Save the date for Holyoke Restaurant Week! The Holyoke Office of Planning & Economic Development (OPED), in collaboration with Glammoré Premier Events, is happy to announce an exciting cultural event called Explore Holyoke Restaurant Week (EHRW). Building off the 2019 Holyoke Tourism Plan, OPED has been working with a large tourism stakeholders’ group to move forward on strategic tourism initiatives and promote local business.
The Explore Holyoke Restaurant Week event is scheduled for Monday, June 6th to Sunday, June 12th. The EHRW event will allow local restaurants to demonstrate their menu options and increase local and out-of-area visitors. This will be a 7-day celebratory festival kicking off with food demonstrations from our diverse local restaurateurs highlighting the art and science of cooking. “Explore Holyoke Restaurant Week will be a fun way for people to find their new favorite restaurant and support some great business in the city,” said Director of OPED Aaron Vega. The week will feature cooking demonstrations by several of our unique and ethnically diverse restaurants. In addition, we encourage restaurants to have their own events during that week as part of the umbrella of EHRW.
Participants will have the opportunity to track their food journey with a “food passport” that lists all participating restaurants. After visiting a participating EHRW restaurant, the participant will obtain a stamp to confirm their visit. At the end of EHRW, the passports will be utilized as a coupon, and the number of stamps obtained during EHRW will correspond to a discount that can be applied after EHRW. Additionally, Holyoke Community College (HCC) Culinary students will be teaming up with local restaurants to create pre-fixed meals for EHRW. The collaboration between HCC culinary students and local restaurants will provide students with a real-life experience. Director of OPED Aaron Vega encourages restaurants to participate, “I’m excited for the city to be supporting the Restaurant industry that has struggled through the past few years. We are lucky to have 7 new restaurants open in the past year and we want to highlight those and of course our long-standing restaurants.”
Please note that restaurants’ only requirement to participate is to agree to the “food passport” and honor coupons after EHRW; coupons are set to expire 3 months after the event. There is no charge for restaurants to participate, and restaurants must confirm their participation by Friday, May 6th, 2022. Additional information will be coming in the following weeks. For questions about Explore Holyoke Restaurant Week, please contact Ileana Carrion, OPED Senior Project Manager, at carrioni@holyoke.org or 413-322-5655.