Formula for success elusive for Main Street’s restaurants
The answer, unfortunately, seems to be yes.
For now the death knell has sounded for Patton’s on Main, one of the longest running and at one time most popular eateries on Main Street. The restaurant, co-owned by local chef-made-good Patton Robertson, a 1988 Marble Falls High School grad, closed Nov. 8, mirroring the demise of four other downtown restaurants during the last five months.
The rapid succession of shutdowns along historic Main Street has many concerned about the future of the downtown area.
Cafe 909, a fine-dining bistro located on Second Street, went out of business Oct. 31, preceded by Cecil & Co. Steaks and Seafood, a restaurant just a block away that closed in mid-September. The Falls Bistro & Wine Cellar at Second and Main shut their doors in June. The House of Blue Lights is also gone, although that bar and grill frequently ran afoul of the law over noise-ordinance and other issues.
Other than Blue Lights, the establishments were high-end, highly rated and often expensive places to dine, catering somewhat to locals but heavily dependent on the tourist trade and the intermittent patronage of wealthy gourmands.
But then the flood of June 2007 came, wiping out many businesses, and on its heels a recession that has even been felt in the Highland Lakes as the subprime mortgage crisis led to the collapse of big banks and big fortunes.
The closures can be traced to other reasons, too. More folks are staying at home and traveling less; they don’t eat out as much as they once did. They stock up at the grocery store and hold cook-offs and barbecues with friends at their homes to save gas and expenses. In these lean times, it’s just easier that way.
Christian Fletcher of the Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce says rescuing Main Street will be a “challenge.”
Main Street is only following national trends. The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index worsened in September and fell to a new record low. About two out of three restaurant operators reported negative same-store sales and traffic levels in September, while 50 percent expect their sales in six months to be lower than last year.
Another troubling element is the dramatic spike in the cost of doing business. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wholesale food prices jumped 8.2 percent from January to June of 2008. This follows a 7.6 percent hike in 2007, which was the most substantial price increase in 27 years. And yet establishments such as the R-Bar & Grill survive down on Main Street. What’s the secret?
Good fare at a middle-class price. Nothing fancy, just stick-to-your ribs comfort food, beer, iced tea, an outdoor deck where you can watch the world go by and a place where you’re just as comfortable bringing a child as you are your significant other.
Future restaurants wishing to locate on Main shouldn’t try to recreate Sixth Street or pine for a Michelin reference or a glowing review in the Sunday New York Times.
Lower those highbrow expectations and embrace the middle class — serve moderately priced, tasty food in a venue where shorts and sandals are the norm for dinner attire. This is the Highland Lakes, after all.
And if you want food that looks fancy, tastes great and deserves a four-star rating, but without the hefty price, there is always Russo’s in Gateway Park.
Yet there is some good news, too, for the downtown area. The Sculpture on Main open-air art exhibits continue to draw visitors to Main Street, there remain plenty of restaurants up and down U.S. 281 that are still thriving, and new owners Texas Nation are taking over in Cecil & Co.’s old space to make a stab at success on Main Street.
Maybe there will be more high-end dining establishments taking root when the chill of the recession wears off. But until that time, as Bob Seger might sing, simpler is better “down on Main Street.”