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Restaurateurs celebrate the season with holiday promotions: Part 2

Along with Santa Claus, bustling stores and visiting relatives, the holidays bring promotions — lots of them. Here's a look at Part 2 of our holiday promo round-up.

December 11, 2015 by Travis Wagoner — Editor, Networld Media Group

Along with Santa Claus, bustling stores and visiting relatives, the holidays bring promotions — lots of them. Here's a look at Part 2 of our holiday promo round-up. Click here to read Part 1.

California Tortilla —California Tortilla is giving customers a gift Monday through Friday. The chain will gift 2,500 members of their Burrito Elito loyalty program with a bottle of their California Screamin' hot sauce. More than 40 stores will give away five cases of hot sauce throughout the week as a way of saying "thank you" to their most loyal customers. California Tortilla will also be offering a gift-card promotion throughout the month of December: All customerswho purchase a $25 gift card will receive a coupon for a free entrée (valid in January).

Freebirds World Burrito — Freebirds World Burritowill celebrate the holidays with a party on Saturday at the Boles Children's Home, one of the homes served by Arms of Hope, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that assists at-risk children and single-mother families. Delivery of gifts and food for a holiday party will take place at Boles Children's Home, an Arms of Hope campus in Quinlan, Texas. Freebirds staff from Dallas-Forth Worth will be leaving by bus Saturday morning to head to Quinlan, Texas. The tribe and the families will enjoy food and drink, sing carols, decorate the tree and exchange gifts during the event.

Across the country, more than 375 individuals (125 families) will participate in Freebirds Adopt-a-Family program. Other Freebirds tribe members in Austin and San Antonio will be making similar trips to the Medina Children's Home. Every Freebirds location is participating. Each location has been assigned a family through a select charity in their area and will be sharing a meal with them in the coming days at the restaurant in addition to distributing gifts to the families from their wish list. Freebirds employees will kick off the program with an internal contest to decorate the gift display boxes. The contest is divided into three regions, with the first-place prize location in each region winning a $100 gift card to give to their family. Second-place, third-placce and honorable mentions also received gift cards for their adopted respective families. (Photos of the holiday boxes can be found here)

In the past six years, Freebirds has served 725 families as part of the Adopt-A-Family partnership.

Gigi's Cupcakes — Gigi's Cupcakes of Nashville has announced aredesign of the original Gigi's Cupcakes located at 1816 Broadway.This Gigi's location will now offer new menu items like breakfast quiche, muffins and Gigi's new ice cream line that features four proprietary cupcake flavors like Red Velvet, Midnight Magic and Wedding Cake. Gigi's signature frosting and pieces of her gourmet cupcakes will be mixed into the ice cream, served in waffle cones, and will soon be sold in take-home quarts. The store will also provide Gigi's cheesecakes with rotating flavors such as Classic, Turtle and the new Mocha holiday flavor featured during December. The advanced bakery prototype features upgrades such as refrigerated bakery cases, high-definition electronic menu boards and a larger seating capacity.

Gigi's Cupcakes of Nashville will also offer a Gigi's Holiday Gift Box that can be shipped anywhere in the country. The gift box will include a 9-ounce bag of Gigi's Peppermint Bark, two freshly baked loaves of bread with flavors such as Pumpkin White Chocolate and Banana Nut Chocolate, and two dozen Ginger Snap Star Cookies. The gift box will come wrapped in a Gigi's holiday box with a note from Gigi. Only offered and made at the original Gigi's Cupcakes of Nashville, the Holiday Gift Box can be purchased nationwide for $35 with priority, two-day shipping by calling the local location at 615-342-0140.

Customers will have the opportunity to enjoy holiday-themed desserts as well as Gigi's flavors such as Scarlett's Red Velvet, Chocolate Turtle, Wedding Cake, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Kentucky Bourbon Pie, Chocolate Torte, Midnight Magic, White Midnight Magic and more. 

Sanfratello’s —Sanfratello's, a Southside Chicago pizzeria, is giving back to its customers with 12 days of pizza, prizes and the chance to win free pizza for a year. Scratch-off cards, containing multiple food and beverage rewards, will be distributed through Dec. 23. Prizes can be claimed from the date of the scratch-off, Saturday through Feb. 28, 2016. The prizes range from a BOGO pasta dinner to a free dessert. The three grand prizewinners will receive one large single-topping pizza each week for a year. Second-place prizewinners will receive a pizza party for 10 with the option of carry-out or delivery. Scratch-off cards can be picked up at any of the Sanfratello's locations, excluding Tinley Park, which is closed for renovations.

Wienerschnitzel —Wienershnitzel is celebrating the flavors of the season with the special, holiday-edition Tastee Freez Candy Cane Shake. For a limited time, guests can enjoy this peppermint treat topped with whipped cream and a mini candy cane.

White Castle — White Castle will host its traditional Lunch with Santa from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at all White Castle restaurants. Guests are invited to stop by their area White Castle restaurant to meet Santa. In addition to meeting Santa Claus, families will also receive up to four free My Size Meals. Children will have a choice of a My Size Meal with The Original Slider, Cheese Slider, Savory Grilled Chicken Slider or 3-piece Chicken Rings.

About Travis Wagoner

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Travis Wagoner spent nearly 18 years in education as an alumni relations and communications director, coordinating numerous annual events and writing, editing and producing a quarterly, 72-plus-page magazine. Travis also was a ghostwriter for an insurance firm, writing about the Affordable Care Act. He holds a BA degree in communications/public relations from Xavier University.