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Feb. 22-March 3
Good ideas are often their own best ambassadors. They don’t need someone to proselytize on their behalf; they speak for themselves.
And Restaurant Week, by all accounts, is a good idea. The event gives restaurants of all styles and sizes a means to woo customers en masse. In turn, diners will have the opportunity to sample new fare — or revisit longtime favorites — at an affordable set price. Tim Zagat, who’s credited with co-founding the very first Restaurant Week, has been quoted as calling it “a win-win” for everyone involved. That would explain why a concept that emerged as a four-day promotional stunt during the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York City has since been eagerly adopted by cities around the world.
This year, thanks to a collaborative effort of The Inlander and Visit Spokane, our city can count itself among that unofficial list of global participants for the first time.
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Patrick Fisher, Hay J's Bistro
How long have you been cooking?
I started at Percy’s in the Valley when I was 16 or so. I actually started as a dishwasher then I worked my way up.
And how long have you been cooking at Hay J’s? You’re a co-owner, aren’t you?
Yeah. Me and my mom, she’s my partner. We’ve been open, well in May, it’ll be seven years.
Are there challenges in coming up with a fixed-price menu?
No, there aren’t really any challenges. We have winemaker group dinners that have fixed-price menus. I guess, maybe, the biggest challenge would be timing because there’s different courses so timing between the starter, the entrée, the dessert. Quite honestly, we’ve done lots of winemaker dinners and stuff like that, but that’s where everyone is eating at the same time. When people order at different times, that’ll be little bit trickier — all the starters coming out at different times.
Your restaurant is in between Spokane and Coeur D’Alene. Who are you hoping to attract during Restaurant Week?
Hopefully new guests. We are actually really busy with what we have right now — mostly from Liberty Lake, Post Falls, the Valley, we do get a lot from downtown Spokane, but I would say our base is the Liberty Lake area. We decided this could be a way to see if there’s new blood out there and we could get new guests to come in and then come back more regularly.
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