Atlanta's First Hotel Restaurant Week

Everyone has their culinary comfort zone—the handful of restaurants they patronize
based on geography, price and style of cuisine. There’s, the favorite Italian, the Mexican joint, the special occasion spot
and the meat-and-potatoes place they’ve been patronizing since they were old enough to chew.

That list is about to get a little longer thanks to Hotel Restaurant Week, a citywide event Saturday April 2 through Sunday,
April 9, 2011 in which hotel restaurant chefs are offering a three-course dinner for just $25. Participating restaurants
include Park 75 in the Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta and other hotel restaurants from across Atlanta—Midtown, Downtown
and Buckhead.

Created by Robert Gerstenecker, executive chef of Park 75 restaurant at Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta, Hotel Restaurant
Week says the campaign isn’t just about giving Atlantans an incentive to treat themselves to a night out, it’s an invitation
to start thinking differently about the restaurant options in the city.

“There are a lot of stereotypes about hotel dining,” Gerstenecker says. “Some people think we’re stuffy, that we play it
safe with the menu, that it somehow takes more effort to come here for dinner than to go to a freestanding restaurant.
They trust us for weddings and large functions, but they don’t consider us a local restaurant where they can have a great
meal any night of the week.”

Vice president, publisher and part owner of Hotel Food & Beverage magazine says, “We are 100 percent convinced that this Atlanta event is going to resonate across the country and be a phenomenon.”

Think of it as exploring a whole new world of restaurants without venturing outside the perimeter.

“I want this to be better than other restaurant weeks,” Gerstenecker says. “I want to bring people into my kitchen and give
them tours of the terrace garden so they’re really exposed to what we do here. I want them to feel part of this hotel
instead of it being a big building they never visit.”

Sponsors include the Georgia Restaurant Association, illy, Fiji, Atlanta Concierge Society, Atlanta magazine,
Hotel F & B magazine, OpenTable and M-Squared Public Relations.