South Jersey Independent Restaurant Association, the group of non-chain dining operators on the east side of the Delaware, is planning its next Restaurant Week promotion for March 9-14.
You may recall that the Center City District sued the "SJ Hot Chefs" in federal court over the look of its ads for the semiannual promotion. The CCD felt that the Jersey group's materials were confusingly similar. The matter was settled out of court.
While the SJ Hot Chefs' new ads are not finished, the group is following the CCD's lead in pricing the promotion, dollar for dollar. CCD members raised the price $5 -- so now it's $35 a head for its next Center City District Restaurant Week (Jan. 27-Feb. 1). That's what the 60 Jersey restaurants will charge for four-course meals, plus tax, drinks and tip.
Update: Joe Palombo of Joe Palombo's Mirabella Cafe, who heads SJ Hot Chefs, weighs in to explain the price increase:
Corn is up because its being used for bio-fuel Chickens feed on corn so chicken is up. eggs almost doubled this year. Our supposedly cheap pasta is way up - Semolina and other wheat flours more than doubled last month partly due to bio-fuel. The price of gas has contributed to the increases greatly. Milk doubled last year. All seafood and fish is up 10 to 40% this year. Veal rose 20% this year. Real good olive oil is almost cost prohibitive now for some restaurants.(I still use it) The weakening dollar abroad has driven up most imported foods. The price increase occurred only to keep up the high standards & fine quality that our South Jersey dining public expect from its independent restaurants.