The plywood, IMO, is the biggest issue. Look at Glenwood South in comparison.
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Tacos Abarca on Glenwood (northwest of the mall) has some crazy good tacos.
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I would love if the answer is that Glenwood South has grown up a bit and that is the point you’re making…
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No, the point I’m making is that the restaurants in Glenwood South (sans plywood) seem to be getting back to normal (reduced capacity) whereas Fayetteville Street can’t say the same thing.
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I think that comes down to a few factors - types of patrons and setup of space. Two different types of crowds (almost literally) between the two. The younger care-free (to put it kindly) set are at Glenwood South and packing in to places like Southern Charred that are doing a pretty terrible job at spacing and other health controls. The older clientele that goes to the places downtown downtown is a little more careful. There’s also more outdoor seating at Glenwood South. The downtown restaurant owners I know that are slow to take down their plywood are taking their time because the lunch/office business isn’t back yet.
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So you don’t think the plywood is a factor?
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Minimal, imo. Yes, it’s not pretty to those of us that are around downtown anyway, but the folks I know that usually come downtown for dinner have scaled back until the CV situation gets better, and some didn’t even know there was plywood up. I agree that it should come down soon and will contribute to a healthier reopening, but I think Covid is a much bigger factor. Personally, my family has only been going to eat at places that have outdoor seating, and takeout from the places that don’t. I’d love to watch a Liverpool game at London Bridge, but it’s not the plywood that’s keeping me away, it’s the small space and non-mask wearers sitting on top of each other (maybe this has improved since I last went in a month ago).
Also, I know for certain that friends of mine that went to some of those Glenwood South bars had a covid outbreak shortly after. Most people are keeping quiet about these outside of their group of friends out of embarrassment but it’s happening. I’m not trying to get into that subject since we agreed it’s taboo, but as far as downtown bars and restaurants I think it’s still very much a factor in people’s decision making no matter what any of us here believes about Covid itself.
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I wonder if we could compare raw options in the core versus GS. I mean the plywood could be the perceived problem when maybe it’s just that more restaurants are open in GS than in the core. If a business is closed in the core while one is open in GS, you can’t blame the plywood. I think this detail might help the comparison.
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I’d mentioned earlier on this thread that Crema was aiming to reopen Monday of this week, but the owner said their AC busted over the weekend so they are now shooting for next Tuesday.
I was simply saying that there are many factors at play and plywood, to me, is one but not THE.
I wager the GS clientele versus the downtown clientele is a larger factor in the differences you see in business approach to what’s going on these days. Hopefully we’ll continue to see improvements DTR and GS keeps ‘doin’ its thing’…
I think this rationalizes it better… If covid was a bigger factor than the plywood as many of you continue to argue, then it would be affecting Glenwood South equally as bad. It CLEARLY is not.
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From my vantage, one of the reasons Glenwood is thriving is density of establishments. Unfortunately downtown proper doesn’t have the continuity of retail/restaurant spaces and the plywood/closings adds to the disconnect. A stones throw from 1 parking space or starting block, I could eat at Plates, Sushi Blues, Sushi O, La santa, or Hibernian, and those are just the places I actually like to frequent. I can’t think of a comparable block in the core.
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There’s also a density of residents in Glenwood South.
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That’s well said and I think a lot are missing this point. I’ve said it elsewhere but it doesn’t take too many people to make GS look busy where the core has gaps as well as a variety of businesses that operate at different hours and cater outside of food and bev.
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Agreed. Fayetteville St in particular looked like it was dying for the last year or two. Having few office workers and few continuous areas of restaurants is definitely making it worse. Glenwood south and some other areas are looking much more full.
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Ok, let’s stay on the same sections of town for comparison. Why does Transfer Co. continue to have customers while City Market and anything surrounding Moore square is a ghost town?
Covid? Density of establishments? Office workers? Lunch traffic? Density of residents? Clientele? Outdoor Space?
Maybe some are confusing Downtown to only Fayetteville St.
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I usually find the central business districts of most cities to be areas that I don’t particularly enjoy. It’s often the spots on the outskirts of those CBDs that have more character and life.
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Outdoor space and proximity to residential density. It’s also half a city block in size and relatively open space.
I think that we also underestimate the effects of the Convention Center and all the downtown events that DTR has. Those losses are significant.
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Plywood. No one is going to eat on a dark restaurant. No one walks to walk down streets and stroll with plywood. Simple as that.
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