New restaurants enjoying Downtown Dining Weeks’ busy season

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) – Owning a restaurant was not part of the original plan, but Downtown Dining Weeks inspired one without even knowing it!

“We also own Sky Armory, so during Downtown Dining Weeks, that always tended to be a little quieter time of year for events, so we played restaurant for a couple of weeks and always had fun with that,” Nicole Samolis, President and General Manager of Sky Armoy, The Tasting Room, and Epicuse said.

Enter the Tasting Room, open since fall! It’s an approachable fine dining restaurant that’s using dining weeks to add lunch to its menu.

“A lot of people are coming in and this is their first experience. We want to give them a fabulous experience and get them coming back again. And so oftentimes, it’s people. They don’t know what they don’t know, so when they come and explore, it’s an easy buy-in,” Samolis said.

Downtown Dining Weeks are bustling with opportunities for businesses, some opening up specifically for the two weeks when downtown is guaranteed to be buzzing with customers.

“Ever day’s been busier. The first weekend for dining week, we beat our all-time high in sales over our total history. So our first Saturday here was the busiest day Kofta Burger’s ever had. It’s been working out pretty good so far,” Jullen Merrill, owner of Kofta Burger, said.

Kofta Burger just opened three weeks ago with every intention of capitalizing off of Downtown Dining Weeks as a way to give people a taste of their fresh new take on burgers.

“We try to inspire all of our dishes with flavors you don’t normally get in burgers. So we draw a lot from the Middle East, Northern Africa, places like that. It’s a quality burger, something you’re familiar with, but with flavors you don’t expect,” Merrill added.

So, from whiskey and wine to burgers and baklava, Downtown Dining Weeks has deals for everyone, even the new kids on the block.

Downtown Dining Weeks runs until March 14th. You can find more information by clicking here.

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