A new event hosted by the Greater Lawrence Chamber of Commerce is designed to celebrate the variety of restaurants in Lawrence and surrounding areas with specials and promotions June 28-July 7.

Chamber President Brad Klopfenstein said any restaurant in and around Lawrence can sign up to participate. He added that the week around the Fourth of July tends to be slow for restaurants.

“So, we’re looking to have them throw some specials out there so that people around the holiday will come out to Lawrence and hopefully visit some of our fine establishments,” he said. “We’re just asking everybody to have some sort of a special price and potentially special menu, and then customers can go visit at their leisure.”

The boundary for participating restaurants is squishy. Klopfenstein said he had an inquiry from a Fortville restaurant, for example, and was happy to include that establishment.

“It’d be anybody who’s in Lawrence Township, or, you know, within a couple miles of Lawrence Township,” he said. “We’re not going to be hard and fast on it — we’re trying to say the more the merrier on this thing.”

Klopfenstein said he hopes the new venture will become an annual event to promote Lawrence’s diverse restaurant options.

“We’ve got a number of unique restaurants, especially in and around the Fort (Ben) area and up and down Pendleton Pike,” he said. “One of the great things — and what we’re really hoping for on this — is we have a lot of very unique ethnic restaurants from a number of different nationalities that are in the area. I know that we’ve already had inquiries from a Jamaican restaurant. So, this is an opportunity to try some cultures and fares that you would not normally get to try.”

Restaurants have until June 19 to sign up and can reach out via email at [email protected].