Next Restaurant Week dates

The 2012 Charlotte Restaurant Weeks, and we use the term "week" loosely, will be Jan. 20-29 and July 20-29, organizer Bruce Hensley announced Monday. That's the three-courses-for-$30 deal that happens twice a year in restaurants in the Charlotte area, in typically slow times for the industry. Hensley also reviewed his numbers on meals served since the event began, in July 2008: A steady uptick of dinners served, from about 35,500 in seven days in 42 restaurants, to about 90,000 in 10 days in 92 restaurants this past July. Hensley estimates an average total bill per dinner of about $46, meaning a total "impact," as they say, of more than $4 million.

(The "week" was extended to 10 days in the third iteration of the event.)