Turnout for the fourth iteration of Starkville Restaurant Week was impressive at the start of the event, but Greater Starkville Development Partnership officials expect weekend crowds in town for Mississippi State University athletics to pack restaurants today through Sunday.
Partnership Special Events Coordinator Jennifer Prather said Monday’s launch yielded a large number of charity ballots, which GSDP officials use to measure participation in the yearly event. Few problems have emerged this year with the balloting process, she said, but a majority of the issues occurred because of the volume of diners at participating restaurants.
“The feedback has been really good so far this week,” Prather said. “We’ve gotten really positive comments from the people in the restaurants. Monday was a busy, busy day. It’s slowed down a little bit, but starting (Friday) we’re going to have to prepare our restaurants for the crowds they’ll experience.”
Starkville Restaurant Week was established to boost restaurant sales the week after spring break, a historically sluggish timeframe for local businesses. This year’s event was moved back a week because of time compression issues with Easter, as officials thought the holiday would make drawing visitors to town more difficult.
By moving the event back a week, the Partnership was able to tie in the event to a massive MSU sporting weekend.
A plethora of events begin today. MSU’s women’s tennis team faced Vanderbilt at 11 a.m., and the Diamond Dawgs open a three-game series against Ole Miss at 6:30 p.m.
The women’s tennis team plays Kentucky at 1 p.m. Saturday, while the baseball team again plays its in-state rival at 2 p.m. MSU’s softball team also opens a three-game series against Ole Miss Saturday at 6 p.m.
Sunday features baseball action at 1:30 p.m., followed by softball at 6 p.m.
Old Venice General Manager Jaime Davis said reservations at his restaurant were already pouring in Thursday in anticipation of the busy weekend, but tables were requested during sporting events.
“We are booked from 6:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. (Friday). That’s crazy, given that the No. 15 team in the country is in town for baseball, and the game starts at 6:30 p.m.,” he said. “The turnout has been overwhelming. Restaurant week has consistently generated revenue for OV. The neat thing is that we host guests from the surrounding areas, along with the locals. It’s something we look forward to every year, and the staff is excited to participate in the charity organizations restaurant week represents.”
About 12,000 ballots were cast in the charity aspect of last year’s 10-day restaurant week. Restaurant patrons who purchase an entree are given a ballot, and the overall tally determines which of three area charities receives a $5,000 cash donation.
Prather said she’s hopeful this year’s event will break 2014’s record of about 15,000 ballots.
“Last year’s event didn’t span big tourist weekends like this one will,” she said. “We’re hopeful for a higher number of ballots. The week after spring break is slower, mainly because people are back from vacation and don’t have the money to spend. That’s why we always scheduled the event then – to stimulate that spending. Now that we’re a week ahead and that people have more money to spend, they’re really showing up in force at our restaurants.”
The three charities vying for cash prizes in this year’s event are Backpack Buddies, Vets for Vets and Grassroots Animal Rescue. The charities were determined through a nomination process conducted in late February and early March.
Charity nominations for this year’s event shattered 2014’s record, as the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau collected 1,001 nominations, not excluding duplicates. In comparison, the group received 430 in 2014.
As in previous charity competitions, donations are also awarded to the second-place ($1,000) and third-place ($500) finishers.
Ballots are also used to track advertising effectiveness through entries for zip codes detailing from where customers come and grow the Partnership’s advertising data bases by collecting email addresses.
Previous winners include MSU’s T.K. Martin Center for Technology and the Oktibbeha County Humane Society.
For a list of establishments participating in Starkville Restaurant Week, visit StarkvilleRestaurantWeek.com.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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