great places to eat, and Harford County Restaurant Week should be featuring all of the places to eat in the county.
So anyone reading this, please visit all of the local restaurants in Harford County, even the small delis. Believe me when I tell you, there are more places to dine in Harford County than just Bel Air.
From one confused diner.
Dear Editor and One Confused Diner,
Thank you for writing and expressing your concern about the limited participation in restaurant week. Those of us who promote and support our wonderful county resources agree with your disappointment. I am happy to address some of your points of confusion. Any dine-in restaurant in the county may participate and Visit Harford! reached out to over 90 restaurants county-wide. Participation in Restaurant Week is free to the restaurants. There is one requirement: the restaurants do have to agree to participate. The steps for agreement are 1) to notify us of consent by the date requested and 2) to submit a menu by the second date requested. Restaurants are encouraged to be creative about new menu offerings and pricing promotions. Visit Harford! pays for all the media promotion and provides participating restaurants with additional promotion cards. I can not tell you why restaurants elected not to participate but I assume they all had their own business reasons. Since it is being newly re-introduced in 2017, perhaps it is a wait and see attitude. Let’s hope that our residents and visitors will take advantage of this week and make it a success for those that did participate. That may encourage other owners to participate in future events.