Pacific Grove campaign primed restaurants for lifting of restrictions

Pacific Grove campaign primed restaurants for lifting of restrictions

PACIFIC GROVE — Business promoters in Pacific Grove have just wrapped a restaurant coupon program jump-starting eateries right before the California governor lifted restrictions on outdoor dining.

Sponsored by the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce, preliminary numbers indicate the drive resulted in more than 4,300 coupons turned in to the chamber totaling roughly $43,570 injected into Pacific Grove restaurants, said chamber president Moe Ammar.

“Undoubtedly, this program was the most successful restaurant support initiative the chamber has undertaken in years,” Ammar said. “Due to the pandemic, restaurants enjoyed the benefits of this program when they needed it the most.”

On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom rescinded certain lock-down restrictions, including one that prohibited outdoor dining. Pacific Grove was one of the first cities on the Monterey Peninsula to jump on the “parklet” concept. Carmel and Monterey have also embraced the idea.

Parklets are now the ubiquitous restaurant fixtures that extend out from the restaurant property into city-owned parking spaces to increase capacity for outdoor dining. The coupon redemptions ran from 40 to 500 per restaurant.

Coupons were printed in newspapers and distributed to 23 lodging businesses to hand out to guests as they checked in. The chamber mailed coupons to every home and P.O. box in the city. Eight other retailers were given the coupons to provide customers as a means to cross-promote their businesses, Ammar said.

Of the 35 participating eateries, the top three restaurants for coupon redemptions were Michael’s Grill Taqueria with 539, Pacific Thai Cuisine with 267 and Aliotti’s Victorian Corner Restaurant with 242.

The chamber paid the $10 coupons, so none of the restaurants incurred the cost.

Published at Tue, 26 Jan 2021 21:41:13 +0000