The Wall Street Journal - 21.08.2019

A8B| Wednesday, August 21, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

a $26 lunch or $42 dinner

deal. It also charges a partici-

pation fee, which it won’t di-

vulge, to cover promotion ex-

penses. This puts many small

restaurants out of the running.

Grand Street Restaurant

Week, however, lets restau-

rants concoct their own deal,

and charges no entry fee. And

while NYC Restaurant Week

screens participants based on

factors such as customer rat-

ings and chef bios, the Grand

Street affair welcomes all.

“Every restaurant is invited,”

Ms. Piscopink says.

U

nfortunately, many

small restaurant

weeks are short-lived.

Throggs Neck Restaurant

Week in the Bronx last ran in

2016. Dine In Brooklyn pe-
      tered out two years ago.
      “They’re not as easy as
      they might look,” says Rob
      MacKay, spokesman for the
      Queens Economic Develop-
      ment Council. Dine In
      Queens last ran in 2017.
      The difficulty lies largely
      in persuading restaurants to
      participate, says Olga Luz Ti-
      rado, executive director of
      the Bronx Tourism Council.
      Its restaurant week, Savor the
      Bronx, marked its eighth year
      in January, with 37 restau-
      rants participating. “But we’d
      love to have more,” she says.

She invites restaurants by

email, offering a free listing in

the borough’s tourist directory

as incentive. Many are too

swamped to respond, she says,

so she often drops by in per-

son hoping to snag time with

a busy owner, who may be

doubling as a cook and waiter.

It’s not just time con-

straints that deter restau-

rants from participating, says

Rick Camac, dean of Restau-

rant and Hospitality Manage-

ment at the Institute of Culi-

nary Education in Manhattan.

Because a restaurant-week

deal typically represents a

substantial discount, the es-

tablishment makes little or

no profit on its sales, he says.

And while the point is to

lure new customers, diners

who come in for a restau-

rant-week deal seldom re-

turn. “They can’t afford to

come back,” he says.

Many restaurants partici-

pate in NYC Restaurant Week

only because they have to,

Mr. Camac says. The affair

has gotten so big, it sucks up

all the summer diners. “If

you don’t participate, your

business is off 35%,” he adds.

Chris Heywood, a spokes-

man for NYC & Company, the

official tourism bureau that

produces NYC Restaurant

Week, disputes the notion that

restaurants dislike the event.

“Restaurants would not stay

in the program if it did not

have staying power,” he says.

Indeed, many restaurants

say they don’t mind offering

a restaurant-week discount

as long it brings in the

crowds. Carlos Monge, who

manages Bliss 46 Bistro in

Sunnyside, Queens, says he

has seen great results with

Sunnyside Restaurant Week.

W

hile Bliss 46 offers

slightly smaller en-

trée portions of its

French fare during restau-

rant week, it makes zero

profit selling the mandated

three-course dinner for $25,

he says. But the number of

diners at the 36-seat venue

more than doubles.

“We have people coming

from the Bronx, from Brook-

lyn,” Mr. Monge says of Sun-

nyside Restaurant Week,

which has grown from 17 es-

tablishments to 45 since

launching seven years ago.

These first-time custom-

ers often return, he adds.

Mr. Heywood says restau-

rateurs can look on the bright

side when it comes to restau-

rant-week patrons who can’t

afford regular menu prices:

“Hopefully they can return to

the next restaurant week!”

[email protected]

GREATER NEW YORK WATCH

BROOKLYN

Famed Pizzeria Closed

Over Unpaid Taxes

Di Fara, the beloved pizzeria

in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighbor-

hood, was shut down Tuesday

by New York state for failing to

pay taxes.

The pizzeria owes $167,506.75,

according to the state’s depart-

ment of taxation and finance.

The department said it had been

working with the establishment

to resolve the debt issue, but to

no avail.

“In general, seizing a business

is always our last resort,” said

department spokesman James

Gazzale. A financial resolution is

still possible, he added.

Margaret Mieles, daughter of

Di Fara founder Dom DeMarco,

said the pizzeria plans to work

with the state and reopen the

location as soon as possible.

The shutdown doesn’t affect

Di Fara’s newer location in the

North 3rd Street Market in

Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neigh-

borhood, Ms. Mieles said.

Di Fara has long been consid-

ered one of the prime purveyors

of the classic New York slice.

—Charles Passy

QUEENS

Woman Is Sentenced

For Killing Her Aunt

A woman who killed her aunt

with a meat cleaver in the Queens

home they shared has been sen-

tenced to 23 years in prison.

Acting Queens District Attor-

ney John Ryan said 32-year-old

Elizabeth Sanchez, also known

as Digna Sanchez-Ortiz, was

sentenced Tuesday.

Court records show she

pleaded guilty in June to man-

slaughter and rape. The rape

charge concerned Ms. Sanchez’s

sexual relations with a boy un-

der 15, Mr. Ryan said.

Ms. Sanchez’s aunt, Maria Pal-

aguachi, took her in when she had

nowhere to stay, Mr. Ryan said.

The 50-year-old Ms. Palaguachi

was killed in 2017 in her home in

the Jamaica section of Queens.

A message was left for Ms.

Sanchez’s lawyer after the sen-

tencing.

—Associated Press

CONNECTICUT

High Court Upholds

Long Prison Term

The Connecticut Supreme

Court has rejected the appeal of

a man serving a 70-year prison

sentence for throwing his baby

son to his death off a 90-foot-

high bridge.

The court ruled 7-0 Tuesday

against Tony Moreno, who was

convicted of murder and risk of

injury to a minor. His 7-month-

old son, Aaden, died after being

thrown from the Arrigoni Bridge

in Middletown in 2015.

Mr. Moreno also jumped off

the bridge, but survived.

The court disagreed with Mr.

Moreno’s arguments that incrim-

inating statements he made to

police while he was hospitalized

shouldn’t have been used

against him. His lawyers also ar-

gued that any waiver of rights

was involuntary because of his

weakened condition.

Mr. Moreno testified he acci-

dentally dropped the boy.

—Associated Press

Di Fara said it will work with the state so the pizzeria can reopen.

CLAUDIO PAPAPIETRO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

JASON SCHNEIDER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

METRO MONEY|By Anne Kadet

Restaurant Weeks Draw Mixed Reviews

You may
have missed
the chance to
enjoy a fancy
$42 three-
course Man-
hattan dinner deal as NYC
Restaurant Week just ended.
But it isn’t too late to hit
Grand Street Restaurant Week
in Brooklyn, where eateries
along a six-block stretch are
offering specials of their own.
Exhibit A: One gourmet
sandwich the size of your
head, a bag of “artisanal” chips
and a can of beer for $17.75.
“It’s a very substantial
discount,” says Ricardo Pi-
con, who owns the Sandwich
Shop with his wife, chef
Clarisa Penzini.
Why $17.75?
“I am a little supersti-
tious,” he says. “And I love
how this number sounds.”
NYC Restaurant Week,
which launched in 1992 and
runs semiannually in the win-
ter and summer, has grown
into a massively-hyped extrav-
aganza involving hundreds of
high-end eateries. But it re-
mains Manhattan-centric.
This summer’s 370-plus par-
ticipants included just nine
restaurants in Brooklyn, two
in Queens, and one each in the
Bronx and Staten Island.
Not surprisingly, copycats
have emerged around town to
fill the gap, with varying rates
of success. There are restau-
rant weeks running in neigh-
borhoods from Sunnyside,
Queens, to East Flatbush in
Brooklyn. There’s the bor-
ough-wide Savor the Bronx
and, of course, Dog Restaurant
Week, which runs through
Sunday in New York City.
“Just like NYC Restaurant
Week, the idea is to boost
business at times that are
slow,” says Erin Piscopink,
executive director of the
Grand Street Business Im-
provement District. Grand
Street Restaurant Week is
running through Sunday with
14 eateries participating.
NYC Restaurant Week re-
quires every restaurant to offer

GREATER NEW YORK

NY