By: Liz Farmer

Aldo’s Ristorante Italiano has a nice promotion out this summer that’s refreshing for its straightforwardness: $39 for three courses from the Little Italy restaurant’s “Summer Stimulus” menu all summer long. And that’s every day — including Saturdays.

At normal prices, the three courses would total $50 or more per person, according to Aldo’s.

The deal runs through the end of August and the only time it’s not available is during Restaurant Week, when three course dinners for $30.09 will be offered. Can’t complain about that price change either.

Two things:

1. I thought that wave of naming every new promotion after this spring’s federal stimulus package was over. Apparently I was wrong.

2. While this is a pretty steep discount for Aldo’s, it comes during a time that is typically the slowest of the year for the restaurant industry. So they’re trying to keep an already slow time from being even slower.

As Klaus Fritsch, co-founder of Morton’s The Steakhouse, put it to me last week: “We’re still hitting our peaks. It’s just the valleys go a little deeper now.”

What’s interesting is that Aldo’s is choosing to extend its promotion to Saturdays, a night when established restaurants typically don’t have to work very hard to draw customers. However, being a pricier place, the move is a sign that every customer must be fought for this summer. And, if that’s the case, I’d start looking for other white-table restaurants to start doing the same.

Advantage: consumer.