Loyalty Perks: Restaurants Worth Visiting Twice

If you can’t remember the last time you got a thank you or a warm fuzzy from your favorite local eatery, then you’re eating at the wrong places. In tough economic times, restaurants have to go further to keep their regulars and attract new customers. The ones who don’t do so at their peril.

Regular patrons are a resto’s “bread and butter” and help keep the doors open when business is slow. Shouldn’t this kind of loyalty be rewarded? Judging from this trend’s upswing around the country, the answer is “Yes.” Except for DC, which it turns out, isn’t as consumer friendly as other cities.

I had to do some real sleuthing to find five legitimate loyalty programs, let alone find any that were well advertised. It seems these programs are as rare in DC as consensus in Congress. Sure, some places claimed they offered rewards, but it turns out they were only offering an occasional five or ten percent discount.

This didn’t seem like much of an incentive, especially, since restaurant week offers bigger discounts on multi-course meals. Determined to find five great programs, I kept digging. Luckily, I found five places that offer valuable discounts, free food or drink, or other prizes in a range of price points and levels of service (excluding fast food places), from fine dining to eat and dash spots.

Here are five places that really do know how to say “Thank you,” and mean it.