Downtown Wilmington has a dining deal in the New Year that only requires a cellphone.
Between now and March 31, you can dine or carryout from a restaurant in the Downtown Business Improvement District and receive a gift card for 20% of your bill (before the tip.
Five valid downtown restaurant receipts will lead to a gift card. Texting the name, dining location, and date, along with a photo of the receipt, to Downtown Visions is all it takes. The organization will keep track of your progress toward a gift card.
Newark Restaurant Week returns
Newark Restaurant Week gets underway on Thursday and ends on Jan. 26. The specials are good from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Eleven restaurants will participate in the promotion from the Newark Partnership.
Newark Restaurant follows the usual restaurant week formula of a three-course meal for $30.
Click here for further information, including available menu items and participating restaurants.
Steakhouse gets mentioned in Vogue
According to Vogue Magazine, a downtown steakhouse is listed as one of the most anticipated restaurant openings in 2022.
Bardea Steak will join the highly touted Bardea Food & Drink on the lower portion of Market Street.
The original Bardea generated a lot of buzz in Philadelphia food circles and a place in the James Beard semifinals. It did not hurt when it was reported that Joe and Jill Biden dined there before the election sent him to the White House.
The steakhouse will occupy 5,000 square feet at a site that of a boutique hotel.
A February-March opening is planned.
Adios for Peruchos
Peruchos, a Peruvian chicken restaurant in Bear, closed its doors for good at the end of the year.
The restaurant operated from a location on Route 40 that had formerly been a Grotto Pizza. Word at the time of the Grotto’s closing was that the location alongside the eastbound lanes of 40 was less than ideal.
Grotto also developed a larger footprint for its restaurants, including a sports bar area.
Peruchos had earlier moved from a location east of Newark near the long-running Chicken House restaurant.
While the tasty and well-seasoned Peruvian chicken is wildly popular in Washington, D.C., and other areas, the rotisserie offering has not fared as well in a state with more chickens than people.
Chicken House locations in Middletown and north Wilmington closed after brief runs, and a small Carolina chain operated for a time at a location in the Christiana area.
Pachamama, which had a location on Main Street in Newark, now operates in space at Wilmington’s Riverfront Market.
Waiting for Hamilton’s
There’s no word yet on the opening of Hamilton’s on Main, an upscale restaurant planned at the site of Irish-themed Catherine Rooney’s and Finn McCool’s on Newark’s Main Street.
We sent an Email message to the restaurant with the response that the restaurant is hoping for a mid-February opening. Unfortunately, heating and air-conditioning issues have pushed back the opening. Those interested can check on the establishment’s Facebook page for updates.
