Savor St. Mary’s Restaurant Week

Treat your taste buds to local flavor!

JULY 25 – AUGUST 8, 2010

During Restaurant Week, enjoy dishes at participating local restaurants prepared fresh with ingredients from our area’s farms, waterways and vineyards.

Monetary contributions generated by Restaurant Week will go to support our two local soup kitchens, St. Mary’s Caring and Loaves & Fishes, which provide food to our community’s hungry.

Our inventive chefs are proud to present their culinary creations! Click here to find a participating restaurant.

For information on all there is to see and do in St. Mary’s County, visit www.VisitStMarysMd.com.

Gearing up for “Savor St. Mary’s” with Giveaways Great Menus and More!

For release June 24, 2010   –  Local restaurants, caterers and food service providers throughout St. Mary’s County are preparing menus featuring items fresh from local farms, waterways and vineyards in support of the inaugural “Savor St. Mary’s” Restaurant Week, July 25 – August 8, 2010.

“Savor St. Mary’s” is an initiative highlighting a truly local food chain. The local farms are providing fresh seasonal items to the region’s locally owned restaurants who produce tasty dishes for customers to enjoy while making financial donations to help kitchen ministries feed the area’s hungry.

Each participating restaurant is making a financial donation to two area food pantries and kitchens; “St. Mary’s Caring” in Lexington Park, MD and the “Loaves and Fishes” ministry at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Leonardtown, MD, which provide food to the community’s hungry and homeless.

Incentives and giveaways are also a part of Restaurant Week including ticket packages to a variety of food-related events; Taste of St. Mary’s, St. Mary’s County Fair, Riverside WineFest, St. Mary’s County Oyster Festival; a drawing for the “Feel the Local Love” giveaway which includes wine from the Port of Leonardtown Winery, oysters from Circle “C” Oyster Ranch and a series of dinners specially prepared by Chesapeake Cuisine “personal chef”.  There is also a special Leonardtown First “Foodie” Friday with Lucie Snodgrass signing copies of her book ”Dishing Up Maryland” along with St. Mary’s featured chefs and a chance to win the “Portable Feast Giveaway” planned for August 6th.

Details on these incentives as well as profiles on the chefs, featured dishes, the area growers and other food related events and celebrations are found by visiting www.savorstmarys.com.

This comprehensive website will continue to evolve and serve as an ongoing  “Virtual Table” for all local culinary events and activities throughout the year and for the next “Savor St. Mary’s” Restaurant Week planned for Feb 15 – 28, 2011 which will feature the best of local seafood and area wine.

A collaboration between locally-owned restaurants, St Mary’s County Department of Economic and Community Development/Division of Tourism, Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission (SMADC) as well as locally-owned small businesses and community-minded individuals, “Savor St. Mary’s” was conceived in order to offer support to local agriculture, promote the area’s independent small businesses, and give back to the community.

For information on how to participate in “Savor St. Mary’s,” contact
Rebecca Deprey, Tourism Coordinator, St. Mary’s County DECD,
301-475-4200 x 1404 or Rebecca.Deprey@stmarysmd.com

Media Contact: Katherine Stormont of Full Stride Communications at 240.577.2374 or fullstridecom@me.com