WAUSAU – River District restaurants are gearing up to bring back Downtown Wausau Dining Week, Monday, April 17 through Friday, April 21.
Throughout the week diners can sample several three-course price-fix menus from 13 participating restaurants throughout the River District. The three course menus range from $7 to $12 for lunch, and $10 to $35 for dinner, depending on the restaurant. Some restaurants will be creating new menu items for the event, while others will be highlighting their customers’ classic favorites.
Participating restaurants include 319 Bistro, Allister Deacon’s, Back When Café, Chatterbox, City Grill, La Prima, J. Gumbo’s, Jalapeno’s, Malarkey’s/Townie’s, the Mint, Polito’s, Rosati’s, and Peking. Menu details will be released on the Facebook event page, hosted by Downtown Wausau’s River District, and on DowntownWausauDining.com when available. Restaurants will continue serving their regular menus as well, and reservations are not generally required unless the restaurant so requests.
Wausau hosted its first Downtown Wausau Dining Week in April 2016, and the event drew thousands of diners to downtown restaurants.
Downtown Dining Weeks are popular promotions throughout the country and the state: Milwaukee, La Crosse, Green Bay, and Kenosha all have similar restaurant and eat weeks that draw huge crowds to downtown restaurants. Organizers Tyler Vogt and Elizabeth Brodek Field thought it would be fun to bring the concept to Wausau.
“The main objectives of Downtown Wausau Dining Week are to show off the talent and diversity downtown restaurants have to offer,” said Vot, co-owner of Malarkey’s and Townie’s, both participants in the promotion. “There is a solid group of places that have 25 years of experience, as well as new places with hip and innovative menus. Dress up or causal, special occasion or just don’t feel like cooking, no other place in town offers so much in such a convenient way. We want to help make it habit for people to stop downtown and dine anytime.”
Diners will also have the chance to win a package of gift certificates, valued between $130 and $260, to each participating restaurant to come back and enjoy their experience, perhaps with a different menu item, all over again. Diners who collect receipts from three participating restaurants through the course of the week can drop off their receipts with contact information at a participating restaurant to enter to win one of the three packages. Winners will be announced the week after Downtown Wausau Dining Week.
Wausau River District, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit Main Street America program whose mission is to promote and facilitate the economic vitality and historic preservation of downtown Wausau for the benefit of the entire community. It encompasses over 250 businesses, spanning an approximate 34 block area of downtown Wausau on the east and west sides of the Wisconsin River.
