Kalamazoo Restaurant Week 2019 is cooking up to be the best-ever!

Nearly a decade ago, Kalamazoo hosted its first-ever Restaurant Week in the dead of winter. The motivation behind the event was simple: Draw people out of their homes and make the frozen streets of Downtown Kalamazoo bustle with restaurateurs, retailers and hungry locals during one of downtown’s slowest seasons. Soon, the event was scheduled to happen during the dog days of summer, too. This meant bringing people out from hiding in their air-conditioned living rooms for salsa cookoffs, special menus, cocktail competitions and a chance for Southwest Michigan to rest its sunburn while exploring delicious deals at restaurants across the city.

This week, in its eighth year of summertime celebration, Kalamazoo Restaurant Week 2019 is shaping up to be the best one ever. The event’s coordinating team is working hard to give Southwest Michigan more of what it loves about the event (think delicious food, great deals, loads of participating restaurants), and less of what it’s not so happy about (hiking to and from parking in the snow)!

In all, 16 restaurants will participate in the week’s event with special Restaurant Week menus. Most menus will include major discounts on food and drink, special Restaurant Week dishes, and more. To round things out, 17 restaurants and bars across town will participate in the Summer Cocktail Competition; with Espolòn tequila as their base, each bar will work to concoct the best margarita in town—and be deemed as such by their Southwest Michigan tasters!

So, about that parking: The event’s team has worked to make things more accessible than ever by reserving three entire parking lots for attendees’ use. Between the Bell’s Emporium lot, the Kalamazoo Mall Parking Ramp and the Epic Center Parking Ramp, Restaurant Week enthusiasts will have a safe, easy place to park for 90 minutes—free of charge!

With the ease of parking access and the delicious deals that await inside every downtown restaurant during Restaurant Week, there’s really no reason not to spend every night this week out on the town!