But the Mecca is right down the street and seems to be doing well.
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Didn’t they move to the beach? I don’t follow so maybe they didn’t do well there.
Well, except for the whole living at the beach thing…
Mecca serves breakfast and lunch plus stays open until 9 on Friday and Saturday and is open every day.
Coopers is lunch only closing at 4 pm except 5 on Friday, closed Sunday and Monday.
More revenue opportunities for Mecca and a more diverse menu.
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The unsaid part is doing some heavy lifting here, I think — Coopers has thrived in a downtown that was mostly devoid of BBQ choices until recently. Now you’ve got Sam, Longleaf, Midwood, etc. Personally, I haven’t set foot in Coopers since Sam opened his doors, and frankly, it has nothing to do with their politics — I’m here for the pork.
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She also complained that all of the new apartments and development downtown was BAD for them, but then bemoans parking. There’s no question there are less workers downtown at lunch but it’s nowhere near the ghost town the chattering social media chuckle heads are making it out to be.
There’s a deli right across the street and Beasly’s is the next restaurant up, and they both seem to have good lunch business. When I was younger, every work lunch was catered with BBQ, and the rest of the day I was worthless. I don’t think the younger set, which has become a greater share of downtown business (before it was mainly politicians, state government, lawyers, bankers), want BBQ for lunch at the frequency the previous generation did.
I look forward to someone bringing a better run business, attitude, and concept to this space, even if it takes time.
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Huge disagree. If their product, service, hours, etc all suck… then their legacy no longer means a thing. I’ll go ahead and say outright that Clyde Coopers is some of the blandest, driest, worst BBQ I’ve ever had - all served on Food Lion buns, at that LMAO. They haven’t changed their business model to keep up with the times, and now there’s actual OBJECTIVELY better competition (Longleaf, Sam Jones, Midwood, hell even the PIT is still doing JUST FINE downtown) and they can’t keep up. Sucks for them, but the shifting of blame to homeless people and “apartments” is LAUGHABLE. More apartments = more people living directly within the vicinity of your business = MORE POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS. Maybe Clyde Coopers just … sucks. It’s not that difficult lol. See ya Clyde, don’t let the door hit ya.
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I eat at Cooper’s several times a month. The food is perfectly okay. She is a very nice lady if you ever even took a moment to say hi. Don’t really understand the full blown animosity shown on here. But not particularly surprised. I will personally miss Cooper’s along with many of the other restaurants that have closed in the general area over the past 3 or 4 years.
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Didn’t Coopers have some sort of long term $1 lease or something like that after moving due to construction? I’m sure I have some of that wrong, but I feel like they have, or at least had, a sweetheart of a deal where they are.
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Read this in an article “Debbie Holt owns the Clyde Cooper’s building space and said she plans to lease it out once the restaurant has moved.” I thought Raleigh owned it but not sure how that works.
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When I moved here I’d seen that it was one of the must-eat places in Raleigh, so I was excited to go.
But then it took a long time to open post-COVID, it was only open for lunch when I was working at home or in Centennial so it was far away, Longleaf and Sam Jones opened closer to places I spend time at, and no one I talked to actually seemed enthused about the food.
So I never went.
Just seems like it was stuck in a business model that didn’t work anymore.
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I mean they said that their business is still good and this is being done by choice. Also the fact that they’ve been open for 70+ years seems to point to the food being decent enough. I tend to believe the business owners that say that there are problems affecting their desire to own downtown businesses.
I’ve always enjoyed it, one of the more lively places to grab lunch during the week, even post COVID. Not sure how a probably long term empty store front will be a better alternative to a solid lunch option 
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The animosity is coming from inside the house!!! In other words- her claims are chock-full of animosity that is completely misplaced, and rather than accept the reality that they are: now competing with much better new options, still have terrible hours, only started accepted CREDIT/DEBIT CARD as payment very recently (an obvious correction to an objectively stupid business decision), and above all else just have annoying and vocal politics - she is resorting to playing blame-game. She deserves all the pushback she’s getting, here, IMO.
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LMAOOOOO - they wouldn’t be MAKING THIS CHOICE if their business was truly “good” - I find it hard to believe they’re seeing the sales they have in the past with all the above mentioned^^^
That said, the fact they’ve been open for 70+ means nothing about their product - it sucks - but their legacy alone is probably what HAS kept them alive into this new era.
We’re gonna about double our music venues in the next 3-5 years if they all come to fruition. I like the smaller set up of this one.
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I would much rather encourage people on here to visit the restaurant more often and give them a positive reason to stay at their current location. I realize that is not in your wheelhouse. Anybody noticed how unsuccessful the retail space has been on the Blount St side of this parking garage?
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What do you mean? Manhattan is killing it every day at lunch time, 9round always has people in it, the pawn shop is a front, I’m pretty sure, so they’re probably fine, and Oro seems to be doing well also.
On the other hand CC’s does not give their potential clientele positive reasons to visit them. It’s open only for lunch so how are we to visit the restaurant more if we don’t want to drive to them during our hour long lunch break. If we do happen to work in an office nearby, do we choose between their middling quality BBQ (in several people’s opinions. I don’t eat meat so I wouldn’t know.) or do we go across the street to Manhattan or cattycorner to Carrol’s for better food? And then would the messaging displayed in the front window and on their social media be conducive to attracting the demographic that might choose to live in downtown and work from home, walking distance from CC’s?
Thanks, Ms. Holt and Cooper’s. I’ve enjoyed the smells, but if you want to move your DT Raleigh institution out of DT Raleigh because of a supposed lack of parking, a noticeable but really pretty small rise in crime, or general “negativity” you have received, you do you, bestie. Looking forward to what emerges in your place.
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There’s only two retail operations connected to the parking garage on the Wilmington side. A pawn shop which appears to be doing well (a few of my friends exclusively get their jewelry from there) and Clyde Coopers.
Manhattan Cafe, directly across the street from CC, is also doing fine.
I’ll add that the chosen business model of CC will be unsuccessful anywhere else that doesn’t have condensed office workers. They’re open for about 27 hours a week. If they want a place with a lot of parking like a Chilis, McDonalds, or an Olive Garden, they’ll need to expand their hours. Something they were unwilling to do in their current situation.
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Sorry I meant Blount St side.
I’ve lived in NC (Raleigh and burbs) for almost 30 years. Went to NC State, brief layover in Wilmington. I have never once been to Clyde Coopers. I have never once had anyone recommend going to Clyde Coopers. There has always been something better, even back in the day when there were basically no other BBQ places.
None of that to say they should move. But if things aren’t going well, I sincerely don’t think they’ll be missed and that’s insane to say considering how long they’ve been there.
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