Duke’s Hot Tomato Summer hits Richmond July 24-30 and over 70 Richmond area restaurants and food businesses are creating themed specials.

“Mayonnaise and tomato sandwiches have been around forever in Virginia,” said Paul Polk, chef and owner of Charlotte’s (200 S. 10th St., Instagram.com/charlottesllc), of the classic summer dish featuring juicy tomatoes in the height of their growing season, a simple smear of mayonnaise and white bread. Three years ago, the team at Duke’s decided to challenge chefs to take the classic culinary combination step further with Hot Tomato Summer, a weeklong celebration of tomato and mayonnaise.

Polk says that growing up in Virginia, Duke’s Mayonnaise was always around so it’s natural to use it in recipes now: “There are loads of mayo and tomatoes on our regular menu.” This is Charlotte’s second year of participating in the special week—Polk said it brought new diners into his restaurant last year. This year, Charlotte’s will be serving up a special Heart of Summer cocktail featuring freshly made-in-house tomato-watermelon-mango juice, tequila blanco, apple brandy, lime juice, simple syrup, soda, all topped with a special salted watermelon mango foam. “People forget that tomatoes are a fruit and you can do sweet things with it too,” Polk says.

Charlotte’s will also feature a soft-shell crab sandwich topped with house-made kale furikake seasoning, peach slaw, tomato and Duke’s miso mayo serve on brioche. For the kale furikake, Polk soaks kale in saline and then dehydrates it and adds Japanese seasonings.

For chef Manny Baiden of Penny’s Wine Shop who grew up in Ghana, Duke’s was a more recent discovery. “I got introduced to Duke’s when I moved to the United States,” he says. “The chef at the first restaurant I worked in was a big Duke’s guy.” As Baiden continued working in restaurants, other chefs’ passion for the brand won him over, too. “I had no choice but to be a diehard Duke’s fan,” he says. “It tastes better and the consistency is better.”

For the Hot Tomato Summer special at Penny’s, Baiden is making a Tunacado sandwich. “Growing up, we ate tuna sandwiches for breakfast,” Baiden says. “I wanted to do a play on that and elevate it.” He’ll be topping toasted baguettes with a special Duke’s tonnato sauce, pesto, tomato and avocado on Penny’s day menu from Wednesday through Saturday and if it sells well, he’ll likely keep it on the menu past next week.

Taking place in four cities

Duke’s Hot Tomato Summer is taking place in four cities this year with over 150 participating restaurants. This year, a new “Venmayo” promotion encourages diners to post pictures on social media and tag Duke’s and the restaurant they are dining in for a chance to be randomly selected to receive cash through Venmo.

Duke’s also collaborated with local company Na Nin to create a Hot Tomato Summer Candle featuring “notes of crisp, verdant tomato leaf and vine blended with notes of sweet orange blossom and white tea.” The candle costs $27 and is shipped with a box of Duke’s Hot Tomato Summer-themed matches.

You can see a list of all the Richmond businesses participating in Duke’s Hot Tomato Summer with some of the special dishes they’ll be serving on the website. Here are a few more that we can’t wait to try:

Zorch pizza is crafting a special Chicky Chicky Parm Parm pizza featuring chicken cutlets battered and fried with Duke’s mayo, homemade Hanover tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan and Romano cheeses and basil, served with a side of Duke’s Calabrian mayo.

Along with lunch and dinner features, Can Can Brasserie will offer a pastry special of corn cake with goat cheese mousse, cherry and tomato jam with Duke’s ice cream and avocado—will it be sweet? Will it be savory? We don’t know!

Neighbor is serving up a Stifler’s Mom Duke’s classic tomato pie—worth a visit for the name alone—along with a Kentucky Hot Brown, a tomato sandwich and watermelon tomato gazpacho.

Southbound is featuring a Duke’s-washed mezcal elote cocktail, along with a BLT and tomato tartare featuring Old Tavern Farm heirloom tomatoes, basil-infused Duke’s, black garlic shoyu, local herbs, lemon olive oil and house sourdough crostini.