Once a year, TheBurg features a special dining section that we call “Midstate Table.”
Midstate Table is a paid advertising section that allows Harrisburg-area restaurants to feature their cuisine in a beautiful, professionally photographed and designed format. It’s also a moneymaker for TheBurg, which helps us continue to offer our products and services free to readers.
Typically, Midstate Table appears in the spring. But, when the pandemic hit in March, we decided to move the section up to September, hoping the restaurant business would be better by then.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t improved enough. Most (though not all) restaurants have reopened, but many are still struggling, with only a fraction of their normal volume. So, once again, we had to cancel Midstate Table.
I mention this to reiterate a plea I made months ago. If you’re able, please support our local businesses robustly, especially our many fantastic restaurants. Soon, the weather will start to cool down, making even expanded outdoor dining—a temporary salve for many eateries during the pandemic—infeasible.
Even though we had to scrub our paid dining section this month, we still are featuring numerous reported stories about food and restaurants. At TheBurg, we have a strong commitment to this community, so we plan to continue offering as much free content as we can.
As you might expect, our story lineup this month includes a lengthy feature on the effects of COVID on our restaurant community. Restaurateurs have made different, often difficult, choices on tactics and strategies. So, we explore how they’ve adapted and what they’re pondering as we head into the fall.
Lastly, I want to recognize the numerous restaurants in our area opened recently by people of color.
Last month, we featured Queen’s, which offers outstanding barbecue and Southern dishes, and, this month, we have stories on House of Vegans, a new Black-owned restaurant in Midtown, and Roots of My Land, an Ecuadoran restaurant on Allison Hill. Meanwhile, a Venezuelan and a Latino restaurant are opening soon in downtown Harrisburg.
Bravo! May this welcome trend continue, adding long-needed diversity to Harrisburg’s already vibrant restaurant scene.
Lawrance Binda
Co-Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
If you’d like to support our community journalism, please join Friends of TheBurg, our new membership program for fans and supporters. Details are on our website.
