There’s an article in today’s Star about how Central Bistro at the Historic Depot is asking the city to continue subsidizing the restaurant by paying for 18 more months of rent and granting/loaning the restaurant $100,000.
Say what?
In the current Noshing column, I posed a question to the city, asking them why they made such a deal with unknowns like the Economus? True, they may have chefs’ experience, but they did not have a restaurant following.
Did the Economus ever have to give the city a marketing or business plan, and if so, was it ever followed up on to make sure things were progressing or were they just handed everything on a proverbial platter without any follow up? Is this latest development any surprise to anyone? Among fellow restaurant writers, it’s no surprise.
I’d also like to know if other restaurateurs were offered to likewise bid on the space or privy to such privileged subsidies. It seems to me that once again the city created this problem.
Prior to this mess downtown, were the Economus turning a profit or packing them in for lunch, dinner and special events?
The gravy train–hopefully–has come to the end of the line for this venture.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2007.
AZStar: “but the trenching on Toole is what got the restaurant [Central Bistro] considering legal action against the city.”
Uh… and they want money from the city to continue business?
The lesson is – they shouldn’t have located downtown.
No, the lesson is they should learn how to run a business.
Just because you know how to cook, it doesn’t mean you should run a restaurant.
There was minimal advertising.
The place always looked closed. In fact, several times I tried to eat there it was closed!
It wasn’t kept up (look at the carpet).
And the menu was pretty limited.
They had an ideal spot: a romantic setting, lots of parking, historic and no rent!
This is not the city’s fault.
Yeah, they got a great location. I ate there once, but the food didn’t excite me at all. Especially for the prices they were charging. The cup is right across the street, and they seem to do just fine.
“The lesson is – they shouldn’t have located downtown.”
That’s just silly. Are you saying that new businesses should steer clear of downtown Tucson altogether?
Theoretically, the 4th Avenue Underpass construction should be bringing people to that end of downtown like never before. Imagine a conveyor belt dropping off customers on your front door…
Wanda’s right–they have the opportunity and the location; they just have to tough it out during construction.