Chicago Restaurants Plan NATO/G8 Promotions

By Samantha Abernethy in Food on Feb 27, 2012 9:30PM

The Illinois Restaurant Association is planning a citywide promotion for Chicago restaurants coinciding with the NATO/G8 summit in May. More than 50 restaurants have already jumped on the "Culinary Crossroads" program to offer special tasting menus.

Plus eight chefs from some of the 28 NATO countries are flying in to collaborate with eight restaurants participating in the promotion. There's also a bonus prize for diners. Crain's writes:

Dining at three of the 50-plus participating restaurants between May 1 and May 25 offers restaurant-goers a chance to enter a contest for prizes such as two tickets to the Chicago Gourmet food and wine-tasting exposition at Millennium Park in September, plus a hotel stay, worth roughly $1,000 combined, [Sheila O'Grady, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association,] said.

The IRA says the "dine-around will encourage both residents and visitors to patronize our city’s great dining establishments." The IRA is working with Chicago chefs Dirk Flanigan, John Hogan, Tony Hu and Tony Priolo.