City’s ‘Restaurant Week’: Food-Lovers Dream, but King’s Students Aren’t Biting

|| Photo credit to Unsplash

While New York Restaurant Week is successful in capturing the business of adults and food-lovers across the city, it seems to struggle to attract a younger demographic: college students. 

Restaurant Week started on Jan. 21 for its three-week, semi-annual collaboration with hundreds of restaurants in the city. The event – a chance for restaurant owners to attract new customers with bargain-priced meals – failed to attract King’s students and raises the question about the role of a good meal has in the life of most Millennials. 

“Typically, I’ll eat once a day,” said Draven Haefs, a freshman. “I just really don’t have the desire to eat very often.”

Although almost 400 restaurants signed up to take part in the promotional event produced by NYC & Company – many just blocks from King’s – even the low price of a two-course lunch for $26 and a three-course dinner for $42 wasn’t enough of a draw for some.  

|| Picture take from NYC Restaurant Week Instagram: @nycrestaurantweek

Amanda Meadows, a freshman, said she rarely sits down to a meal in a restaurant – much like

Haefs – but for different reasons. 

“I started last year eating healthier,” Meadows said. “Initially it was kind of to lose weight, but

now it’s something more that I just enjoy.” 

While Restaurant Week returns this summer, don’t expect too many King’s students to take part. Meadows, for example, said she enjoys going out for meals with friends, but finds it difficult to maintain her healthy habits when she isn’t the one preparing her food.

A spiced coffee and cardamom crème brûlée with luxardo cherries made by Temple Court pastry chef, Abby Swain. || Photo credit to the Temple Court Instagram: @templecourtnyc

“If I am trying to eat healthier it is harder to track when going out,” she said. “But I definitely do enjoy going out.”  

Other factors, students said, such as money can prevent them from taking part in the city-sponsored initiative. 

Edison Cummings, a junior, loves everything about food. He expressed not only his passion for preparing a meal, but the importance that food should hold in a person’s life.

“I think food is one of our primary means of connection with people,” he said. “Relationships, treaties, business agreements, all kinds of things, all happen over dinner tables.” 

While Cummings said Restaurant Week provides an opportunity for people to come together over food, he also prefers to cook his own meals.