LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Get your taste buds ready - not just for that turkey at home - but for delicious cuisine all over Southwest Florida. Restaurant week is just a few days away.
Let’s start with dessert.
King's Kitchen's churros topped with ice cream are just waiting to melt in your mouth. So are stuffed empanadas.
“If you want to come in for an amazing steak, King’s Kitchen is the place to come,” said Joshua Noland, managing partner of King’s Kitchen in Fort Myers.
A spread fit for a king is all on the Hope for Hospitality: Restaurant Week 2020 menu.
If you’re craving something spicy, or creamy butter chicken, or a vegan dish with a twist, India’s Grill might be the way to go.
Both restaurants were hit pretty hard by the pandemic.
“It was a 75 percent decline,” said Noland.
Noland says through it all Southwest Florida helped him keep the doors open.
“We’re doing much better now. We have a very, very supportive community, which really is what keeps us alive,” he said.
Now, during the slowest time of the year - between Thanksgiving and Christmas - Restaurant Week gives him hope. Not just for King’s Kitchen but his colleagues in the business, too.
“We’re doing this for a community thing. To keep restaurants alive,” said Noland.
Like Inda’s Grill on South Cleveland right off Colonial Blvd in Fort Myers. Owner Suman Chaniyil says he’s banking on Restaurant Week and for businesses to stay open.
“Another lockdown - they can’t even - we can’t even imagine,” said Chaniyil. “Three months we closed this location.”
Coordinator Rafeal Feliciano named the event “Hope for Hospitality” Restaurant Week 2020, because not only does it keep restaurants open but it funds those who aspire to one day walk in their shoes.
“When you order from that menu, $1 from every meal sold is going back to Florida Gulf Coast University both to their Entrepreneurship Program and their Resort and Hospitality Management Program,” he said.
For those who want to participate in restaurant week, Feliciano says the process in simple. Go to hospitalityrestaurantweek.com.
“Find the restaurant that they would like to dine into. They look at their menu, because it’s three courses for $39 and they go ahead and they make a reservation,” he said.
You can choose from 51 restaurants. 30 are in Collier County and 21 in Lee County. Restaurant Week starts Sunday November 29th and runs through December 13th.
