FOREST HILLS - Queens foodies are getting ready to break out their bibs for the neighborhood's first ever Restaurant Week.
From Nov. 3 to Nov. 9, ten local eateries will be offering deals on their grub, with prix-fixe three-course lunch and dinner specials.
The Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce, which organized the week-long event, is hoping to make it an annual tradition, extending the offers to two weeks and expanding the list of participating restaurants.
This year's culinary options range from Italian and Japanese to burgers, and include bars and a hookah lounge.
"We have the young hip places and the traditional places," the executive assistant to the chamber president Nicole Embry said. "It's a little bit of everything."
The chamber also partnered with Public Broadcasting Service, which will soon feature Forest Hills on its "Best Places to Live" series.
"They were really interested in the dining scene here," Embry said. "It's really up and coming. People don't need to travel into the city to dine."
Bobby Burns, the manager at Forest Hills Station House, one of the participating restaurants, said the neighborhood is turning into a food destination attracting young crowds from Queens and beyond.
“People from the neighborhood have been thanking us for opening up. They say when they have friends visiting they don’t need to go into Manhattan, they just come here,” said Burns, adding that his American fusion pub focuses on tapas-inspired “sharing” platters, and attracts hipsters and young professionals.
Station House will offer $25 three-course meals during Restaurant Week with entrees like a “decadent burger” or smoked ribs, smoked in-house for 9 to 10 hours. For $10 more, each entrée will come with one of 16 craft beers on tap and dessert with a whisky.
Burns said Restaurant Week is a sign Forest Hills’s dining scene is changing with the neighborhood.
“The neighborhood is changing,” he said. “It’s becoming a lot younger.”