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TWO DAYS IN AND RESTAURANT WEEK HITS MAJOR 100K WEB VISIT MILESTONE
TWO DAYS IN AND RESTAURANT WEEK HITS MAJOR 100K WEB VISIT MILESTONE
ONE THIRD OF GEORDIES LOG ON TO BREAK ALL PREVIOUS RECORDS FOR NE1’S NEWCASTLE RESTAURANT WEEK
NE1’S NEWCASTLE RESTAURANT WEEK (27 January – 2 February 2014) - NOW EXTENDED TO 9TH FEBRUARY! Only two days into NE1’s Newcastle Restaurant Week (Tuesday 28 January) and NE1’s getintonewcastle website has recorded its largest number of visitors ever with over 100,000 logging on so far this month to take advantage of the restaurant offers, a staggering 68% increase on the same period last year. The 100k visitors would suggest that over a 1/3 of all Geordies are taking advantage of the 7th NE1’s Newcastle Restaurant Week. The city has a population of 280,000 and the website has just recorded its 100K visitor. Many of the 68 participating restaurants taking part in this week long initiative are already fully booked for the week, which has led some to decide to extend the offer for a further week to avoid disappointing customers. The success of NE1’s Restaurant Week reflects the buoyancy of Newcastle’s restaurant scene. Newcastle is the culinary capital of the region with more restaurants per square mile than any other city in the north east of England. The city has recently attracted many new top end restaurant brands including Browns, Carluccios and Cafe Rouge – a list that will soon include Jamie’s Italian, opening in Monument Mall this Spring. In addition to this, there has been a large increase in local start-up restaurants including celebrity chef and double Michellin starred chef, Kenny Atkinson with his new venture, House of Tides. Other local independents new to the city’s foodie scene include Herb Garden, Sausage Emporium and the Bridge Tavern, who are participating in NE1’s Newcastle Restaurant Week. Commenting on the record results, Stephen Patterson, Director of Communications at NE1 Ltd said: “Only two days into the week-long event and NE1’s Newcastle Restaurant Week is already breaking all records. We’ve had a record number of visits to the website and feedback from restaurants has been phenomenal. We have always known that NE1’s Restaurant Week initiative has struck a chord with consumers and it is now a firm fixture in the city’s events diary. We are now working with the participating restaurants to extend the offer for a 2nd week.” Mike Morley, Owner of Pan Haggerty restaurant explained: “We have been overwhelmed and delighted by the response to this week’s NE1’s Newcastle Restaurant Week. This is by far the busiest Restaurant Week to date, having been involved from the start as one of the founding restaurants back in January 2011 when NE1 launched the event. For the last two days, we’ve arrived at the restaurant to over 30 messages received between 9am- 9.30am with people wanting to book for the week. Restaurant Week is not only really worthwhile it is great fun and already it would appear that we’re 40% up on last January’s Restaurant Week business. We are fully booked this week, so to avoid disappointing new and existing customers we are going to extend the offer for another week and change the menu so if anyone wants to dine with us again they will have a new menu to choose from.” For more information on all participating restaurants and RW offers visit www.getintonewcastle.co.uk
