Taste of the Globe Without the Travel

Get your tastebuds ready: Fairfax City is offering a summer Restaurant Week. Set to run Aug. 29-Sept. 4, it’ll offer tantalizing food from 27 globally diverse, independently owned restaurants.

Throughout the City, diners will be able to enjoy brunches/lunches for $20/person and three-course, pre-fixe dinners for $35/person, with couple and family-meal options available. Offered, as well, will be two-for-$10 deals at participating bakeries and coffee shops.

The restaurants participating include Anita’s New Mexico Style Bar & Grill, Baku Delicious, Bellissimo, Big Buns, Bollywood Bistro, Capital Ale House, Coyote Grille & Cantina, Dolce Vita Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar, Draper’s Steak & Seafood, and Earp’s Ordinary.

Also taking part are: El Pollo Rico (pollo a la brasa), Hamrock’s, High Side (Asian street food), Kim’s Kitchen & Bar (Vietnamese food), Marumen (ramen shop), Okonomi Asian Grill, Ornery Beer Co., P.J. Skidoos, Patriots Pub & Grill, Ruffino’s, Red Hot & Blue, Slice of Matchbox, The Auld Shebeen (Irish food), and The Wine House.

The two-for-$10 deals will be found at Cameron’s Coffee & Chocolates, CupCakes & Beyond, and Foundation Coffee Roasters. For example, Cameron’s special will be a four-piece box of any Belgian truffles plus a 16-ounce, hot Cameron’s Blend coffee or hot or iced tea. And CupCakes & Beyond will offer flatbread and smoothie combos.

“We are so excited to give folks one more reason to visit Fairfax City in the summer,” said Fairfax Mayor David Meyer. “From the cultural richness of our City to the many outdoor festivals, concerts and parades and our walkable shopping districts, we have a lot to offer as a summer destination. With the summer rendition of Fairfax City Restaurant Week, we are excited to sweeten the deal and showcase our unparalleled restaurant community, while visitors taste, sip and savor dining that is uniquely Fairfax City.”

In addition, diners may help a worthy nonprofit while enjoying some top-notch meals. The Lamb Center – a Fairfax City drop-in, daytime shelter serving the poor and homeless – was chosen as the event’s featured charity to receive support from participating restaurants. Also during this week, some restaurants will give back a portion of their proceeds from gift-card sales to The Lamb Center.

Fairfax City is proud of its diverse culinary scene, and the upcoming event is its first official summer Restaurant Week and marks the start of two Restaurant Weeks per year. This will be the fifth such event and builds upon the success of the previous ones.

The sponsors are the Fairfax City Economic Development Authority and the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce. The 2022 Restaurant Week Committee plans and carries out the event. The goals are to let visitors and area residents know what Fairfax City has to offer, increase the number of diners each restaurant welcomes during this week, and expand brand recognition for the participating restaurants.

Diners are encouraged to follow at @FairfaxCityRestaurantWeek on Instagram and Facebook and tag #FairfaxCityEats. For more information, go to https://www.fairfaxcityrestaurantweek.com/.

Below are examples of just some of the many entrees (not the whole meal, including appetizers and desserts) that a sampling of the restaurants will be serving:

Bollywood Bistro

Chicken Lababdar – Grilled chicken cooked in onion-tomato sauce; Lamb Patiala – Chunks of lamb cooked with Punjabi spices and potatoes; Sarson Machhi – White fish cooked in mustard sauce; Panir do Pyaza – Cheese and diced onion tossed with special sauce; Malai Kofta – Carrots and cheese croquettes simmered in rich muglai sauce. Each entree is served with a side of basmati rice.

CupCakes & Beyond

BBQ Chicken Flatbread – Barbecue sauce, mozzarella, smoked gouda, red onions, topped with arugula; Margherita Flatbread – Fresh mozzarella, Roma tomatoes, classic marinara, olive oil drizzle; Pepperoni Flatbread – Mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and classic marinara sauce; and Smoothies: Strawberry Banana, Triple Berry, Peach, Mango, Caribbean Colada.

Sweet life

Steak Pizzaiola – Whiffle Tree Farms hanger steak grilled and sliced with capers, olives, white wine, tomato sauce, and served with roasted potato and local seasonal vegetable; Pan-Roasted Bronzini (Mediterranean sea bass) with gremolata over Mediterranean couscous; Capellini Pomodoro Fresco – Homemade angel-hair pasta served with heirloom cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil (Vegetarian). Diners may add a wine pairing for each course for $15/person.

Slice of Matchbox

The $20 lunch includes a choice of pizza, plus three doughnuts (beignets). Pizza selections are: cheese, holy grail margherita, fire + smoke (chipotlé, roasted garlic, onions, roasted red peppers, smoked gouda, basil, zesty tomato sauce), garden veggie, pepperoni, Matchbox meat, chicken pesto, and fig + prosciutto (fig jam, ricotta truffle sauce, garlic puree, bleu cheese, mozzarella, oregano, prosciutto).

P.J. Skidoos

BBQ Ribs – Half rack served with fries and coleslaw; Shrimp Scampi – Shrimp, tomatoes, scallions, garlic in a lemon-butter, white-wine sauce over linguini; Chicken Scaloppini – Sautéed chicken breast with lemon butter, mushrooms and capers served over linguini in a light cream sauce; Louisiana Pasta – Shrimp, chicken, andouille sausage, tomatoes, scallions, spicy Creole cream sauce, penne pasta; Broiled Atlantic Salmon – Served with honey-mustard glaze or lemon-butter sauce on a bed of spinach with a side of rice; London Broil – Marinated flank steak, thinly sliced over mashed potatoes, with a mushroom wine sauce.

The Wine House

Braised Lamb Shank – Served with cannellini beans and chorizo, red potatoes, rosemary demi-glace; Faroe Island Salmon Fillet – With leek beurre blanc, saffron risotto cake, haricot vert; Wine House Jumbo Lump Crabcake – With basil aioli, mixed green salad, pommes frites; Pork Tenderloin – With prosciutto and olive tapenade, red-wine Bordelaise, mashed potatoes, haricot vert; Steak Frites – Flat iron steak with pommes frites, black-peppercorn cream sauce; Braised Boneless Short Ribs – With chipotlé demi-glace, mashed potatoes, haricot vert; Summer Risotto – With champagne cream, asparagus, haricot vert, Parmesan cheese.