San Diego Restaurant Week is giving diners across the county a chance to discover new restaurants \u2014 including a tucked-away Italian eatery in Lemon Grove.<\/p>\n
Just off Broadway sits Giardino, a restaurant that has been serving the East County community since 2017.<\/p>\n
Owner Karina Kravalis says opening in Lemon Grove was a deliberate choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognized the need for a nice restaurant in this neighborhood,\u201d Kravalis said.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Giardino has built a loyal customer base. Kravalis estimates that about 75% of her customers are regulars who visit weekly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very fortunate to be here in Lemon Grove,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have wonderful clientele, very supportive people.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while local support has helped keep the restaurant going, Kravalis says San Diego Restaurant Week provides an important boost in exposure.<\/p>\n
Every year, Giardino makes it a goal to participate in the eight-day dining event, joining more than 120 restaurants throughout San Diego County.<\/p>\n
Participating restaurants create special menus, often at lower prices, giving diners an opportunity to try dishes they might not otherwise order while encouraging them to explore restaurants outside the county\u2019s better-known dining destinations.<\/p>\n
For Giardino, that exposure can be especially valuable.<\/p>\n
\u201cRestaurant Week actually helps to give us extra exposure to people who are like, \u2018Oh, I didn’t realize there was a restaurant in Lemon Grove,\u2019\u201d Kravalis said.<\/p>\n
The event also encourages diners to venture beyond areas such as Little Italy, where San Diego’s restaurant scene is particularly well known.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey realize they don’t have to go to Little Italy to have great food,\u201d Kravalis said. \u201cWe’re so much closer to a lot of neighborhoods that are underserved in terms of restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Giardino, the goal is not just to bring in customers during Restaurant Week \u2014 it\u2019s to turn first-time visitors into regulars.<\/p>\n
Kravalis says some diners discover the restaurant through the event and eventually return on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people don’t realize that we’re here until they hear about us participating in Restaurant Week,\u201d she said. \u201cThen we create the new regular.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a restaurant that has spent nearly a decade building a presence in Lemon Grove, that kind of exposure can help bring more attention \u2014 and more diners \u2014 to East County.<\/p>\n
And for Kravalis, it is another way to put Lemon Grove on the map as a dining destination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego Restaurant Week is giving diners across the county a chance to discover new restaurants \u2014 including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3053,184609,30601,159391,6503,74,84,76,75,72374],"class_list":["post-468937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-east-county","tag-east-san-diego-county","tag-giardino","tag-italian","tag-lemon-grove","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-restaurant-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}