More on restaurant based revitalization: The town that food saved versus immigrants/ethnic cuisines?
To follow up on the previous post:
There is a similar book published earlier, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food.
Both are very interesting and inspiring. Along with other books about redeveloping community food systems.
But reading the Boston Globe article, "‘Why would I go to Boston if I could get this here?’ Quincy’s diverse population is making for a thriving (and affordable) food scene.," I realized that at least if I am remembering correctly, these books didn't mention communities and community food systems revitalized by immigrants, and their cuisines--first restaurants opened for the diaspora, and were later sampled by non-ethnics who came coming back for more.
In the early 2000s, I do remember a Main Street program in Boston promoting its bakeries, which represented many food cultures, and obviously commercial district programs promote restaurant-based revitalization.
The PBS show No Passport Required, featuring Chef Marcus Samuelsson as host, does go to communities specifically focusing on one ethnic group and their cuisines--both in restaurants, cafes and other ways of delivering food, and in the home.
The tv show "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives" often features ethnic restaurants, but not in a focused way.
Of course, separately I've written about how immigrants to declining cities (at the time) have sparked revitalization, including cuisine elements.
Culinary tourism as a phenomenon. Tourism is a key economic development element for most major cities in the era of post-industrialization. Before the pandemic, cities like Chicago and New York hosted many tens of millions of visitors annually.
And cities like DC, New York City, and even Providence, Rhode Island promoted food tourism quite heavily as part of tourism marketing campaigns ("The Future of Food Tourism Goes Beyond the Restaurant Experience," Skift).
Food is a key element of the visitor experience, especially because "we eat every day" and dishes can be quite memorable("Food, tourism, and culture: the keys to success of a global trend, TrekkSoft)
Culinary tourism benefits a city more than individual commercial districts. We should differentiate between "culinary tourism" for a city or region and "restaurant-based revitalization" at the scale of the commercial district.
It works for the city as a whole more than individual districts, except for large ethnic enclaves like a Koreatown, Little Italy, Chinatown, Mexicantown, etc. Because people tend to be in and out focused, not interested in lingering, not interested in retail shopping as part of their restaurant visit, unless they are residents.
Ethnic-focused restaurant development versus culinary tourism. Ironically, because of the Mormon Church practice of missions to other countries and parts of the United States, there is a wide diversity of food and immigrants here in Salt Lake. It's just the food generally sucks.
(Someone took us to their "favorite" restaurant, Ethiopian. It paled if it were to be compared against so many Ethiopian restaurants in DC. Same with Indian food, "Mexican food," etc.)
I joke that Parkway Deli in Silver Spring, certainly a top 10 deli in Maryland--I love it--would be the number one deli in Utah.
What the Globe article ultimately is about is ground up ethnic-based restaurant development focused on serving the area community, less so a tourist. But to work, you also need a decent critical mass of population too. Quincy, a small city outside Boston, has 100,000 residents, which is large enough to make a difference. Like the communities and cuisines represented in No Passport Required.
Labels: commercial district revitalization planning, ethnic communities, restaurants, urban design/placemaking, urban revitalization
posted by Richard Layman @ 3:30 AM&Permanent Link
6 Comments:
Getting hungry?
You might be underestimating taste? What continue to surprise me is how much better food is in the NY Metro area versus the rest of the county. Not just the expensive stuff either.
The SLC example is like Grand Rapids -- tons of ethnic food and most of it is terrible. Everything very bland. Again because of missionaries lots of immigrant food ways.
Tyler Cowen has been making this point for year -- since immigration is largely a suburban phenomenon the "Ethnic' food is better is suburbs than in cities. His views have changed as quality kicked in.
That said, I get far better asian food in Fairfax than anywhere in DC.
Most immigrants don't want to be culinary stars - they are cooking for other reasons. Constant problem in immigration as well. Hard to get a h1b as a chef.
I watch a lot of food shows on PBS Create as a lot of regular tv doesn't interest me.
It's a struggle though, sometimes I don't like to look at food, although I am on a new medication which has stimulated my appetite.
I don't follow Cowan, but no question that immigration is a 50/50 phenomenon where the suburbs have an edge because of cheaper properties. And how later waves of migration have bypassed cities entirely..
I used to be a snob about how only historic buildings could be good for revitalization. The reality is that buildings are envelopes. What goes on inside is what matters. This was first sparked by some interesting stores in strip centers in West Seattle and Phoenix.
Of course, I was aware of Asian strip centers in NoVA. That goes back to my first days in DC in 1987. But I didn't think about it.
Similarly, property owners in Takoma Crossroads-Langley Park aren't interested in investing in "improvements" because the buildings are already 100% occupied. The stores show old. But thrive because they serve a focused group of customers.
I do think the Purple Line will force some reproduction of space. They could have gotten ahead of that had they followed my suggested program, but that's for another day.
I miss the MegaMart at NH and U Boulevard. It's still somewhat better than the local Latino supermarket chain here (although the one chain is still decent).
Red wine sales are tanking at S.F. restaurants: ‘We’ve never seen anything like this’
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/red-wine-restaurants-19930284.php
But lately, on any given night, about a quarter of the tables at Acquerello don’t have any wine on them at all, said wine director Gianpaolo Paterlini. So far in 2024, Acquerello’s wine sales are 24% lower than what they were in 2023. White wine is down by 13%, red wine by 27%.
“This is going to be our worst year since we’ve kept records,” he said. “We have a big cellar full of fancy wine that rarely gets utilized these days.”
Acquerello is not an anomaly. Wine sales are down across the board at Bay Area restaurants, a reflection of the larger downturn in the U.S. wine industry, and red wine is in a particular slump. Red wine sales dropped by 11.9% at San Francisco restaurants from the second quarter of 2023 to the second quarter of 2024, according to data provided by Toast, a popular restaurant point-of-sale platform.
It’s well documented that Americans are consuming less alcohol than in the past, partly in response to shifting perceptions of its health impacts. But San Franciscans’ lower appetite for wine at restaurants may also have to do with rising costs. The average price of a glass of red wine at San Francisco restaurants is now $17.19, according to Toast, while a glass of white is $14.55 and sparkling wine $15.69.
To combat the price fatigue and encourage customers to drink up, some restaurants are getting creative. At Rich Table, wine director Kevin Born now advertises 1-ounce pours of Champagne for $6 and half glasses ($8-$13) of any variety — things the restaurant has always quietly offered but never made explicit on its menu. “That makes it approachable when they want to try the Sancerre but don’t want to pay $28 for a glass,” Born said. (Although Rich Table’s half glass is ostensibly 2.5 ounces, Born said in practice it “leans toward 3.”)
Diners’ waning interest in wine has shifted the power dynamic. As recently as three years ago, Greene said Saison had “really hard and fast rules,” prohibiting, for example, two people splitting the tasting menu’s accompanying wine pairing. But with wine sales down, “we’ve evolved from a restaurant that said ‘no’ a lot,” Greene said. “I’d rather you split the pairing than not order wine at all.”
When Saison raised the price for its food recently, Greene said she fought with her colleagues not to raise the wine pairing from its current $198 price. “I get nervous — you’re already spending close to $1,000 on the meal,” she said. “I don’t want people to feel like they can’t opt in; $200 (for wine), that’s a lot of money.”
Creative, well located restaurants, opened by experienced operators can be very successful.
Osteria Mozza is a smash hit from the start in Georgetown
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/12/26/osteria-mozza-restaurant-review-nancy-silverton/
Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr and California chef Nancy Silverton weren’t well-acquainted when Starr approached her about opening a place together in Washington three years ago. All Starr says he knew was that Silverton’s focaccia “blew me away” and would probably make a splash at his chosen location, the barn-size space previously filled by Dean & DeLuca in Georgetown.
Starr, whose contributions in the District include the popular Le Diplomate and St. Anselm, guessed right. No sooner did Osteria Mozza open in November than lines formed for Silverton’s focaccia di Recco — and, really, for just about every aspect of a genius collaboration that ranks up there with Taylor and Travis.
You’ll be encouraged to try something from the marble-paved mozzarella bar, “the heart and soul of the restaurant,” says a docent, er, server. The kitchen imports its cheese from prime sources. I’ve yet to try a combination I wouldn’t return to, but I’d return fastest for a ball of burrata on a raft of soft leeks sharpened with a mustard vinaigrette and crisped with toasted breadcrumbs, also punched up with mustard.
Look up from this delicious cooking and take in the scene, lit to flatter the crowd. New York-based Roman and Williams filled 20,000 feet of space with terrazzo floors, green- and caramel-colored seating, arched windows and a small market, part of the lease agreement, whose shelves are stocked with Silverton-selected pastas, olive oils, condiments and more from producers or importers the chef actually knows.
Small business, big gamble
It cost an Adams Morgan pub owner six figures to open D.C.’s first independent sportsbook. Did the bet pay off?
https://archive.ph/N7yUI#selection-989.0-993.111
Washington Business Journal, 9/7/23
It looks like your ordinary sports bar, with multiple TVs tuned to various sporting events. Customers would not even know it has four betting kiosks and two teller windows — tucked in a back room off the main bar — unless they were looking for them. The year-old FanDuel venue, on the other hand, appears far more inviting to gamblers, boasting at least 16 betting kiosks, TVs as large as highway billboards and a very impressive view of the Audi Field pitch.
Despite these differences in appearance and size, Grand Central saw more action in July than FanDuel’s venue did, both in number of bets and dollars wagered. Whether that holds up through the busy football season remains to be seen, but it was nonetheless a notable accomplishment for Grand Central, as it showed it can effectively compete in a sports gambling marketplace dominated by big names like FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars and BetMGM.
It was also, potentially, a hopeful sign for other local restaurateurs considering adding sportsbooks to their menus. D.C. is among the few jurisdictions in the country that allows independent bars and restaurants to operate sportsbooks, but there are only two such venues up and running to date. Few have shown interest — and it’s easy to see why.
Competition is intense, as gamblers in the D.C. region have no shortage of betting options. They can place wagers at high-profile sportsbooks at Audi Field, Nationals Park, Capital One Arena, FedEx Field and National Harbor or via any one of about two dozen mobile betting apps. And the cost and time commitment of applying for a retail sports betting license can be prohibitive. Grand Central’s application fee alone was $100,000 and approval from D.C.’s Office of Lottery and Gaming and Office of Small and Local Business Development took close to a year.
But to Grand Central owner Brian Vasile, it was worth it. In fact, he’s been so pleased with the business gambling has brought to Grand Central that he’s now preparing to open a second sportsbook on H Street Northeast in partnership with his current tech provider, Toronto’s Elys Game Technology. With any luck, it will open this fall in the middle of football — and peak betting — season.
In a slow month, Grand Central pulls in about $300,000 in wagers and in a good month during football season its “handle” can top $500,000. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to what Caesars takes in Capital One Arena but meaningful for tiny Grand Central. Its hold — what it keeps after paying out prize money — on average is about 10% of the dollars wagered, Vasile said, though some months it can be much higher. In July, for example, its hold was just under 42%, according to data from the D.C. Lottery, meaning that of the $330,000 wagered it kept more than $137,000 before taxes, expenses and its split with Elys.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2025/03/11/best-ethiopian-restaurants-dc
The 8 best Ethiopian restaurants in and around D.C.
The region is home to the largest Ethiopian population in the United States, which translates to a lot of good restaurants.
Unrest around the world tends to bring good food to the nation’s capital. Ethiopians began settling in the District after the overthrow of their emperor, Haile Selassie, in 1974. Low rents saw Ethiopian restaurants pop up first in Adams Morgan, then in other neighborhoods, including Shaw, and in Maryland and Virginia. As the cost of doing business increased, Ethiopian operators decamped for more affordable spots in the area.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/food/1991/06/12/cultural-stew/41b89038-55a5-4ae0-9b93-e53e5f6c0e87
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