It's more important than ever to support our locally-owned restaurants!

At this point, I think we are all looking forward to the year 2020 being OVER. There is a lot to look forward to in 2021, and that includes Cedar Rapids Restaurant Week! A new email from the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance yesterday confirmed that, yes, there WILL be a Restaurant Week next year, and it's coming up February 20th through the 27th. The email reads:

"Who doesn’t love tasting delicious food from local hot spots? We know you do. Mark your calendars for Restaurant Week 2021! Now more than ever it is key to helping local restaurants succeed and most importantly, giving the community an event, they enjoy. Get your taste buds ready for a COVID conscious 2021 Restaurant Week."

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, next year's event will kick off on Facebook Live, with all of the participating restaurants being promoted on social media. For seven days, those restaurants will feature special take-out menu items, instead of just dine-in specials. Restaurants are also able to include to-go cocktails in 2021.

Restaurant Week is important because it brings traffic to locally-owned restaurants at the time of the year when they need it the most. According to the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance website, in 2019 there was a 39% increase in food sales at one participating local restaurant as compared to the same time in 2018.

Since 2021 Restaurant Week was just announced, there isn't a list of participating restaurants yet, but restaurants can apply to be a part of it! For more information on that, click HERE.

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