Restaurant Week Offers Downtown Delectables

Iowa City downtown restaurants are gearing up for Restaurant Week: Dine Downtown, offering a special prix fixe dinner menu from Monday, June 13 to Saturday, June 18.

Leah Cohen, who helped organize the event for the Iowa City Downtown Association, said Restaurant Week is an opportunity for restaurants to show off some of their signature items.

"It's an opportunity for anyone in the community to come downtown either to a place they're used to frequenting or to try out a new establishment they've never frequented before - at a reasonable price."

All 14 participating restaurants will follow the 2011 theme of offering various specials from their menus for $20.11 - a sampling of appetizers, two meals, or a full-course, fine dining meal for one, depending on the restaurant.

"These are all locally owned restaurants so we like to emphasize we are not chains, we buy locally, we use a lot of produce, and we employ local people," Cohen said.

Peter Harman, the self-proclaimed "food guru" and owner of Graze, said Restaurant Week is a good way to get the party started after the students leave. Graze will offer a variety of his menu items to choose from for the $20.11.

"We want to get the folks to come downtown after the kids leave," he said. "You know it's kind of cool the kids let us use downtown Iowa City when they're gone and it's a really cool place - it's historic, it's fun, it's cool."

David Wieseneck, owner and chef of Motley Cow, said Restaurant Week is a good way to bond with fellow restaurateurs and do something a little bit different. 

"We're a small, intimate community," he said. "So it's nice to come together and be a part of an event."

George Etre, owner of Takanami and Formosa, said Restaurant Week is a way for people to rediscover downtown.

"We have  a lot of great events downtown - we just had the Arts Fest, which brings thousands of people downtown," he said. "But the only problem is, there are so many food stands and music you don't get a lot of people coming into the restaurants.

"So what we want to do is, instead of piggybacking off of all the other events, we want to have our own event where people can come down and we can showcase what we have downtown. We want to show them that we're still here and still making great food."

Etre will offer any two of his specialty rolls, including their Wild Alaskan roll, Dragon roll, Spicy Lobster roll and Takanami Vegan roll - to name a few. Also on the 2011 Restaurant Week menu is Takanami's most popular roll, the Kobe Roll, comprised of shrimp tempura, asparagus and cream cheese topped with creamy soy glaze and seared Kobe, a Japanese beef.

"We pump them out like burritos," Etre said. "We sold 300 today, on a slow day. It's great that in the Midwest you get the beef and sushi fusion," he said, adding the steak and shrimp roll is cooked, so it appeals to people who might not normally like sushi.

Cohen, who owns Bo James on the Ped Mall, said they will have a meal for two for the $20.11 price, choosing from chicken and beef sandwich choices that comes with a side of soup, salad, fries or fruit, and a list of appetizers choices.

For $20.11, the Share Wine Lounge will offer the choice of chips and roasted onion dip, a summer green salad, or a chicken quesadilla for an appetizer; a gremolata roasted chicken or ricotta gnocchi with parmesan for dinner; and a strawberry rhubarb clafoutis, crème anglaise or root beer float for dessert.

Here is a list of all 14 participating restaurants taken from downtowniowacity.com. Clicking the linked restaurants will lead you to their Restaurant Week menus: 

• Bo James
• Donnelly's
• Share Wine Lounge
• Joseph's
• Mondo's Saloon
• Givanni's
• Micky's
• Takanami
• Motley Cow
• Linn Street Cafe
• Formosa
• Graze
• Airliner
• Summit