Richard's Rules For Restaurant-Driven Revitalization

Elise Bernard's Frozen Tropics blog cites an entry from Neal Takamoto's Cool Town Studios blog about attracting patrons to emerging urban districts.

From Neal:

Steven Gartner, president of Metro Commercial Real Estate, the revitalization of urban retail follows four phases. Gartner played a leading role in Center City Philadelphia's expanding retail scene and many of its economically-growing neighborhoods.

1. Local restaurants, started by great chefs. Or visionary entrepreneurs who know great chefs. People will venture out to on-the-edge neighborhoods for acclaimed food, often in tiny venues. They'll take even more risks for top live music.
2. Larger format restaurants that represent more of an investment and draw a larger audience from a larger geographic area. Essentially the same people as above who now have a more established customer base.
3. Locally-owned specialty retail shops, including art galleries. Yes, but only after there's a base population of diners and entertainment seekers that provide the foot traffic.
4. National chains, the risk-averse businesses that hike up rents, this only happens if there is a weak sense of community, otherwise the local residents prefer independents that support their economy and culture.

I counter this with "Richard's Rules For Restaurant-Driven Revitalization." My rules are focused on building business from the people who are already present in your retail trade area, people who aren't patronizing your commercial district, because in their opinion "there's nothing there."

It's our job as revitalizers to make sure that "the there is there."

Chef-driven restaurants aren't necessary to drive revitalization, although they are nice to have and can be decent draws--but really how great is La Brasserie at driving the growth of the 300 and 400 blocks of Massachusetts Avenue NE? Downtown is still pretty bleak at night despite the number of high quality restaurants such as Occidental, Red Sage, and others. (7th Street is a different story, see below.)

Revitalization is dependent on restaurants. A complete destination has places to see, shop at, and eat. If you don't have a restaurant, where are people going to be able to go to the restroom? If they can't go to the restroom, they won't be able to linger and spend time in your commercial district. They will end up being very purposive--if they do come it is for a specific reason, and they leave when they are finished, without exploring other retail and service businesses along the corridor.

In my opinion, restaurants that augur revitalization have five characteristics, and these characteristics support high patronage amongst a core group of customers that will frequent the restaurant from 2-5 times/month, at least in the beginning. This level of patronage is necessary to provide the cash flow needed to stabilize the risk involved in opening up in a marginal area. Remember the 80/20 rule?--80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. Ignore this at your peril.

The rules are:

1. Relatively appealing cuisine that isn't too specialized; food that is attractive to a large number of people--Italian, Mexican, and "American," seem to work best. You want at least 100 customers/nite. These days Thai food is moving into this category. Chinese seems to have lost its appeal. Restaurants like Indian, Caribbean, etc. are just a bit too specialized, and therefore don't get the weekly or at least a couple times/month patronage that such restaurants need. (Think Banana Cafe, La Loma, La Lomita vs. Capitol Hill Tandoor as examples.)
2. Good food; it doesn't have to be stunning but it better be good.
3. Good, good plus, or better service; waiting isn't fun, and neither is dealing with a server that doesn't help you get what you want with a modicum (or preferably no) of problems.
4. Well priced; you can't have drinks at $8 or most of your entrees costing $13-$20. If your prices aren't competitive and maybe a little less expensive than the market, you won't get that frequent patronage that is necessary for your success. Pitchers of margaritas or sangria are good, maybe not pitchers of beer, which seem to attract a rowdier more alcohol-centered clientele.
5. Nice interior; it doesn't have to be stunning or a $300,000 interior renovation, but it can't be threadbare, and it has to be appealing.

IMO, restaurants in the area like Banana Cafe, La Loma, and La Lomita exemplify these characteristics. Other restaurants and coffee places that are leading the revitalization of their commercial districts include include Tryst and The Diner which have brought life back to Adams-Morgan during the day, Boss Shepherds (now Peppers) on 17th Street NW in Dupont Circle, Dos Gringos in Mt. Pleasant (they have an absolutely killer Vegetarian Chili), and Mocha Hut and Colorado Kitchen in the greater Brightwood area.

Probably the best example in Washington, DC is Jaleo on 7th Street, which anchored the revitalization of the East End of downtown and is as significant, if not more so, than the MCI Center). Jaleo opened in 1993, years before MCI. Somehow, this restaurant is just as trendy as it was when it opened, and most every weekend they go through $100,000 worth of food (wholesale cost). Now there are a dozen top notch restaurants within a couple blocks of Jaleo, some owned by the same company like Cafe Atlantico and Zaytinya, and these restaurants rely very little on events at the MCI Center for driving patronage.

Even though they don't have food yet, in my opinion R&B Cafe, the coffee shop on the 1300 block of H Street, is the first example of such an establishment satisfying these "principles" on H Street NE.

I describe Alphonso Morgan, the proprietor, thusly:

1. He's smart.
2. He perseveres. (i.e., he works his a** off).
3. He listens.
4. He responds. If you don't respond, listening doesn't matter.
5. He knows what quality is. We all know the saying "You can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Well, if you are the proprietor of a small business, you can never afford to fool yourself. If you don't provide quality and you refuse to accept it, whose fault is failure?

Those ought to be the characteristics of success.