As of Tuesday, March 16, restaurants opened additional seating opportunities as State regulations allowed indoor dining again.  This long-awaited announcement will allow restaurants more opportunity to rebuild from what has been the most challenging business year they have ever encountered.

With over a year of varying regulations for restaurant operations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants have endured extreme financial and emotional losses.  The National Restaurant Association reports, nationwide 110,000 restaurants have closed during the pandemic…that is one out of every six restaurants.  At the height of the pandemic’s impact on jobs last spring, California restaurants lost between 900,000-1 million jobs out of a total of 1.4 million restaurant workers in the state. 

When outdoor dining reopened and restaurants reopened at limited indoor capacity, some of those jobs came back, but the number went back down in December of 2020, when the stay-at-home order was reinstated and outdoor dining closed once again. In January 2021, the hospitality industry lost another 70,000 jobs — no doubt because of the loss of on-site dining.

To support the San Diego restaurant industry as they make progress back towards a full reopening, the California Restaurant Association will host its first-ever April Restaurant Week in San Diego. From Sunday, April 11^th through Sunday, April 18, enjoy over 100 restaurants offering variations of prix fixe menus at affordable prices.

Spanning across San Diego County, participating restaurants will offer three-course prix-fixe dinner menus for $20, $30, $40, $50 or $60 per person and/or two-course prix-fixe lunch menus for $10, $15, $20 or $25 per person.  Restaurants sprouting with innovation will showcase their menus through traditional in-house dining, expanded outdoor spaces as well as to go accommodations.

This delicious week is the perfect opportunity to explore the trending food scene of the Spring 2021 season, the return to the thriving culinary scene of San Diego, and to show your support for your local restaurant owners who have traversed an exceptional year of challenges. Both veteran favorites and newly established eateries that have carved out their places in San Diego’s culinary bedrock will participate in this foodie favorited week operating under the most current guidelines from public officials.