New promotion aims to heat up the Batavia restaurant scene

The Batavia Chamber of Commerce hopes Fox Valley residents will find a cure for cabin fever this winter through a new dining promotion it calls Shiver by the River.

Starting Feb. 15, a new free digital pass will allow visitors to “check in” to Batavia restaurants, bars, cafes and coffeehouses, allowing the Chamber of Commerce to track foot traffic of businesses when bidding on exhibitors. chance to win prizes.

The program will last until March 14.

Margaret Perreault, president and CEO of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce, described the new program as “a way to shake things up.”

“We wanted to change up our restaurant promotion and felt that our Restaurant Frenzy promotion from previous years had kind of reached the end of its lifespan and it was time to bring something new, fresh and technologically savvy to our community,” Perreault said. “The amazing thing about our new promotion referencing how cold it must be is that we partnered with a company that can give us a mobile pass.”

According to officials, the program includes a mobile pass, not an application, so participants do not need to download an application to their phones. Participants register on the Chamber’s website and then save the card on their phone’s homepage.

“What’s really helpful is that every restaurant can now promote itself,” Perreault said.

“We had previously offered a 20% discount across the board, but that didn’t work very well, especially for some restaurants with small profit margins,” he said of previous promotions in Batavia to entice people to dine in the city. “This way they can highlight specific elements they want to highlight. This new program gave us the opportunity to do that.”

He said the mobile pass is easy to use.

“Every time you go to one of the participating restaurants, you can press the button, check in, tell the wait staff about the promotion, and they will give you the deal that particular location has to offer,” he said. “The login section lets the Chamber know how many people logged in and at what locations during the month. “Knowing that people don’t go to more than one restaurant a day and that gives everyone more opportunity, we expanded this to a month-long promotion instead of a week-long restaurant gig.”

Perreault said that within the scope of the program, the Chamber of Commerce will give awards to participants every week.

“We have $25 gift cards, $40 and $50 gift certificates to participating restaurants from which we will pick the winners, and the last week we will do a raffle and give away $200 in Chamber money,” he said. “These are given and financed by the Chamber.”

Organizers said more than 30 organizations will participate in the promotion.

“We explained the new promotion and restaurants were extremely excited about this new renewal of the program,” Perreault said.

Although the program doesn’t officially start until Feb. 15, participants can sign up for the pass at bataviachamber.org/shiver-by-the-river, the Chamber of Commerce said in a press release.

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.