By GINNY COOPER MCCARLEY / Staff Writer

Seafood and sausage gumbo, quinoa salad with feta and fresh herbs and deep-dish pepperoni pizza are just three of the many dishes offered by Shelby County restaurants during Alabama Restaurant Week.

Eclipse Coffee and Books and El Agave in Montevallo and Tortuous Café in Hoover are participating in the statewide celebration, with Dixie Fish Co. in Inverness participating in Birmingham Restaurant Week, a similar event which runs during the same time.

Alabama Restaurant Week will take place Aug. 15-24, and is designed to highlight the “broad range” of restaurants the state has to offer, according to Grey Brennan, marketing director for the Alabama Tourism Department.

“It’s designed to allow people who have never visited these restaurants to walk in and know what the meal is going to cost and what it is,” Brennan said. “It’s also designed to reward existing customers.”

Restaurants who opt to participate in restaurant week can choose to offer lunch menus for $5, $10 or $15 and dinner menus priced at $10, $20 or $30.

Eclipse Coffee and Books will offer a $5 lunch option, which includes a cup of soup or a salad and half of a sandwich. The dinner option, priced at $10, includes pita bread with homemade hummus, a hot-pressed panini and a tart lemon square dusted with powdered sugar.

El Agave’s $5 lunch option includes an appetizer of warm chips with fresh-made salsa followed by three hard or soft tacos with beef, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese.

Tortuous Café offers a $15 lunch menu with a garden salad to start, a slice of sausage, pepperoni or spinach Chicago-style pizza with a slice of key lime pie.

Dixie Fish Co. will offer a two-course lunch menu for $15 and a three course dinner menu for $30, with a wide variety of options including orange and blue oyster poppers, barbeque shrimp and grits, white chocolate bread pudding and strawberry cornbread shortcake.

“The Alabama tourism department recognizes that dining is a draw for the state of Alabama,” Brennan said, noting Alabama offers a wide variety of restaurants from down-home barbeque joints to fine dining establishments. “We want to highlight some of those restaurants.”

For more information or to see a full list of participating restaurants, visit Alabamarestaurantweek.com or Bhamrestaurantweek.com.