Friday, February 13, 2009

Eating out.

Over at the Tribune's "New Albany Forum" the owner of Ninny's reveals that she's closing the restaurant at the end of the month. I must confess to having never eaten there.

The restaurant business is volatile. You may recall that when we were making the rounds of banks in the midst of last fall's bottoming (out), the standard greeting was "no start-ups funded -- especially restaurants." It took a while to find an institution of higher lending that would actually read the business plan to learn that our primary motivation was brewing beer for distribution. When it became apparent that Main Source would be the partner for us, I cried. Literally.

Yesterday I spent an hour and a half at the Bank Street construction site with Grace Schneider, the Courier-Journal's reporter who now provides at least some of the coverage for Floyd County since Dick Kaukas opted for the newspaper's broom and dustpan retirement plan. We chatted at length about the brewhouse project, and then I moved in the direction of the Farmers Market with a mind toward a bison wrap and Andy's and Joy's portable kitchen.

Before sinking my teeth into the succulence, there came the opportunity to step inside the space that Toast on Market will someday occupy. Currently it is undergoing renovation, and is coming along nicely, even if there's no firm date for the eatery's arrival.

My point, if any, is that entrepreneurs of any variety bizarrely enjoy spinning the wheel of fate and cash, but the house always has the best odds. For me, the best way to jig the process is to be relentlessly contrarian, and to offer a product like no one else's.

The same should hold true for downtown as a whole. If we can hold things together downtown for a year or so, I see good things coming from the effort.

10 comments:

Daniel Short said...

Ninny's has the best double cheeseburger in New Albany. Now where am I going to go for a comfort food lunch?

B.W. Smith said...

Studios on Main. They have awesome burgers.

Daniel Short said...

Open for lunch?

Iamhoosier said...

Yes. Stuffed bleu cheese burger--yummy. All around good food and fair prices.

Christopher D said...

Studios is GREAT! and they are open for lunch I do believe.
It is sad about ninnys. We always try to go out to locally owned restaurants when we go out to eat.
And it was good, as Daniel said, comfort food at Ninny's.
The owner has started a thread on the news-and-tribune website regarding the closure, I think we should all take a moment to let them know they will be missed!

B.W. Smith said...

I just get the regular burger when I'm in the mood, and it is tasty. It is also kid friendly and non-smoking on the family side.

TedF said...

Studios does have great burgers. Be careful though, I think I heard they had a copperhead in there a couple weeks ago.

Coop said...

We averaged going out to Ninny's about once every two months. I never noticed anything great but, it was a good change of pace for us. The help was always friendly and never had a "bad" experience.

I agree with everyone else about Studios. We get there for lunch, dinner and even an occasional after dinner drink. This has to be my "2nd" favorite place in New Albany to have drink.

The New Albanian said...

Trish has done a good job, I think. I eat few hamburgers, but rather like hers. Maybe we'll be able to sneak a few better beers in there at some point ...

Matt Nash said...

and Studios is a restaurant(slash) bar