Did you have too many candy canes and too much fruitcake during the holidays? Well now it’s time for some real food this January as Savor Fort Wayne returns for its seventh consecutive year.
With a run time of Jan. 15-26, numerous restaurants across the city will be offering three-course meals at value prices in order to engage the community with local restaurants.
“The goal is for everyone in Fort Wayne to at least know about the event and know when it is happening,” Emily Stuck of Visit Fort Wayne explained in an interview with Whatzup. “We are Indiana’s second-largest city, and this event helps to showcase some of our great restaurants.”
Almost 50 Ways to Dine in the fort
Stuck works as the Program and Event Manager at Visit Fort Wayne and is no novice to the event. With nine years of experience, she has helped this program blossom into the success it is today.
Nearly triple the size it was in the early years, Savor Fort Wayne can now boast almost 50 participating restaurants this January.
“We initially got started with support from the Indianapolis Restaurant & Lodging Association out of Indianapolis, which helped to produce Devour Indy and Devour Bloomington. They helped for the first two to three years, and after that, we moved the program in-house.”
From fine dining like Eddie Merlots to local breweries such as 2Toms and Junk Ditch, Fort Wayne community members will have a wide range of dining options to choose from.
Participation on the upswing
However, restaurant participation is not the only criterion used to measure the event’s success.
“A metric we use personally [at Visit Fort Wayne] is seeing the website grow. Last year, we had 800,000 visits to the Savor Fort Wayne page in just a one-month timeframe. That is our biggest compliment.”
It is not just the community members of Fort Wayne that are invested in the event’s success. Many restaurants return and are willing to participate again.
Throughout the 12-day event, restaurants see an increase in business as customers flock to enjoy an indulgent dining experience at a value price.
Keeping the program Fresh
Over the course of her time with Visit Fort Wayne, Stuck has worked hard to ensure that this program remains relevant and fresh. The event coordinators are endlessly tweaking promotional materials and working to ensure that restaurants have whatever resources they need.
“I do it for the restaurants and for those who participate,” she said. “I always joke I wish I could go to all of them, but while my schedule won’t allow that, I love the program myself. It helps us to get to know the restaurants on a one-to-one basis and to help them get better exposure.
“It’s great to go out and help support this event so restaurants know it’s worth their time because it is a three-course meal, and that’s time consuming. It helps to remind us all that it is a valuable program, so I think it is really important that we help to support them and, in turn, get to continue to do really neat events like Savor Fort Wayne.”
