Pope's Visit Shifts Center City Fall Restaurant Week To Summer
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Pope Francis' late September visit to Philadelphia is prompting scheduling changes, including moving this year's Fall Restaurant week to a different season altogether.
Michelle Shannon with the Center City District says for the first time ever, this year's Fall Center City District Restaurant Week is being moved to the summer -- with the official dates set for August 2nd through the 7th and the 9th through the 14th:
"Certainly, the Papal visit is one of the big reasons. In terms of trying to get two consecutive weeks between a late Labor Day and some of the other holidays that are around there and then Papal visit, (it) just wasn't happening (in September)."
She says the city's population is expected to double when the Pope arrives:
"Not in my time in the city have we had anything that has been of this proportion."
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Listen to the full interview with Michelle Shannon in this CBS Philly podcast (trt: 9:01 )...
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With the city's population expanding that much, restaurants won't need help filling seats, but also, Shannon says, this switch has been discussed before:
"For many years, some of our restaurants have said 'Let's do it in the summer when business is not as hot as it is in the Fall' and I have been hesitant to change something that has worked so well, but given our predicament this year, we decided why not do it now?"
Shannon adds they would be open to making this temporary switch more permanent if things work out this summer.
