By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
Not even a pandemic could stop Baldwinsville’s eateries from celebrating what they have to offer. Baldwinsville Dining Weeks will return for a third year, this time featuring 19 restaurants, bakeries and cafés in B’ville between Feb. 16 and March 7. The event is sponsored by Renzi Foodservice.
Anthony Tringale, founder of Eat Local New York, has helped coordinate the event, contacting restaurants, arranging promotional photos of the featured dishes and boosting the event on social media.
“It’s definitely been a little different this year,” he said of event planning during a pandemic. “I had reached out to a couple of them back in June when things were really rough for restaurants. We tossed around the idea of doing a mid-year one then, but especially with the restrictions on restaurants then we decided it would be too busy.”
Instead, Eat Local NY and local restaurants decided to hold Baldwinsville Dining Weeks once again in the mid-winter. Tringale said Jeff Rogers, co-owner of Angry Garlic, spearheaded the recruitment effort.
“He really stepped up this year and reached out to every single restaurant in Baldwinsville to see if they wanted to participate,” Tringale said.
Thanks to Rogers, who was named the Greater Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce’s Business Person of the Year for 2020, the event has grown from about a dozen participants in its first two years to 19 establishments this year.
“We’ve got some really cool additions,” Tringale said. “JessiCakes is going to be joining us this year. … You have new restaurants that have opened up during the pandemic like Brick-N-Barrel.”
While in years past restaurants have offered a prix fixe menu for Baldwinsville Dining Weeks, pandemic restrictions require more flexibility for this year’s event. Some establishments will be offering a three-course dinner for $30, a dinner for two for $40, takeout specials and other deals. For example, JessiCakes will be offering a 6-inch Baldwinsville Bees-themed cake as well as cake pops.
“It’s pretty interesting to see what restaurants will come up with,” Tringale said.
Baldwinsville Dining Weeks take place Feb. 16 through March 7. Visit baldwinsvillediningweeks.com for a list of participating establishments.
