Restaurants become destination points

Source: Jackson Citizen Patriot
Restaurants opening in the Jackson area don’t need klieg lights to announce their arrival.

News articles, advertising and word of mouth are enough to generate excitement to pack the place for the first couple of months.

The real challenge is: Will diners come back for more?

“It all depends on if they have good food, quality service and atmosphere. If they do, they will be successful,” said Jerry Wood, a retail consultant with GGW & Associates.

Jackson residents – like most Americans – like to eat out. While chains have found comfortable and profitable digs along the I-94 corridor, “interior” locations draw just as many patrons.

Downtown Jackson has already gotten a much-needed boost from Arnie’s, a restaurant at 151 W. Michigan, and there will be more eateries, according to Susan Milhoan, president of the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce.

“There is a statistic floating around that a person who works in a downtown area spends $1,500 in discretionary dollars annually. When Consumers Energy opens its headquarters downtown, with 1,500 employees spending that much money on retail or food and beverage, that amount of money is very attractive to a restaurateur,” Milhoan said.

The Chamber has been talking to potential restaurants, and Milhoan promises that the “downtown of today won’t be the same downtown two years from now.

“We recognize what Arnie’s has done for our downtown. People will travel great distances to enjoy cuisine they can’t get – or think they can’t get – in their area.”

Milhoan pointed to the Common Grill in Chelsea, a restaurant which is credited with being the primary catalyst for the revitalization of that community’s central business district.

Another example is Malai’s in Marshall, an Italian restaurant which has received plenty of attention from both the media and diners.

“We have a good restaurant, and hopefully others as well as retail will follow, and we are working on that aspect as well,” Milhoan said.

Arnie’s, which opened in November, serves coffee and pastries in the early morning, and has lunch and dinner menus.

Said owner Arnie Schneider: “There never have been so many cars downtown at night and on Saturdays” until his place opened.

“People like to be seen and see other people when they dine,” said Schneider, referring to the large windows that overlook the street and sidewalk, and the open eating area inside.

“This is a wonderful location, that’s why I’m here. The demand for a good restaurant was already here; when Consumers opens its headquarters, it will be icing on the cake.”

Good food is just one attraction for customers. Wood, the consultant, said a big draw is an “event center” - a destination point for people. A successful example of this concept, he said, is the Hunt Club.

“A destination point means there are things to do there besides eat. It’s fun to buy tokens and play all those games,” said Wood about the 5,000 square foot game room packed with state of the art video games, one of the largest in Michigan.

Dale Stevens opened the 400-seat restaurant in 1996, remodeling a former warehouse at 1425 Wildwood. It replaced the smaller eatery, which was next door and seated less than half the number.

The main restaurant, with a large gas fireplace, tables, booths and a long bar, has a menu with burgers, steaks, seafood and the famous Wiley potato – seasoned burger heaped on a huge baked potato.

About the only thing that needed tweaking in the facility, which Stevens designed himself, was a golf driving range (using a big screen) in a smaller room separated from the main dining room by billiard tables.

“That wasn’t so popular so I decided it would be perfect for a pizza pub. I flew to a pizza convention in Vegas and picked the brains of people there. I didn’t want to make an ordinary pizza, I wanted an upscale style,” Stevens said.

The pub seats 100. The “upscale sports bar,” with 47 television sets, regularly gets a blend of families with young children, couples and seniors on weeknights and weekends. At lunch, Stevens and business people can get in and out in 30 minutes if necessary.

“I love what i do but I couldn’t have gotten this far without the employees I have. A lot of my key people have been with me for 20 years,” said Stevens, who also has Hunt Club restaurants in Battle Creek and Hillsdale.

Siblings Sherry Bedolla and Donald Knight are hoping to enjoy similar success when they open Knight’s Steak House in early April, in the former Brandywine restaurant at 2125 Horton Road.

“It was a concern to not be close to I-94, but we did a lot of research and got nothing but positive feedback,” Bedollo said. The family also owns a Knight’s Steak House in Ann Arbor, several blocks off I-94 but not in a restaurant area. In fact, it is a former warehouse.

She said when word got out of their new restaurant, “we realized we had a lot of regular customers who were from Jackson,”

Knight’s specializes in steaks, has a variety of seafood and poultry, and lots of sandwiches on its menu. The meat is cut in the family meat market, and the average dinner is $14.95. Everything, she said, is served in large portions.

“We had been looking at a lot of areas and we know the need for restaurants in that area. And we really like the building,” said Bedollo, who said it is being renovated to enlarge the bar, recarpet, do work in the greenhouse room and brighten the entire facility. The former banquet room will be incorporated into regular dining, to seat 220.

What makes a good, thriving restaurants is a variety of elements, according to Milhoan.

“Good attitude, atmosphere, food and conversation are all necessary in the equation,” she said.

Industry facts
There are more than 13,000 restaurants in Michigan, an industry that accounts for 6.5 percent of the total workforce.

Sales in Michigan restaurants are expected to reach $10.6 billion in 2001, a 4.9 percent increase over 2000. Nationally, the figure is even higher – sales are projected to be up 5.2 percent over last year.

On a typical day, more than 4 million meals are served by the Michigan foodservice industry.

The restaurant industry share of the food dollar is 45.8 percent, compared with only 25 percent in 1955. By the year 2010, projections are for 53 percent of the food dollar spent away from home.

This year will mark the 10th consecutive year of real growth in the restaurant industry.
Stat Source: Michigan Restaurant Association
Source: Jackson Citizen Patriot