Restaurants prepare for Escanaba’s first restaurant week

ESCANABA, Mich. (WLUC) - Starting Sunday, Escanaba will be hosting its first-ever restaurant week.

One Escanaba cook recalled how he started cooking and how it led him to where he is today.

“Originally I started cooking with my grandmother. She was a great lady. She would always let me sit on the countertop and I’d watch her cook and I’d start cooking with her. It’s just something that I’ve always enjoyed ever since I was a young kid,” said Zeke Lee, the kitchen lead at Hereford and Hops.

Hereford and Hops is one of 17 restaurants in downtown Escanaba, all of which are preparing for restaurant week.

“Coming out of COVID, it’s a really great time to reconnect with restaurants or maybe find a restaurant that they haven’t tried before or just kind of see what the downtown has to offer,” said Craig Woerpel, the executive director for the Escanaba Downtown Development Authority.

It’s a chance for restaurants to feature new things and for the community to experience the downtown.

“We’re taking the opportunity to enhance our Mongolian features as well as working on a new menu for the coming spring. We’re going to introduce some new menu items next week,” said Mandy King, the general manager of Hereford and Hops.

Restaurant week runs Sunday through Saturday, hopefully keeping restaurant workers busy.

As for Lee, he’ll be right where his passion left him - in his kitchen, ready to cook.

“I enjoy making people happy when they’re able to eat good food. It’s one of the things that I’ve done for a while, and I really enjoy cooking. It makes me happy being able to make people happy when they eat my food,” said Lee.

Click here to read more about what restaurants are offering during restaurant week.

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