It’s January, and for restaurant owners and members of the Naperville Restaurant Association, that means only one thing: Naperville Restaurant Week 2024.
“Restaurant Week is an opportunity for all the restaurants in Naperville, over 350 of them, to kind of participate in an after-holiday celebration, to kind of, you know, get a little more excitement after the holidays. You know, there’s a little stagnation there and kind of gives a little more excitement for Restaurant Week,” said Raj Patel, the Restaurant Association Chairman with the Naperville Development Partnership.
How does Restaurant Week work?
“So, there is the option of actually hosting a prix fixe menu, you know, appetizer, dinner, dessert, things along those lines. And there’s actually another option where you can actually just have a discount where anyone coming in for the week can just a discount, where anyone coming in for the week can get a discount,” says Patel.
“Naperville Restaurant Week isn’t just the downtown Naperville restaurants,” says Carl Jensen, the Director of Operations at Catch 35. “Everyone’s involved. There are sandwich shops. They have just a discount for a sandwich. You can go and get some maybe some Thai food at a discount. It’s not just your fancy sit-down restaurants; it’s the whole town. It’s all the restaurants. In the past, January or February is not the best for restaurants. It’s after the holidays. Everyone spent their money. People don’t go out as much. People can come in, spend less, see the rest of your menus, and know what you do the other times, and it just helps everybody in any industry.”
The Origins of Naperville Restaurant Week
Catch 35, located in Chicago and Downtown Naperville, has been participating in Restaurant Week even before it was official in Naperville.
“Restaurant Week started 16 years ago in Chicago; we’ve been open 19 years here in Naperville. So what we did is we piggybacked Naperville on Chicago Restaurant Week because it’s the same marketing, the same advertising. Might as well do it. Finally, Dine Naperville started doing Naperville Restaurant Week, which was great. Then we had two different restaurant weeks,” says Jensen.
When Naperville Restaurant Week began a decade ago, the specials came after Chicago’s Restaurant Week.
“I’m part of the Naperville Restaurant Association,” adds Jensen, “and we all got together a few years ago, and we all talked, and I suggested we should do the same time because we had the same marketing for the same restaurant weeks. And it’s just double the marketing.”
What’s being served up at Naperville Restaurant Week 2024?
Participating restaurants are listed on the Dine Naperville website.
“DineNaperville.com is the best place to go. I would suggest checking over and over again. The restaurants are always being updated, new offers are always being presented, so go early and often,” recommends Patel.
This year’s offerings run from January 19 through February 4.
