City's restaurant week to 'boost economy by £600k'

Sany Miah and Saba Ahmed run the Saba Maison De Luxe in Sunderland

Diners are set to contribute more than £600,000 to the local economy as Sunderland Restaurant Week returns, organisers have said.

The event, which sees menu prices discounted to between £10 and £20, runs until 24 March.

More than 50 independent and chain restaurants, pubs and cafes across the city are taking part across nine days.

It is being held during what can be one of the quietest periods for hospitality venues, to help boost the industry until trade picks up in the summer.

Saba Ahmed, who runs Saba Maison De Luxe in Low Row, said bookings at his restaurant had doubled in the run up to the event.

"It's going to be very good for our local economy with all the footfall we're going to get in," he told the BBC. "March is normally quite quiet."

Ollie Vaulkhard runs more than a dozen hospitality venues across the region

Along the road at the recently revamped Keel Square, staff at the Keel Tavern pub have been planning for the event since the start of the year.

Owner Ollie Vaulkhard is in charge of more than a dozen venues and sites across Tyne and Wear, including the Wylam Brewery in Newcastle.

"You have these lull weeks and big weeks in cycles through the year, this would naturally be a quiet week but it won't be with restaurant week," he said.

"It's (also) a great shop window for restaurateurs to showcase what they're doing, let people try them out."

Attracting visitors

It comes as the UK hospitality industry is continuing to recover from the impacts of the Covid lockdown and cost of living crisis.

"The winter period is very difficult and it has been a difficult period with Covid," said Sam Johnston, who runs the Lucky Cat Boba cafe in High Street West.

"We're hoping this will definitely increase sales and hopefully those customers will be repeat customers, which will benefit us."

The event is organised by the Sunderland Business Improvement District (BID), which said a total of £1m was raised during two previous events.

Chief executive Sharon Appleby said the initiative was proving more popular and played a "significant" role in attracting visitors to the city, while encouraging locals to see what was being offered.