Maine’s 17th Restaurant Week is set to begin on March 1 and run through March 12. Organizers Gillian and Jim Britt established the event in 2009 as a way to boost the local restaurant industry by helping Maine eateries get through the difficult late winter season. That mission remains at the heart of the event today.

As of Wednesday, nearly 40 restaurants around the state had signed up to participate, offering three-course menus at special prices. The restaurants range from the upscale, like Solo Italiano (Portland) and Yolked Farm to Table (Windham), to the more casual, such as Off-Track Pizza (Portland) and Warren’s Seafood and More (Kittery). The list is evolving, so the Britts encourage interested restaurant-goers to check back.

Depending on the deals the restaurants decide to offer, the meals variously cost $38, $48 or $58 per person.

Opening day this year begins with Spirit Quest, a self-guided paired cocktail and bites walking tour with stops at restaurants and bars in the Old Port and Arts District neighborhoods of Portland. Tickets cost $65 and benefit nonprofit Preble Street, which helps homeless, food insecure and low-income Mainers.

The popular Incredible Breakfast Cookoff, a competition in which chefs make extravagant breakfast dishes that ticketholders sample and vote on, is on hiatus for the year. The website reassures disappointed breakfast eaters that the event will return in 2027.

For tickets, reservations and more information, go to mainerestaurantweek.com.