There is plenty of dining excitement in March.
Though it's not quite ice cream weather yet, a new place to enjoy frozen treats that are delicious as well as good for you will be opening in East Longmeadow next week.
Let's YO! Yogurt will be doing business at 406 North Main St. in the Stop and Shop Plaza starting March 18, featuring frozen yogurt desserts made with fresh dairy and real fruit purees.
Operated by brothers Michael and Mark Sobon, both of whom have backgrounds in retailing and entrepreneurship, the Let's YO! Yogurt location they've developed will include Apple iPads embedded into its tables. Customers will be able to enjoy a social media experience as they post messages that will be displayed real time on flat-screen monitors placed throughout the restaurant.
Patrons at Let's YO! will be able to choose from a variety of toppings including various granola mixtures and fresh fruits to customize their yogurt treat. The East Longmeadow location will also have a homemade waffle cone maker.
Let's YO! in East Longmeadow will operate daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., staying open an hour later on Friday and Saturday evenings.
On March 18 the Delaney House in Holyoke will be holding its March "Learn to Drink Like a Pro" evening. The topic will be organic wines; the four-course dinner will feature a zucchini cake with garlic aioli, a plum tomato and arugula salad, a Bella airline chicken entree, and flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce.
Four organic wines will be poured during the evening, which will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are $35 and can be obtained by calling (413) 532-1800.
Max's Tavern at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield has announced that they will be continuing their "Gentle Giant" prime rib special through the end of March.
A three-course, prix fixe deal that includes salad, prime rib, and dessert, the Gentle Giant is priced at $24.95. Reservations at Max's Tavern may be made by calling (413) 746-6299.
The Table 3 Restaurant Group, which operates The Duck, Avellino, and the Cedar Street Grille (all in Sturbridge), has announce that those three establishments will be featuring new menus as of this week.
In addition, a Bay State Beer Company beer tasting dinner is scheduled at The Duck on Wednesday, March 20. Bay State, a small-scale central Massachusetts microbrewery, will be showcasing five of its brewing efforts; Chef Rob Fecteau of The Duck is designing a menu to go with those beers. Tickets for the event, which starts at 6:30 p.m., are $46.
Table 3 Executive Chef Enrico Giovanello will be presenting another "Cooking with Rico" evening on March 28 starting at 6:30 p.m. The subject is to be Flavors of Tuscany; Chef Giovanello will guide participants through the basics of this rustic cuisine.
Each item demonstrated will be served with an appropriate wine; Giovanello will provide recipe cards so attendees can recreate the dishes at home. Cost to attend is $49 with wine pairings; $37 without. Reservations for both events can be made by calling (508) 347-2321.
Restaurant Week Boston's Winter Edition begins Thursday and continues through March 29 with over 200 Boston area restaurants participating.
This year's three-course dinner menus are typically priced at $38.13, with some operators offering three-course luncheons at $20.13 and two-course midday deals at $15.13.
March 23 will not be part of the Restaurant Week observation.
More details on the event, including a listing of participating establishments and their menus, can be found at RestairantWeekBoston.com
Major restaurant chains are finding that social media can be a tricky marketing tool to manage.
Last month the Burger King Corp. Twitter account was hacked, with the perpetrators reconfiguring the account and sending out spurious tweets carrying the brand name identification of a major competitor.
The hack wasn't a total disaster for Burger King, however. As a result of the resultant on-line buzz the incident generated, BK's Twitter presence picked up 50,000 new followers.
For the past several weeks Yum Brands, Inc. Taco Bell restaurants had promoted a day-early preview of the chain's new Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco to the brand's Facebook followers.
The new taco, which was slated for a public rollout on March 7, features a shell flavored to resemble the popular snack chip from which it takes its name.
Taco Bell fans on Facebook who responded to the sampling offer, which was supposed to happen on March 6, were disappointed at many Taco Bell locations, which weren't either ready or willing to serve the new item.
Disappointed fans quickly flooded Taco Bell's Facebook page with angry complaints about the snafu; the company subsequently issued a statement apologizing for the mix-up, pledging that the product would be available everywhere on its official introduction date.
Taco Bell reportedly also has a chili and lime-flavored Flamas Doritos Locos Taco slated for introduction later this year.
Hugh Robert is a faculty member in Holyoke Community College's hospitality and culinary arts program and has over 35 years of restaurant and educational experience. Please send items of interest to Off the Menu at the Republican, P.O. Box 2350, Springfield, MA 01102; Robert can also be reached at OffTheMenuGuy@aol.com