Downtown Wilmington restaurants are honoring the bike race with these specials

Six downtown Wilmington restaurants are offering food and drink specials this weekend in conjunction with the 13th annual Wilmington Grand Prix.

The bike race opens Friday with the Monkey Hill Time Trial, a 3.2-mile race through Wilmington’s Brandywine Park. Food trucks will be on site offering various dishes.

Then, two amateur races will be held beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday. Sunday is the annual Governor’s Ride, a 15-mile tour with registration beginning at 7 a.m., and the Delaware Gran Fondo, a 62-mile ride opened to cyclists ages 16 and older.

Local restaurants with dishes focused on specials based on nutrition tips from Bicycling Magazine include:

• Bardea Food & Drink, the new Italian restaurant at 620 N. Market St., is offering the Grand Prezza, a pizza topped with vegetables, cheeses and a cracked egg.  

• Ernest & Scott Taproom at 902 N. Market St. has half-priced baked sweet potato fries. 

• Farmer & the Cow, 413 N. Market St., is mixing up a special chocolate shake.

• Stitch House Brewery, 829 N. Market Street, is again offering its Grand Prix Pale Ale, a light beer with a lower alcohol content that’s brewed exclusively for race weekend.

• A brunch special at Chelsea Tavern, 821 N. Market St., is the Race Day Burrito featuring scrambled eggs, RAPA scrapple, cheddar jack cheese, home fries, sriracha ketchup and sautéed peppers and onions in a soft flour tortilla.

• UDairy Creamery Market, 815 N. Market St., will have three ice creams named for the weekend’s events: Chunky Monkey (Hill): banana ice cream with chocolate covered mini marshmallows and a graham swirl; Grand Prix: an ice cream with raisins, cashews, dried apricots, cranberries, walnuts and M&Ms; and the Gran Fondo: vanilla ice cream with thick peanut butter swirl and crushed white chocolate peanut butter cups.

For more information, visit WilmGrandPrix.com 

DELAWARE FOOD & DRINKS

New Delaware beach restaurants: Popular Maryland barbecue spot, new crab house open

Pike Creek restaurant, a collaboration with 'Top Chef' Fabio Viviani, opens May 18

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico