More than fifty local restaurants are featured in this year’s Waco Restaurant Week, which runs from October 24 - November 1. Most of them are new to Waco, only established within the last five years.
"I think that’s just kind of the ever-changing industry of Waco and restauraunts," Keep Waco Beautiful Executive Director Carole Ferguson said.
Keep Waco Beautiful sponsors Restaurant Week each year and it serves as a fundraiser for the organization.
Participating restaurants offer deals throughout the week on a digital "passport." Already this year, 2,500 people have downloaded the passport. Ferguson expects even more will participate in this year’s restaurant week.
"Overall the responses are positive this week especially," Ferguson said.
This year, the week-long event is sandwiched between two major tourism weekends for Waco: Magnolia's Silobration October 23-25 and Baylor Homecoming October 27 - November 1.
Ferguson said the timing was both intentional and coincidental.
"We have partnered with Baylor to hinge with Homecoming," she said. They also included a panel highlighting Baylor-alumni-owned businesses in Waco.
Falling the week after Silobration was more coincidental.
"We announced and days later, Silobration was announced," Ferguson told KWBU. "I was like, well what is that gonna hurt us?"
Ferguson helped create the event in 2019. She said her main goal is exposing people to restaurants they may not visit without an event like Restaurant week.
"The goal is just to get people in the door at the places that they may not traditionally go to," she said.
Restaurant week runs now until Saturday. You can find more information at wacorestaurantweek.com.
Got a tip? Email Molly-Jo Tilton at Molly-jo_tilton@baylor.edu.
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