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They'll Eat It Up Out East, Baby!
by A.J. Carter
Mar 10, 2003
Section: BUSINESS
New! Improved! Coming soon to a restaurant near you (if you happen to live in the Hamptons)!
OK, so we can't write advertising copy like Jerry Della Femina, which means we also probably wouldn't have had the imagination to think that what helps restaurants in Manhattan get through the dog days of January might also help restaurants in Manhattan East through the dog days of late March.
In a nutshell, that's the genesis of Hamptons Restaurant Week, a marketing promotion scheduled for March 30 to April 6. So far, 17 restaurants, two wineries, a bus company and a hotel chain have agreed to offer discounts, including three-course dinners for $19.95, at East End eateries where a double sawbuck usually only buys a glass of tap water.
Della Femina, who owns restaurants in Manhattan and East Hampton, noticed how his lunch business doubles and his dinner trade kicks up a few notches during the annual Big Apple fest. "People who never thought they could afford your restaurant now come in and have a great meal and enjoy it, and some of that sticks," he said. "Some of them come back.
"I was telling Walter [Struble], my manager in East Hampton, 'God, I can't get into my own restaurant. I literally get up to the thing and I can't push my way through the crowds.' I said, 'Why don't we do this for the people out on Long Island?'"
Struble ran the idea by Steve Haweeli, whose Word Hampton public relations firm represents a lot of Hamptons restaurants, and it was off to the races. And even though the list of participants right now looks like it was put together by the Haweeli Convention and Visitors Bureau, an effort is being made to broaden the group. "We really didn't want to be event planners, but so far this seems to be working without too much agita," Haweeli said.
While Haweeli's bus client, Hampton Luxury Liner, is poised to whisk people from the city to stay at hotels run by Hamptons Resorts and Hospitality, another client, cosmopolites are not the primary target.
"I figure that more couples will come in, more young people will come in, many more locals - this is really geared for locals," Della Femina said.
Which, he says, may lead to increased business for the medical profession. "I figure that this is going to increase the birth rate because a lot of couples who ordinarily don't go out are going to find themselves having a romantic dinner." You can connect the dots yourself.
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