There also were cars in the parking lot just out of view to the right. While resting for perhaps ten minutes before resuming my ride, perhaps a half-dozen people left the gym and another half-dozen arrived.
Seems like potential customers to me, but almost nothing is open downtown on Sunday.
The Bank Street Brewhouse team discussed this again last week, and once things are up and running, we're going to take a shot at Sunday hours of 12 noon though 7:00 p.m. (or maybe 8:00 p.m.) We're still thinking adult refreshments and a very simple food menu.
This seems to me the ultimate in chicken/egg arguments. Most businesses aren't open because no one's downtown on Sunday, but no one's downtown on Sunday because most businesses aren't open. The Y is open, so this would seem to indicate that people will come downtown on Sunday if there's a reason. Granted, there quite a few children at the Y on weekends, and children aren't a brewery's target demographic. Still, it seems like something worth chancing.
ALMOST nothing is open.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm glad to see someone trying it. Destinations is open, of course, but I'm surprised more eateries haven't given it a whirl, especially within walking distance of so many churches.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to offer an opinion, although some won't like it.
ReplyDeleteHave any of the downtown eateries shown creativity in the business plan AND creativity in the marketing plan?
I'm saying, "I don't think so."
I'll shut up now.
Speaking from own experience, when I leave the Y (much as Idid at 11:35 this a.m.) I don't imagine it being very becoming to plop my reddened sweaty self down and nosh on hummus next to a potential Sunday lunch squad from St. Mary's.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Roger that the serial attempts at restaurant success downtown have been very rigid, antiquated and oblivious to their targeted demographic.
Just out of curiosity, Jon, what do you see as the targeted demographic?
ReplyDeleteIs it different for each establishment or are you being more general?
Even as I understand Jon's point about the potential unease of mixing sweaty bodies with folks in their Sunday best, wouldn't it be exciting to see some enterprising entrepreneurial types cut loose with their creativity and develop a variety of venues that would attract both groups.
ReplyDeleteAfter all they are in many ways a captive audience.
What's so foreign about the concept of creating a venue where the young can hang with their peers while thier parents stroll down Bank Street for a brew?
Where is it written that big screen TV is solely for watching rednecks abuse themselves and/or their equipmant in one fashion or another?
And better yet, when did the Constitution get amended to read that a business must be closed on weekends unless it is located in a mega mall in the suburbs?
It reminds me of a driver I once employed that would turn down a 1500 mile weekend run that would get him home Sunday night while putting $700 post tax dollars in his pocket and elect instead to deadhead 900 miles for $200 pre-tax in order that he could get home Saturday night to fight with his wife because he didn't make enough to pay the light bill!
Seems to me many are crying about lost revenue all the while doing everything but calling a cab to transport customers elsedwhere.
No harm is meant, and while I embrace Lloyd's poignant point on those of the sabbath silly, I was only stating that there hasn't been an culinary/libational extension to the alleged "progressives" (yes, I insist on waxing redundant with quotations and the status of allegation) in this city, from Grantline to the west, for many a year now.
ReplyDeleteWe chew on regular rhetoric here about Richard Florida, I know dozens of this purview and, alas, nothing is open on a Sunday. My sole point was that fervor at the Y isn't a catalyst for bistro buisness. If one could bust proverbial ass at the Y, go home, shower and then return for ESB and cailamri, well - why not?
The YMCA by itself may not be enough of a people pump to create a downtown full of shops and restaurants which are open throughout the weekends.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the YMCA is by itself a sufficient attraction to bring in another big development or two to Scribner Phase II.
Let’s not forget that the YMCA has only been open for three months. That’s three months during the winter and during a sever recession/credit crunch. Both will pass and investors once again will begin opening new establishments. They will open them in downtown New Albany.
It takes time but I have no doubt the YMCA will live up to its expectations as the spark that lit the redevelopment fire.
Movie theater.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't provide as much cinematic pleasure as a sweaty, red Jon plopping down with Mom and Pop Pentecost, but still...
There may be several churches within walking distance, but the Sunday church crowd is also notorious for being shitty tippers.
ReplyDelete