Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week Wraps Up This Weekend

“Often with a restaurant week model the barrier is an economic one. In Southwest Detroit that’s not a barrier,” says event organizer Monica Echeverri Casarez.

SW Restaurant Week 1

El Nacimiento

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The first-ever Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week is happening now through this weekend on Sunday, October 14th.

The volunteer-organized event will feature 20 of the area’s Latin-American restaurants.

WDET’s Ryan Patrick Hooper speaks with organizers Monica Echeverri Casarez and Juan Carlos Dueweke-Perez about the economic impact of the event and the challenges in putting it together.

Casarez says the goal of Southwest’s restaurant week is to encourage people to spend time learning about the neighborhood without breaking the bank.

“Often with a restaurant week model the barrier is an economic one,” she says. “In Southwest Detroit, that’s not a barrier. The price-point is extremely affordable.”

El Asador

For Dueweke-Perez, restaurant week is an opportunity to showcase the abundance of Southwest’s Latin-inspired cuisine and “break away from the stereotype that Southwest Detroit is Mexican.”

Author

  • Ryan Patrick Hooper inside the WDET studio.
    Ryan Patrick Hooper is the award-winning host of "In the Groove" on 101.9 WDET-FM Detroit’s NPR station. Hooper has covered stories for the New York Times, NPR, Detroit Free Press, Hour Detroit, SPIN and Paste magazine.