Fredericksburg Requests Feedback on Winter Restaurant Week

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — The City of Fredericksburg is conducting a survey of people who participated in the city's restaurant week, which ended Sunday, to learn more about why people visited restaurants during the week. The event featured about 30 restaurants, letting residents and visitors sample the local dining scene.

Fredericksburg Economic Development & Tourism, together with the participating restaurants, designed the event to offer meals at different prices so that any person, even those on a budget, could enjoy a meal. The event ran from Friday, Jan. 17 through Sunday, Jan. 26.

People who dined at five or more participating restaurants during Winter Restaurant Week qualified to win $250 worth of downtown gift cards. The winner for the downtown gift card will be drawn Wednesday morning. Fredericksburg Economic Development & Tourism will post the name of the winner on its Facebook page and the Winter Restaurant Week event page.

For the survey, questions include how many times did participants dine out, how much participants preferred to spend at each restaurant, and how likely participants are to return to a restaurant they visited during the week. The restaurant week survey will remain open through Sunday, Feb. 2.

Fredericksburg Economic Development & Tourism uses the answers to demographic questions in the survey to learn more about where to target its marketing for future events. The information from the survey about where participants dined, how much they prefer to spend, and any feedback about the week is shared with participating restaurateurs. The city also may incorporate any suggestions from the public into future restaurant weeks.

The restaurants that participated in the event are asked to fill out their own survey, which includes questions about how many plates were served. So far, one-third of the restaurants have completed their surveys. These respondents served a total of more than 10,000 plates, according to Danelle Rose, manager of the visitor center and tourism services for the Fredericksburg Economic Development & Tourism. Rose is hoping the total reaches 30,000 plates served by the time all of the restaurants have tallied up their business for the week.

The restaurant owners said they stayed busy during the event, making it "a great week," Rose said in an email to Patch.

In the survey, the city also is asking restaurant owners to vote on dates to hold the upcoming Summer Restaurant Week. Some restaurants told the city that the last week of July was not as busy in 2019 as it was in previous years. For this summer, restaurant owners are asked to vote on whether to hold the event from June 19-28, July 10-19, July 24-Aug. 2, or Aug. 21 -30.

Fredericksburg Economic Development & Tourism will make a final decision in March on the dates for the Summer Restaurant Week event.