By Kathryn Reed

Dining around Lake Tahoe is about to take on a new meaning this fall.

Plans are in the works to create the inaugural Lake Tahoe Restaurant Week. It will mean being able to have a three-course meal at a slew of eateries around the lake and in the Truckee area for a fixed price of $20, $30 or $40.

The idea is the cost will be a savings for the diner. The restaurant will have advanced reservations so staff knows how many people will be dining a particular night.

It will be up to the restaurants if they offer a vegetarian choice, include any alcohol in the price, which of the three prices they want to charge, and what the courses entail.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to try restaurants you maybe haven’t been to before and to visit old favorites,” event organizer Pettit Gilwee said. “Everyone loves fresh, unique cuisine. It cuts across all different types of people and interests because we all love food.”

The Sept. 5-12 time-frame was selected because the whole basin slows down immediately after Labor Day. The idea is this might give tourists some incentive to stay longer, for those coming up for the annual Autumn Food and Wine Festival to come sooner, and for locals to get out after the summer crowds have dissipated.

“We are not trying to compete with other food and wine events in the region. We want to become known as a great dining destination in addition to skiing and boating,” Gilwee said. “I feel like Tahoe is ripe for this. We have that caliber of restaurant.”

Gilwee is in the process of negotiating with a variety of restaurants. Some are high end, some are mom and pop eateries, some are well established, others are less than a year old.

Details of who is participating will be forthcoming.

Gilwee’s goal is to have 20 restaurants the first year — 10 on the South Shore, 10 on the North Shore.

Restaurant weeks are not a new idea. Sacramento just had theirs in January — a month that is deemed slow for that city. Other cities have been doing this sort of thing for years.

Gilwee hopes people will start on one end of the lake and end the week at the other as they eat their way around Lake Tahoe.

She is working with the different chambers of commerce and visitors bureaus in the region to pull this endeavor off.

Besides providing what is being touted as a great experience for diners, the idea is to bring dollars to restaurants, hotels and other establishments in the basin at a time that is traditionally slow.

The website for Lake Tahoe Restaurant Week is still being worked on. It will be www.tahoerestaurantweek.com. The idea is the participating restaurants will be listed with a link to their website. Diners will book directly with the restaurant — no middleman to deal with, no tickets to buy.