The city of Santa Clarita is encouraging residents to support locally-owned restaurants throughout its community.

The City’s new Foodie Friday invites local restaurants to join a restaurant bingo game every second Friday of the month that encourages residents to eat local while also earning prizes.

Restaurants, coffee shops, juice bars and more are encouraged to apply. Simply complete the short restaurant application form, then become one of nine restaurants featured monthly as a part of the program.

Restaurants eligible to participate in Foodie Friday are locally-owned establishments that are located within the City of Santa Clarita, as well as unincorporated areas surrounding the City. Restaurants must have been in operation for at least one year as of Oct. 1, 2019, have 75 or fewer employees and no outstanding code violations and complete the Safer Business Commitment to be eligible. Non-profit organizations are ineligible to apply. Once a Foodie Friday restaurant application is accepted, the establishment will receive Bingo sheets and City seal stickers for the month they are featured.

“The pandemic has severely impacted many of our locally-owned restaurants, and they are relying on the support of residents to keep their doors open,” says Mayor Bill Miranda. “As restrictions are lifted, Foodie Friday encourages residents to safely enjoy the diverse food and drink options we have in Santa Clarita while also helping the employees and owners who operate each restaurant.”

Residents can join the Foodie Friday fun beginning March 12 by grabbing a Restaurant Bingo sheet from a participating restaurant or from Facebook.com/CityofSantaClaritaEvents. Restaurants participating in the first Foodie Friday will be announced prior to March 5. Once the bingo sheet is in hand, residents are asked to support the featured establishments by buying food and drinks from them between March 12 and 14. Each restaurant will stamp the bingo sheet when a purchase is made. Once Bingo is achieved (three restaurants marked in a row, column or diagonal), residents will take a picture of their bingo sheet and submit it online for a chance to win a $25 gift card to one of the participating restaurants that month. Three lucky raffle winners will be announced on Monday, March 15. Additional raffle tickets may be earned by visiting every restaurant on the bingo card and sharing photos from each restaurant on social media with #FoodieFridaySCV.

For questions and more information about the Foodie Friday program, please contact Event Coordinator Mindy Penrod at mpenrod@santa-clarita.com.