Under the direction of Rogers Music teacher Kevin Hamilton, the Monday night eat-out benefit at Domenico's in Belmont Shore drew an overflow crowd of patrons dining in and taking out, netting the school program $1,086.
The way the event works is that the restaurant offers to give 25% of the business on a designated night to a school's PTA or program, which helps the business and helps the school community.
Domenico's wrote to Mr. Hamilton a thank you note that said the restaurant was overwhelmed with demand Monday night for take-out orders that surpassed the historically busy Belmont Shore Christmas Parade night, and vowed to work on what proved to be up to an hour's wait for a few patrons at Monday evening. (We got take-out due to sick family members and had no delay, but planned on 45 minutes).
The following is an e-mail, in part, sent to the families of student musicians Wednesday.
Hello Rogers Music Families,
Let me begin by saying thank you to all of those families that were able to make it out to Domenico's on Monday evening. I am happy to announce that we brought in sales totaling $4345.47, resulting in a donation towards the music program of $1086.34. Simply amazing!
Despite the amazing result, I have become aware that there were once again problems with the service/unpreparedness of the restaurant this year. I wanted to share with you a portion of the email that the manager, Matt Allen, sent to me this evening.
"Dear Kevin,
...I am sure you have heard by now that the night was not without its problems. Despite having a full staff on, the amount of orders was overwhelming. Your group set a new sales record for takeout orders in a single night at Domenico's. This includes the always busy Belmont Shore Christmas Parade. The large number of orders resulted in several customers having to wait more than an hour for their orders."
But the manager vowed to work out any delays by urging future dining and donating events spread over at least two days to reduce the concentration of patrons. The offer was good most of the day but the majority of diners arrived at dinner.
News of the spring concert and silent auction is coming soon.
