dineLA Restaurant Week Announces Winter Dates

Don’t plan that New Year’s resolution just yet. Get out and eat at your favorite LA restaurants during dineLA Restaurant Week January 24th-29th and January 31st – February 5th. With strong support from the restaurant community and an increasing demand from diners across the city, this special dining program has now become a twice yearly event. dineLA Restaurant Week is brought to you by LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, in partnership with American Express.

“We think making dineLA Restaurant Week a twice a year event is going to continue to fuel the dining economy benefitting both restaurants and diners throughout Los Angeles,” explains Mark Liberman, president and CEO of LA INC. “Last October was the first time we produced a Fall dineLA Restaurant Week, so to have the majority of restaurants reporting they saw new customers in their establishment means that Angelenos have embraced two events in one year.”

With an unprecedented 260 restaurants participating in the first-ever Fall dineLA Restaurant Week this past October, there is no question that Los Angeles has become a dining mecca.

“We saw a lot of new customers at Taste on Melrose during dineLA Restaurant Week. Sales were up significantly during those three weeks. We wish we could have dineLA Restaurant Week all the time,” said Taste Partner, Morton Kaag.

The inaugural Fall event created many firsts, including:
· 260 participating restaurants
· The launch of the dineLA Restaurant Week Food Truck
· A Twitter/Social Media Campaign providing dining and menu highlights 24/7
· A dineLA Restaurant Week recipe based on fan Tweets – Neal Fraser’s Sea Urchin Pumpkin Risotto

"Over the last two years, American Express has worked with LA INC. to help grow the dineLA Restaurant Week program and we are pleased to see it become a successful twice-yearly event," said Tom Mullen, vice president, American Express Merchant Services. "We look forward to encouraging American Express Cardmembers to sample all of the excellent restaurants in the Los Angeles area again during the January 2010 dineLA Restaurant Week."

dineLA Restaurant Week has now become an anticipated special event for both diners and restaurateurs alike, and almost all of the participating restaurants from the Fall event said that they are excited to participate in the Winter dineLA Restaurant Week.

Visit dineLA.com year-round for the latest on LA’s restaurants, cuisine and the people who make it all happen. www.dinela.com.

ABOUT dineLA:
dineLA is a dynamic marketing initiative among INC., American Express and the LA restaurant community to promote the scale and variety of LA restaurant and food experiences to locals and visitors. dineLA's comprehensive Web site--www.dineLA.com--provides detailed information and search capabilities for over 2,000 area restaurants; chef profiles; a culinary events calendar; monthly enter-to-win giveaways; e-newsletter; online chef and restaurant videos; as well as engaging and timely editorial content. dineLA seeks to position Los Angeles among the top restaurant cities in the world and to build awareness, traffic and revenue for restaurants throughout the greater LA area. In addition, dineLA plays an active role promoting the LA restaurant scene year-round through involvement in industry events such as the LA Wine Fest, Wally's Central Coast Win e & Food Celebration, Extravaganza for the Senses, and the March of Dimes Signature Chef Auction. For more information, please visit: dineLA.com.

ABOUT LA INC.:
LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau is a private, nonprofit business association whose primary mission is to market and promote Los Angeles as the premier site for meetings, conventions and leisure travel. Though not part of city government, LA INC. is recognized as the city’s official tourism marketing organization. For more information, visit the official visitor information Web site of Los Angeles at www.discoverLosAngeles.com.