The Whitehall Area Chamber of Commerce is throwing its first-ever restaurant month in March.

Restaurants from Whitehall, Egypt, Coplay and Catasauqua will participate in the "March into Restaurant Month," which is celebrating the chamber's 55 years in business.

Other areas hold restaurant weeks, such as Bethlehem Winter Restaurant Week, which took place Jan. 26-Feb. 1, but this event takes place for the entire month, with 15 restaurants participating.

WACC Executive Laura Long said it has taken at six months to pull together, with help from WACC President Robert Zentz and other WACC members, along with Buca Di Beppo employee Brooke Zellers.

She also mentioned that with the help of sponsors, including Fellowship Community, Advanced Print Solutions and LA Advertising, it became easier to get it of the ground.

"Once we got all of these people in place, then we knew it was going to take off," she said.

Discounts will be offered at the restaurants.

Not only is this event a great way to support local restaurants, but individuals who go to half of the restaurants can pick their favorite one and return back and receive the same discount again.

"We've all different price ranges [at participating restaurants], so it's really neat that I think it would be feasible for people to be able to do that," Long said. "If they go to all the restaurants, they're going to be entered into a drawing to win a gift certificate from every single participating restaurant, plus a two-week trial gym membership from Anytime Fitness in Whitehall."

Some of the restaurants participating are Buca Di Beppo Italian Restaurant in Whitehall, Riley's Restaurant & Pub in Egypt and The Poletalian Deli in Catasauqua. A list of participating restaurants is available at www.waccpa.org.

Unlike some restaurant programs, participating restaurants don't have a special menu for a flat flee, but rather have special food discounts throughout the month of March.

"For example, Buca di Beppo is doing a lunch special, like, all different steaks that you can get for, like, $5.95," Long said.

Diners will track visited restaurants through a passport and stamp system. The passports are available at participating restaurants, at the Whitehall Area Chamber of Commerce office and inserted into this week's editions of the Whitehall-Coplay, Northampton, Catasauqua and Parkland Press newspapers.

"One of the unique things about our chamber is that, because we're smaller, we can really focus on some fun events, and the big part is promoting our area," Long said. "When you think about it, if you want to get anywhere in the Lehigh Valley, you pretty much have to go through Whitehall to get there, so we just thought, let's just make this something that will encourage people to come in and check out some of our restaurants."