BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Get your taste buds ready — Buffalo's Restaurant Week has begun. Food-lovers are able to try new food while saving money and supporting local businesses.
"These are independently-owned, family-owned restaurants," Daniel Garvey, Inn-Keeper at the Roycroft Inn, said. "When you go out and support these restaurants, you're supporting your neighbor, your neighbor's kid, the family down the street."
Garvey was part of the group that initially started Buffalo's Restaurant Week.
"New York City does a restaurant week and they're very successful at it. So we decided to try it, and it was beyond our wildest dreams," Garvey said.
The Roycroft Inn is one of the many restaurants participating in Restaurant Week and is back to incorporating farm-to-table dining in their cooking after troubles from the pandemic.
"You couldn't get in contact with anybody, and some of these farms were just struggling to get by," Jonathan Kowerko, the Executive Sous Chef at Roycroft Inn, said.
Luckily, Kowerko said this is no longer the case.
"We just changed our menu last week so everything is incredibly 'fall,' and now that we have a lot of these local farms getting back in business with us, a majority of the menu is ambitious in working with these farms."
Cafe 59, another restaurant joining in on the week, is bouncing back from 2020 as well.
"With COVID, we've missed a few years [of Restaurant Week], so we're excited to get some people in here and maybe try us for the first time," Jeff Cox, general manager of Cafe 59, said.
Cox said Restaurant Week is a great way to attract new customers.
"The food here is so good. They do such a good job in the kitchen that once we get people here and they try it, they're very likely to come back."
All of the restaurants told 7 News Restaurant Week is about more than just a delicious meal.
"That's important — to provide not just food, drinks and quality service but just a ... friendly, happy place for people to come and hang out," Cox said.
Buffalo's Restaurant Week runs from Monday through Sunday. For a list of participating restaurants, click here.
