There will be no Center City District Restaurant Week this fall, for the first time in 22 years
The Center City District says the discount promotion will return in January 2026, when the restaurants say it's needed.
For the first time since its inception, the fall edition of Center City District Restaurant Week will be a no-show.
A district spokesperson told The Inquirer that the semiannual promotion of discounted restaurant meals would return in January.
“As our organization evolves, we’ve shifted our programming schedule to introduce new and innovative concepts, like Open Streets and Let’s Do Lunch, while continuing programs like [the seasonal] Center City District Sips and winter restaurant week that support our mission and are responsive to what we’re seeing in the data,” said Giavana Suraci Pruiti, the district’s senior manager for retail marketing and events. She said surveys have shown that the post-holiday winter months have remained the slowest season for restaurants. “With finite staff and resources, we’ve made the decision to focus on that time frame,” she said.
Translation: Restaurateurs have been pushing back on the idea of offering two weeks of specials during a typically busy September and would rather spend their promotion budget in the slow season.
Restaurateurs and workers have a love-hate relationship with restaurant weeks. Although they may attract more customers, the total spend is lower — so servers grumble that they’re working harder for smaller tips. At many pricier or more ambitious restaurants, the special menus may have only a passing relationship to the regular menu.
At its debut in September 2003, Center City District Restaurant Week was a novelty, modeled on similar promotions in New York City, Miami, and Washington and one of the first in the Philadelphia region. (Manayunk’s, which debuted in 2012, runs this week.)
That first year, 43 Center City restaurants signed on to offer $30 three-course dinners served over six nights. Discounted parking was also made available.
The 2003 debut was accompanied by complaints from restaurateurs in the Old City District, who had been excluded. When the Center City District reprised restaurant week for a winter edition in January 2004, any restaurant from the Delaware to the Schuylkill and from South Street to Vine could opt in. More than 100 now participate, with some offering discounted lunches.
Dates for the January edition have not been set; it typically runs for two weeks, with dinners priced at $40 or $60 and two-course lunches for $20.