On Monday, 7 April, in Kuldīga and Cēsis, and over the weekend in Liepāja, the annual Restaurant Week will start, which helps attract visitors to restaurants and cafés during the tourist low season, Latvian Radio reports. Restaurant Week (or two weeks) is already taking place in Rīga.
Restaurants and cafés in Liepāja and Kuldīga have prepared special menus, revealing local and ancient flavours. Organisers and restaurateurs say that Restaurant Weeks are worthwhile and can attract people, while increasing sales for local farms offering their products to restaurants and cafés.
The restaurant “MO Liepāja” in Liepāja starts its work in the morning, the kitchen is bustling with activity, and the restaurant manager and experienced chef Jolanta Bula is also there. It is the second year the restaurant has been included in the prestigious Michelin Guide. They are the only restaurant in Kurzeme to have achieved this distinction. This has created more interest in the place, and at the same time, it is an even greater responsibility, said Bula.
She believes that Restaurant Week in spring is important for catering establishments, especially as the winter season is a difficult time for caterers.
“Restaurant Week brings a big influx of people. People are interested in Restaurant Week because it is something new, something different. Every restaurant in Liepāja has its menu, things change seasonally for sure, but people are used to it and know what’s on. Suddenly, every restaurant has a little tasting menu with three or more dishes, something completely different, off the menu. What I like this year is that they have given you a little theme to stick to. It’s interesting how each chef has a different way of thinking about it. Yes, people are interested in Restaurant Week,” said Bula.
“This year’s theme is all about and around the old Liepāja dishes, celebrating the city’s 400th birthday. We have to include a product or a particular dish that is connected to something ancient.
On our menu we have eel croquette, then we have blood sausage with foie gras and lingonberry jam, and cod with mashed potatoes and cuttlefish ink sauce. Cranberry jelly with quince. I tried to combine the modern with the ancient, taking, for example, the blood sausage as a base and then adding something more modern on top. Latvia and cranberries, quinces, using more of the local product but making it a little more modern.”
Restaurant Week is a marketing activity that not only puts the restaurants and cafés in the sun, it also promotes local products and increases sales for the farms. Jana Bergmane, Head of the Tourism Development Centre of Kuldīga Municipality, expressed her satisfaction. This year, 14 restaurants and cafés in Kuldīga have taken part in Restaurant Week, inviting people to discover the local flavour code.
Restaurant weeks are also held in Riga and Cēsis, so April has become the time before the busy tourist season for caterers to make their presence known again.
Sintija Pusaudze, Head of the Liepāja Region Tourism Information Centre, said about this year’s busy period:
“We coordinate these dates, we change both one and the other, and the third one, so that we don’t have them at the same time. There have been years in the past when it was at the same time as Rīga, we don’t want to see this practice anymore, the same thing is said by people from Rīga [..].”
In Liepāja, Restaurant Week will take place from 11 to 20 April, extending Restaurant Week by adding two weekends on weekdays, when Restaurant Week offers will be available in more than 20 locations. In Kuldīga, Restaurant Week will be in full swing from today until 13 April.
Be First to Comment