Bowling Green will have its first ever Restaurant Week this summer from June 17-21.

The community is partnering with the Brown Bag Food Project, which addresses food insecurity.

“We’ve seen other communities have successful restaurant weeks and raise money for charity. We own two of the premier restaurants in town, so we thought we should bring that to Bowling Green,” said Tim Emmerich, co-owner of EasyStreet Café and Call of the Canyon Café. “We would like to invite people to come try our foods. We have lots of different options. We wanted to make this an opportunity to invite people and help raise money for charity.”

“For each restaurant, it will be completely up to them on how they do it. We have 17 locations participating (this year),” said Ardy Gonyer, the second co-owner of EasyStreet Café and Call of the Canyon Café. “Ultimately, 10% of whatever is earned from the restaurant week menus will go to the Brown Bag Food Project.”

Participating restaurants include: EasyStreet Café, Call of the Canyon Café and Catering, Beckett’s Burger Bar, SamB’s, Trotter’s Tavern, Dairy Queen, Juniper Brewing Company, BG Burgers, Brewing Green, Jac & Do’s Pizza, both McDonald’s, Biggby Coffee, CJ’s Sports Tavern at Al-Mar Lanes,The Row, Kermit’s and Arlyn’s Good Beer.

Mayor Mike Aspacher will issue a proclamation at the June 17 city council meeting, cementing Restaurant Week’s place in the summer calendar.

“We have such a wide variety of restaurants. Not one shoe fits all. We wanted people to have the opportunity to highlight whatever menu item they wanted to,” Emmerich said. “We’ve really gained some momentum this year and I think we have a bright future. We’ve already thought about ways to improve the restaurant week for next year.”

“This year, we’re doing a kick-off event on June 16 at Grumpy Dave’s from 7-10 p.m. It’s open to the public but we’ll have deals for restaurant industry employees that night,” Gonyer said. “We picked the week leading up to the first Firefly Night on June 21. It’s such a great community event.”

The kick-off event is being supported by the BG Chamber of Commerce and Visit BG OH.

“We’re trying to do some grassroots local economic development by bringing people out and raising the profile of our restaurants and greater community,” Emmerich said.

“We want it to keep growing bigger and better. Bowling Green is such a tight-knit community. We have a lot to offer and want to bring people in,” Gonyer said. “Ultimately, it’s about the Brown Bag Food Project. They address food insecurity in Wood County, and we felt it was a great idea to partner with them.”

For more information, visit the Restaurant Week Facebook page, at Restaurant Week BG OH.