Eateries Offer Restaurant Week Discounts

"I would love to check that place out, but it's just too expensive."

Toss that sentiment aside: several Ridgewood restaurants are offering full-course lunches and dinners at discounted rates in conjunction with a countywide restaurant week.

Blend, La Lanterna, Pizza Fusion and The Stable are participating in (201) Magazine’s first annual Bergen County Restaurant Week.

Providing $16.95 lunches and $29.95 dinners, restaurant week—in actuality a two-week long event—kicked off Oct. 5 and runs until Oct. 15. Friday and Saturday are not included in the special.

"It's a wonderful, wonderful event," Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Joan Groome said. "People come from all over to see the restaurants show off their wares."

Blend, a cocktail lounge and restaurant, will provide a diverse dinner offering. Open nightly from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., Blend won’t offer lunch specials.

With an appetizer and dessert included, the Chestnut Street establishment provides a choice among tilapia, chicken and a rib-eye steak for the entree.

"We just reopened in June, and I thought it was a good opportunity for us," co-owner Zvia Barlev said.

Located on East Ridgewood Avenue, La Lanterna Café and Grill is a Tuscan-style bistro. For both the lunch and dinner specials, La Lanterna plans to offer a soup or salad, pumpkin ravioli in a cream sauce or a chicken entree, and dessert, according to co-owner Joann Karoutsos.

Expanding to Ridgewood just last December, Pizza Fusion on Godwin Avenue near Whole Foods, is excited for restaurant week’s “exposure. This will be great for us,” co-owner Jeff Morin said. The nationally-franchised pizza chain plans to offer a half salad, personal pizza, drink and cookies for lunch. Bumping that up for dinner, Pizza Fusion will provide a full salad and large pizza with the cookies and drink.

"I think it's a good special, and I hope some people will read about it and come in," Morin said.

The Stable—specializing in Rodizio-cooked, skewered meats—will provide certain portions of its beef and chicken offerings at the discounted restaurant week rate.

In total, 36 Bergen County restaurants have opened their doors for the event. In Wyckoff, Aldo's Italian Restaurant, Blue Moon Mexican Cafe, The Brick House and Village Grill provide special menus. Additionally, Midland Park's Legend's Steakhouse will participate.

Event organizer (201) Magazine has also agreed to donate to Table to Table, a community-based rescue program that provides prepared and excess perishable foods to hunger organizations in Bergen, Essex, Passaic, and Hudson counties.

For Ridgewood residents, the county restaurant week is a bite-sized preview for the village-wide event to occur early next year. In mid-January restaurant members in the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce offer all-inclusive dinners for $20.10, according to Groome. Blend, Pizza Fusion and The Stable will also participate in that event, sponsored by Valley Hospital.