Restaurant Week is a win-win-win for restaurants, diners and the needy

Las Vegas’ dining community traditionally offers a lot of opportunities for doing good while eating well, but no more than during Restaurant Week, which will run from Monday through June 17. At press time, more than 160 restaurants had signed up to participate in the 10th annual fundraising event for Three Square food bank, and more were expected.

Here’s how it works: Restaurants who want to participate sign up with Three Square and create menus, which can be for breakfast, lunch or dinner, to be offered at a set price of $20 to $80 (the $80 price point, new this year, was added to enable more high-end restaurants to participate). A fixed amount of money for each of the designated menus sold is donated to the food bank, which in 2015 distributed 38 million pounds of food, the equivalent of more than 31 million meals.

Gayla Boyd is with Truth Christian Ministries, 5101 N. Rainbow Blvd., one of the agency partners that distributes food for Three Square. She sees how Restaurant Week helps the area’s homeless by funneling money to Three Square, so more food can be purchased and distributed.

“Three Square brings the food in; we give it out,” she said.

Kevin Wantland, general manager of Tommy Bahama Restaurant & Bar in Town Square, said his restaurant has participated during each of the six years he’s been there.

“It’s a great partnership,” Wantland said. “We know that the money being donated to Three Square directly impacts our local community. It’s a very positive and wonderful group to be a part of and be able to support.”

Tommy Bahama’s $20 lunch special starts with a choice of chicken tortilla soup, a classic Caesar or macadamia-encrusted goat cheese before moving on to blackened fish tacos, a grilled chicken and mango salad or the smokehouse bacon burger and finishing with the Tommy’s Trio of a Key lime tart, pina colada cake bite and a triple chocolate cake bite. The $30 dinner menu begins with coconut shrimp, crab bisque or a Bungalow Salad followed by a half-rack of grilled baby-back ribs, Parmesan-encrusted Sanibel chicken or Caribbean-rubbed mahi mahi, plus the dessert trio.

In most cases, the menus are priced lower than a typical multicourse meal at the restaurants. Wantland said Restaurant Week is an opportunity for people to try new restaurants at a lower cost.

“It’s not about making money for us,” he said. “It’s about being able to show off our restaurant and supporting Three Square.”

Restaurant Week has raised more than $1 million for Three Square since it was launched in 2007. For a list of participating restaurants, menus, prices and the amount to be donated for each meal, visit www.helpoutdineoutlv.org.

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at Hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Find more of her stories at reviewjournal.com, and follow @HKRinella on Twitter.