Durham is making Thursday the tastiest night to dine out. Here’s what’s on the menu.
Part food festival, part bar crawl, downtown Durham restaurants are making Thursdays the hottest night of the week to dine out.
The new campaign Small Plates Crawl encourages diners to make a night of it in downtown Durham, as more than a dozen restaurants and bars prepare small bite specials on Thursday nights.
The crawl kicked off Feb. 10 and will run indefinitely each Thursday, aimed at reintroducing diners to Durham’s famous restaurant scene. The initiative was organized by COPA co-owner Elizabeth Turnbull and other Durham restaurant owners as a way for diners to build their own progressive dinner.
Participants have included COPA, Mateo, Taberna Tapas, Viceroy, Luna Rotisserie and Empanadas, Pompieri Pizza, Bull City Burger, Dashi, Jack Tar, Rue Cler, Alley Twenty Six, Queeny’s, The Durham, M Pocha, Dos Perros and Killer Queen Wine Bar.
“It’s small plates, tapas style, and a great reason to walk around the city,” said Seth Gross, owner of Bull City Burger and Pompieri. “The idea is you get to do anything you want and be creative in your own realm.”
Gross said Durham’s acclaimed food scene is struggling as the country hits the end of the pandemic’s second year. He said that relief funds and programs available in 2020 have long run dry, leaving restaurants to fend for themselves while the dining public has yet to return.
“This is about the downtown businesses banding together and getting the word out that Durham is open and it’s okay to come out,” Gross said. “Durham has done a great job with vaccinations and has been extremely cautious. We all feel like it’s time to reap the rewards of that. Downtown businesses need you. Our restaurants are in a worse position today than in 2021.”
As COVID cases continue to decline from a pandemic peak in January, Gross said that diners might not be aware of how dire things look for restaurants.
“Time is starting to run out; some of us are starting to teeter,” Gross said. “It’s going to take years to financially recover from this.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 3:20 PM.
