San Diego Restaurant Week is back and for eight days, you can eat your way across the county without overspending.
More than 100 restaurants in over 30 neighborhoods are taking part this time around, offering two-course lunches and three-course dinners starting at just $20.
But this year, Restaurant Week is not only giving customers a good meal for a good price, its also focused on giving back.
For the first time, they’ve partnered with non profit Restaurants Care a fund that's helped over 3,000 families find hope during life’s toughest moments.
Employees like local Gabriel Servin, who's been bartending at Old Towns' Casa de Reyes for 16 years, has been one of the thousands helped through the fund.
Eight years ago, he lost his wife in a car accident in which his two daughters where also involved in. Suddenly, he found himself navigating grief, recovery, and parenthood all at once.
“My daughter resulted with a broken leg and ribs and arms. I had to stop working for about 4 weeks to stay with my daughters," Gabriel says.
He was grateful to have an understanding employer, who worked around his new need to care for his daughters.
"When you work in the restaurant, it's really hard to have holidays, or weekends off, or to even move your schedule as you need it. But they [Casa de Reyes] gave me that option," Gabriel says.
After the accident, and during the time he stepped away from work, Gabriels' team at Casa de Reyes applied on his behalf for a Restaurants Care grant. He won, and ended up receiving about $1,500, money that helped cover the weeks he couldn’t work.
But Gabriel says the impact went far beyond finances; “Of course it helped me a lot because I had stopped working for 4 weeks," Gabriel says. "But it was more emotional. It was great to feel that we weren't alone...it was like a warm hug."
This year, a portion of the proceeds from restaurants’ registration fees for San Diego Restaurant Week will go directly to Restaurants Care, hoping to support more workers like Gabriel.
