nbc6.net – April 28, 2003

Dining At A Discount
Secrets To Restaurant Savings

By NBC 6 Anchor/Reporter Trina Robinsonl

You could call it dining to save dollars, a search for good meals on the cheap.

Dining Out And Saving Dollars
One way to pocket big savings is to search for restaurants that offer fixed price menus: Look for prix fixe, early bird, or pre-theatre. Restaurants like the Abbey Hotel Dining Room say it's a great way to stretch your dining dollar.

"That's $26 for a 4-course meal," said Karen Brown of the Abbey Hotel. "Very nice, beautiful food at a very relaxing atmosphere on South Beach, which as you know, is difficult to find." It's a meal that ordinarily would have cost double. Another dining discovery: Restaurant.com. They sell restaurant gift certificates at half price or less. It's like doubling your money. I bought a $25 gift certificate for $12.50. I printed out the gift certificate and took it to Che, Pibe. This quaint Argentinian restaurant served us mounds of food. "It's a good deal for people and for us, because people can come here, and they don't know us or the place.They like it and they keep coming," said Juan Urra, owner of Che, Pibe Argentinian Grill. With the 25 dollars off, the bill for three people, I'm embarassed to say -- $4.65. Add in what I paid online for the gift certificate, and I paid a total of $17.15. Speaking of online deals, check for coupons at Ebay. We paid $4 for $8 worth of Olive Garden coupons, and 50 cents for more than $34 in savings at Boston Market. Next, I booked myself at Bice in Coral Gables for fine dining via Dinnerbroker.com. You can save anywere from 10 percent to 30 percent, if you're willing to dine when they have availability. I checked the web site to make my reservation: "I get 25 percent off at 6:00, 6:30, and 7:00 p.m. So that works perfectly. I am going to click for 7:00 tonight at Bice." For two people, we only paid $64 for an $85 meal. Meet the Reverend Randal Cutter: "I meet people from other ministries or I take out parishoners and things like that." So he's always looking for ways to keep dining costs down, so he doesn't have to "pass the plate" when the check comes. He's a member of iDine Rewards Network. With iDine, he pays $49 annually to save up to 20 percent on every meal at some 10,000 restaurants nationwide. "We tend to focus on independent restaurants," iDine Rewards CFO Steve Lerch told me. "They tend to be white tablecloth, from very, very upscale down to family style." iDine users pay with their credit card. The savings are automatic. They never have to reveal to their guests that they're dining at a discount. "I saved 350 dollars last year," said the Reverend Cutter. "You can figure it out how many lunches I am able to during the year with $350." And, those are savings that just might make you want to sing.

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