Restaurants in Gaylord are cooking up and dishing out some of their best meals for restaurant week.
The Gaylord Area Chamber of Commerce is putting on a week-long celebration of local food.
Restaurant week was canceled the last two years because of the pandemic.
“It’s a wonderful way to bring attention to the restaurants and shopping locally and get the community back into the swing of dining out,” said Sarah Harding, Marketing & Event Specialist for Gaylord Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Alpine Tavern and Eatery is taking part in restaurant week, offering a two for $25 deal.
“You get your choice between our wanton tacos, alfredo, coconut popcorn, shrimp, or our teriyaki long salmon,” said Lena Tewksbury, General Manager at Alpine Tavern and Eatery.
Crave is also offering a two for $25 deal.
“You can mix and match pizzas, pasta, our dinner salads, and then that will come with either soup or side salad for both,” said Keri Adkins, Assistant Manager at Crave.
But even as restaurants celebrate all they have to offer, they’re still dealing with major challenges, including staffing shortages.
“It’s been tough. Most of us here now work a lot of hours, mostly no days off sometimes. But we had, for the most part, most of our customers are understanding patient,” said Adkins. “We just do the best with what we have.”
Even still, the return of restaurant week is a sign of triumph after a challenging couple of years.
“We’re all really like family here, and we just kind of boost each other up and help each other whenever we can,” said Tewksbury. “If someone’s struggling with something. You need a babysitter, so you can work a shift. Hey, well watch your kid.”
And helping them get ready for what they hope are busy months ahead.
“We’re just getting to where we’re starting to pick up a little bit. So I think this will help prepare a lot of our staff who have not worked here for a summer, kind of what we’re about to endure this summer,” said Adkins.
Gaylord restaurant week runs through Sunday.
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