Eateries cash in on TV appearance
Scott Olson
September 2, 2010
IBJ.com
The venerable Edwards Drive In on Indianapolis' southeast side has built quite a clientele in its 53-year existence. But the old-fashioned eatery has attracted scores of newcomers since its national television debut last month.
Edwards, along with Bub's Burgers & Ice Cream in Carmel and Gray Brothers Cafeteria in Mooresville, were featured Aug. 18 on the Travel Channel's popoular "Man v. Food" TV show.
For Jeff Edwards, who operates the family-owned drive-in at the corner of Raymond Street and Sherman Drive with his sister, the national exposure has created quite a stir.
After the airing, Edwards instructed his staff to query customers on whether they've been to the restaurant before.
"Three out of five were brand new, which is an alarming amount considering we out 500 to 600 customers through every day," he said. "It's created a tremendous amount of travel business, because they've seen it on the show."
to read the full article... click here.
Showing posts with label indianapolis restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indianapolis restaurants. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Check out... Specialized brewery finds home in Fountain Square
Specialized brewery finds home in Fountain Square
By Sarah Richcreek / Star correspondent
IndyStar.com
As consumers look for more hand-crafted goods and a back-to-basics approach, one very specialized brewery has found a home in Fountain Square.
New Day Meadery is the only meadery in Indiana, and one of only 60 in the nation. Husband-and-wife team Brett Canaday and Tia Agnew began production in Elwood in 2001. In June, they opened a Fountain Square shop with a tasting room at 1102 Prospect St.
Mead, in essence, is honey wine. Because mead contains no grapes, which are naturally high in sugar, the fruit in mead needs the added sugar of the honey to increase the alcohol content.
Canaday and Agnew offer eight varieties, from dry to sweet. (Bottles range from $12 to $25.) Their tasting room is open to walk-ins, who can experience a single taste up to a full flight for a fee.
Canaday and Agnew plan to collaborate with local restaurants to provide food for larger tastings and parties, and they hope to host private cooking demonstrations.
By Sarah Richcreek / Star correspondent
IndyStar.com
As consumers look for more hand-crafted goods and a back-to-basics approach, one very specialized brewery has found a home in Fountain Square.
New Day Meadery is the only meadery in Indiana, and one of only 60 in the nation. Husband-and-wife team Brett Canaday and Tia Agnew began production in Elwood in 2001. In June, they opened a Fountain Square shop with a tasting room at 1102 Prospect St.
Mead, in essence, is honey wine. Because mead contains no grapes, which are naturally high in sugar, the fruit in mead needs the added sugar of the honey to increase the alcohol content.
Canaday and Agnew offer eight varieties, from dry to sweet. (Bottles range from $12 to $25.) Their tasting room is open to walk-ins, who can experience a single taste up to a full flight for a fee.
Canaday and Agnew plan to collaborate with local restaurants to provide food for larger tastings and parties, and they hope to host private cooking demonstrations.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
INSIDE DISH: Real estate deals central to success for Santorini
By: Mason King
IBJ.com, Inside Dish
Santorini Greek Kitchen, the realized dream of restaurateur Taki Sawi and one of the flagship eateries in the rebounding Fountain Square neighborhood. Growing up in Greece, Sawi developed a love for restaurants and worked his way up from dishwasher to chef. He met his future wife, Jeanette, in 1996 while she was traveling through Greece. One of his first questions to her: "How would you feel about marrying a restaurateur?"
They made their home in Indiana and opened the first version of Santorini Greek Kitchen in 2001 at 1112 Shelby St. in Fountain Square. The small eatery in a leased space was an instant success, but the experience with the $150,000 startup filled Taki with a certain dread. "Never ever put all your eggs in one basket," he says now, recalling putting both his and his mother-in-law's house up as collateral for loans.Sawi was convinced that with only 40-some seats he was leaving money on the table. In 2003, community development corporation Southeast Neighborhood Development secured an $850,000 loan to purchase and renovate a former bar and restaurant space at 1417 E. Prospect St., and signed Sawi to a lease-to-purchase agreement. He since has acquired the much larger space.
The importance of controlling his location is not lost on Taki.
To read more and view a video of Taki explaining how controlling the real estate around him was key to his Santorini's successs ... click here.
IBJ.com, Inside Dish
Santorini Greek Kitchen, the realized dream of restaurateur Taki Sawi and one of the flagship eateries in the rebounding Fountain Square neighborhood. Growing up in Greece, Sawi developed a love for restaurants and worked his way up from dishwasher to chef. He met his future wife, Jeanette, in 1996 while she was traveling through Greece. One of his first questions to her: "How would you feel about marrying a restaurateur?"
They made their home in Indiana and opened the first version of Santorini Greek Kitchen in 2001 at 1112 Shelby St. in Fountain Square. The small eatery in a leased space was an instant success, but the experience with the $150,000 startup filled Taki with a certain dread. "Never ever put all your eggs in one basket," he says now, recalling putting both his and his mother-in-law's house up as collateral for loans.Sawi was convinced that with only 40-some seats he was leaving money on the table. In 2003, community development corporation Southeast Neighborhood Development secured an $850,000 loan to purchase and renovate a former bar and restaurant space at 1417 E. Prospect St., and signed Sawi to a lease-to-purchase agreement. He since has acquired the much larger space.
The importance of controlling his location is not lost on Taki.
To read more and view a video of Taki explaining how controlling the real estate around him was key to his Santorini's successs ... click here.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Dish - Fountain Square News
The Dish
11.10.09
Edited by Beth A. Clayton
Hip To Be Square
Those who said Fountain Square wasn't living up to its promised potential may soon have to eat their words—or least give them a nibble. A couple new restaurants, a watering hole or two, and a coffee shop are currently in the works just off the Square.
•The first to come along is Calvin Fletcher's Coffee Company (615 Virginia Ave., 423-9697), which opened October 17 on Virginia Avenue in the Fletcher Place neighborhood. The not-for-profit café serves fair-trade coffee and organic teas, plus sweets from City Sweets and Classic Cakes. Each month, tips are donated to a different charity; this month's recipient is Second Helpings.
•Imbibe (1105 Shelby St.), opened Friday in the Fountain Square Theatre Building between owners Linton and Fern Calvert's other two restaurants, Smokehouse on Shelbi and the Shelbi Street Bistro. The Art Deco-themed bar offers small-plate appetizers, craft beers, specialty cocktails, and wines.
•Across the square in the Murphy Art Center, restaurateur Wally Bolinger plans to open The Red Lion, an English pub, the week of Thanksgiving. Bolinger also owns Britton Tavern in Noblesville, and says this one will offer traditional English favorites, like bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, and fish and chips, plus burgers and a couple of vegetarian options. Bolinger will also serve about a dozen craft beers (including some Sun King favorites), 20 bottled beers, and a short wine list.
•In the coming months, we can look forward the White Rabbit Cabaret (1116 E. Prospect St.), from sisters Debra and Rebecca Silveus, which will feature vaudeville-inspired dance shows and some movie and game nights, plus small-plate offerings and beer and wine. And finally, next door at 1130 East Prospect, Radio Radio owners David "Tufty" Clough and Roni Donaldson plan to open a full-service restaurant known tentatively as La Revolucion sometime next year.
11.10.09
Edited by Beth A. Clayton
Hip To Be Square
Those who said Fountain Square wasn't living up to its promised potential may soon have to eat their words—or least give them a nibble. A couple new restaurants, a watering hole or two, and a coffee shop are currently in the works just off the Square.
•The first to come along is Calvin Fletcher's Coffee Company (615 Virginia Ave., 423-9697), which opened October 17 on Virginia Avenue in the Fletcher Place neighborhood. The not-for-profit café serves fair-trade coffee and organic teas, plus sweets from City Sweets and Classic Cakes. Each month, tips are donated to a different charity; this month's recipient is Second Helpings.
•Imbibe (1105 Shelby St.), opened Friday in the Fountain Square Theatre Building between owners Linton and Fern Calvert's other two restaurants, Smokehouse on Shelbi and the Shelbi Street Bistro. The Art Deco-themed bar offers small-plate appetizers, craft beers, specialty cocktails, and wines.
•Across the square in the Murphy Art Center, restaurateur Wally Bolinger plans to open The Red Lion, an English pub, the week of Thanksgiving. Bolinger also owns Britton Tavern in Noblesville, and says this one will offer traditional English favorites, like bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, and fish and chips, plus burgers and a couple of vegetarian options. Bolinger will also serve about a dozen craft beers (including some Sun King favorites), 20 bottled beers, and a short wine list.
•In the coming months, we can look forward the White Rabbit Cabaret (1116 E. Prospect St.), from sisters Debra and Rebecca Silveus, which will feature vaudeville-inspired dance shows and some movie and game nights, plus small-plate offerings and beer and wine. And finally, next door at 1130 East Prospect, Radio Radio owners David "Tufty" Clough and Roni Donaldson plan to open a full-service restaurant known tentatively as La Revolucion sometime next year.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Emerging Restaurant & Entertainment Area
Fountain fix designed to revitalize Square
Star report
Posted: September 8, 2009
Paul Baumgarten, manager of Fountain Square Main Street and a staffer at Southeast Neighborhood Development, is organizing the construction of a new Fountain Square fountain as part of revitalization efforts for the Near-Southside neighborhood.
The Pioneer Family statue at the intersection of Virginia Avenue and Shelby and Prospect streets will be replaced later this year by a cast-iron reproduction of Lady Spray, the water nymph sculpture that stood there in the early 20th century.
The Pioneer Family will eventually return to a new plaza nearby.
Baumgarten today answered some questions by e-mail about the fountain and the business district:
Q: How many businesses are in the Fountain Square district? Can you give me three or four primary ones, businesses that people who live far from the area might recall or know?
A: There are approximately 100 businesses and organizations in the Fountain Square district. There are 113 members (businesses, not-for-profit organizations, neighborhood associations and artists) of the Fountain Square Merchants Association (the boundaries are much larger than Fountain Square).
Our biggest attractors of outside visitors are the Fountain Square Theatre Building (which includes the Smokehouse on Shelby, Shelbi Street Cafe & Bistro, Fountain Square Theatre, Action Bowl and Atomic Bowl Duckpin Bowling, Shelby Suites and Fountainview Inn), great ethnic restaurants (Santorini Greek Kitchen, Siam Square, Naisa Asian Café, Luxor, El Arado, and Maria's Pizza), destination retail (Claus' German Sausage and Meats, Boca Loca Beads, Joe's Cycles, Mass Ave Knit Shop, Indianapolis Downtown Antique Mall, Domistyle), and creative facilities and businesses (AV Framing Gallery, indySwank: art - fashion - décor, Murphy Art Center, Wheeler Arts Community, Radio Radio, White Rabbit Cabaret, Deano's Vino).
Top recognizable businesses are Fountain Square Theatre Building (and duckpin bowling alleys), Santorini Greek Kitchen, Murphy Art Center and Deano's Vino.
Q: What are the district's primary challenges? Primary successes?
A: Our primary challenges have been to improve the physical quality of the Fountain Square commercial corridor -- buildings, infrastructure, landscaping -- while improving the quality and mix of businesses. We have also had to work to change peoples' perceptions about Fountain Square, and to introduce people who have not had reason to come to Fountain Square to visit. All of these things take a significant amount of time and money.
In the last ten years, there have been steady, gradual improvements to the commercial corridor. We have seen the quality of businesses in Fountain Square improve and, today, we're a neighborhood of fantastic independent and independent ethnic restaurants, and unique retail and entertainment venues. We also have businesses that support and serve the neighborhood residents (grocery, library, health center, thrift store, furniture store, laundry), and not-for-profit and professional service businesses that serve a wider audience.
Fountain Square is becoming known as a neighborhood where artists live and work. There are more than 60 artist studios and lofts on or near the commercial corridor, and many artists live in the greater Fountain Square area. Thanks to investments through the Fountain Square Main Street/FOCUS Program and the Cultural Districts Initiative, Fountain Square is becoming a vital hub of creativity. The Fountain Project, which has taken more that 14 years to get to this point, will be a significant physical change that will serve as a milestone in efforts to revitalize the neighborhood.
All of this is being accomplished through Southeast Neighborhood Development's commitment to improving Fountain Square, through the dedication and support of residents, neighborhood associations, and the Fountain Square Merchants Association, and through financial support from Lilly, Anthem (WellPoint), Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, and the Indianapolis Foundation and the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC).
Q: Who is doing the Lady Spray water nymph? Is it an aritst from Indianapolis?
A: The new fountain (see attached drawings) is a new casting from Robinson Iron Works in Alexander City, Ala. The fountain is being made from molds taken from a historic fountain in New York State. The original Lady Spray in Fountain Square was a stock catalog item from Robert Wood in Philadelphia. The new statue is the same catalog figure that was on the original Fountain Square fountain.
Star report
Posted: September 8, 2009
Paul Baumgarten, manager of Fountain Square Main Street and a staffer at Southeast Neighborhood Development, is organizing the construction of a new Fountain Square fountain as part of revitalization efforts for the Near-Southside neighborhood.
The Pioneer Family statue at the intersection of Virginia Avenue and Shelby and Prospect streets will be replaced later this year by a cast-iron reproduction of Lady Spray, the water nymph sculpture that stood there in the early 20th century.
The Pioneer Family will eventually return to a new plaza nearby.
Baumgarten today answered some questions by e-mail about the fountain and the business district:
Q: How many businesses are in the Fountain Square district? Can you give me three or four primary ones, businesses that people who live far from the area might recall or know?
A: There are approximately 100 businesses and organizations in the Fountain Square district. There are 113 members (businesses, not-for-profit organizations, neighborhood associations and artists) of the Fountain Square Merchants Association (the boundaries are much larger than Fountain Square).
Our biggest attractors of outside visitors are the Fountain Square Theatre Building (which includes the Smokehouse on Shelby, Shelbi Street Cafe & Bistro, Fountain Square Theatre, Action Bowl and Atomic Bowl Duckpin Bowling, Shelby Suites and Fountainview Inn), great ethnic restaurants (Santorini Greek Kitchen, Siam Square, Naisa Asian Café, Luxor, El Arado, and Maria's Pizza), destination retail (Claus' German Sausage and Meats, Boca Loca Beads, Joe's Cycles, Mass Ave Knit Shop, Indianapolis Downtown Antique Mall, Domistyle), and creative facilities and businesses (AV Framing Gallery, indySwank: art - fashion - décor, Murphy Art Center, Wheeler Arts Community, Radio Radio, White Rabbit Cabaret, Deano's Vino).
Top recognizable businesses are Fountain Square Theatre Building (and duckpin bowling alleys), Santorini Greek Kitchen, Murphy Art Center and Deano's Vino.
Q: What are the district's primary challenges? Primary successes?
A: Our primary challenges have been to improve the physical quality of the Fountain Square commercial corridor -- buildings, infrastructure, landscaping -- while improving the quality and mix of businesses. We have also had to work to change peoples' perceptions about Fountain Square, and to introduce people who have not had reason to come to Fountain Square to visit. All of these things take a significant amount of time and money.
In the last ten years, there have been steady, gradual improvements to the commercial corridor. We have seen the quality of businesses in Fountain Square improve and, today, we're a neighborhood of fantastic independent and independent ethnic restaurants, and unique retail and entertainment venues. We also have businesses that support and serve the neighborhood residents (grocery, library, health center, thrift store, furniture store, laundry), and not-for-profit and professional service businesses that serve a wider audience.
Fountain Square is becoming known as a neighborhood where artists live and work. There are more than 60 artist studios and lofts on or near the commercial corridor, and many artists live in the greater Fountain Square area. Thanks to investments through the Fountain Square Main Street/FOCUS Program and the Cultural Districts Initiative, Fountain Square is becoming a vital hub of creativity. The Fountain Project, which has taken more that 14 years to get to this point, will be a significant physical change that will serve as a milestone in efforts to revitalize the neighborhood.
All of this is being accomplished through Southeast Neighborhood Development's commitment to improving Fountain Square, through the dedication and support of residents, neighborhood associations, and the Fountain Square Merchants Association, and through financial support from Lilly, Anthem (WellPoint), Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, and the Indianapolis Foundation and the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC).
Q: Who is doing the Lady Spray water nymph? Is it an aritst from Indianapolis?
A: The new fountain (see attached drawings) is a new casting from Robinson Iron Works in Alexander City, Ala. The fountain is being made from molds taken from a historic fountain in New York State. The original Lady Spray in Fountain Square was a stock catalog item from Robert Wood in Philadelphia. The new statue is the same catalog figure that was on the original Fountain Square fountain.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Restaurants, Franchising and Discounting
Restaurants, Franchising and Discounting
by john a. gordon
In a June 23 New York Times Business article, Discounts Have Restaurants Eating Own Lunch, the woes of chain restaurants offering discounts—and the possible long term effect of doing so, was well outlined. The following passage caught my eye:A T.G.I. Friday’s promotion in April and May offering $5 sandwiches and salads led to a small-scale revolt among franchisees. Ross Farro, who has seven T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants in Ohio and Pennsylvania, said the promotion included salads that normally sell for as much as $10 and a steak sandwich priced at $11.89 on the regular menu. The ingredients alone for each steak sandwich cost about $4, he said.
The promotion was supposed to run at lunch and dinner, but Mr. Farro said he and some other franchisees put away the $5 menu inserts at night to stop the bleeding.
This was not the first such example just this year of such issues plaguing chain restaurants and franchisees. Sonic (SONC), for example, has been struggling for almost the entire last year by promoting either drinks or its $1 value menu, and having declines in average customer ticket, not offset by increases in customer traffic. It reported earnings on June 23, which were still weak. And Burger King (BKC) and Subway franchisees have also noted the same problem. But Subway units, with their overwhelming US presence, seem to be visually busy, and seem to of the right scale.
Routinely, in my field visits of restaurants so far this year, I find situations where the company’s central marketing thrust is all but hidden or ignored by misplaced restaurant outdoor posters, in store merchandizing, OR where cashiers actually “trade down” customers to the more discounted offers, from a higher margined item. Either action results in a very sub-optimal outcome.
In the example above, the TG I Friday’s franchisee pointed to a gross margin of only about 20% on that particular steak sandwich item. That’s far below the typical 60-70% margin. I’d bet that not every item in the mix resulted in such a steep discount. But any discount means that incremental sales traffic must be generated to offset the lower margin resulting from the promoted item sales.
Franchisees are more margin centric in their needs and outlook, while the large publicly traded companies are more comp sales oriented, because that is a key metric The Street is looking for.
A lot of that tension is due to the franchise model, where franchisors get royalties based on sales but franchisees make profit the old fashioned way, taking what’s left after expenses are paid. Also, franchisees generally have higher cost of capital (if they can get credit at all right now) and have lower potential margin structures, as they must pay a royalty to the franchisor off the top, usually 3-8%.
Very clearly, deal and value is very important in retailing, but how do you drive it optimally?
One, is that you avoid the mistakes noted in the TGI Fridays example above: work to make the discounts meaningful but not such that individual item sales are slashed beyond feasible (rule of thumb: 50% gross margin is a starting point).
Another is that Fridays could have limited the discount to lunch only—most casual dining operators are slower daytimes and are much busier in the evening. Work to fill in your gaps but play to your strengths.
Another is offering attractive, limited time offers with the price point and margin you can tolerate. Both Brinker (EAT) and Darden (DRI) have kept their product development groups busy lately, creating and rolling out such items.
About the author: John A. Gordon is with Pacific Management Consulting Group, an analytically oriented chain restaurant management consultancy; focused on restaurant economics and earnings
by john a. gordon
In a June 23 New York Times Business article, Discounts Have Restaurants Eating Own Lunch, the woes of chain restaurants offering discounts—and the possible long term effect of doing so, was well outlined. The following passage caught my eye:A T.G.I. Friday’s promotion in April and May offering $5 sandwiches and salads led to a small-scale revolt among franchisees. Ross Farro, who has seven T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants in Ohio and Pennsylvania, said the promotion included salads that normally sell for as much as $10 and a steak sandwich priced at $11.89 on the regular menu. The ingredients alone for each steak sandwich cost about $4, he said.
The promotion was supposed to run at lunch and dinner, but Mr. Farro said he and some other franchisees put away the $5 menu inserts at night to stop the bleeding.
This was not the first such example just this year of such issues plaguing chain restaurants and franchisees. Sonic (SONC), for example, has been struggling for almost the entire last year by promoting either drinks or its $1 value menu, and having declines in average customer ticket, not offset by increases in customer traffic. It reported earnings on June 23, which were still weak. And Burger King (BKC) and Subway franchisees have also noted the same problem. But Subway units, with their overwhelming US presence, seem to be visually busy, and seem to of the right scale.
Routinely, in my field visits of restaurants so far this year, I find situations where the company’s central marketing thrust is all but hidden or ignored by misplaced restaurant outdoor posters, in store merchandizing, OR where cashiers actually “trade down” customers to the more discounted offers, from a higher margined item. Either action results in a very sub-optimal outcome.
In the example above, the TG I Friday’s franchisee pointed to a gross margin of only about 20% on that particular steak sandwich item. That’s far below the typical 60-70% margin. I’d bet that not every item in the mix resulted in such a steep discount. But any discount means that incremental sales traffic must be generated to offset the lower margin resulting from the promoted item sales.
Franchisees are more margin centric in their needs and outlook, while the large publicly traded companies are more comp sales oriented, because that is a key metric The Street is looking for.
A lot of that tension is due to the franchise model, where franchisors get royalties based on sales but franchisees make profit the old fashioned way, taking what’s left after expenses are paid. Also, franchisees generally have higher cost of capital (if they can get credit at all right now) and have lower potential margin structures, as they must pay a royalty to the franchisor off the top, usually 3-8%.
Very clearly, deal and value is very important in retailing, but how do you drive it optimally?
One, is that you avoid the mistakes noted in the TGI Fridays example above: work to make the discounts meaningful but not such that individual item sales are slashed beyond feasible (rule of thumb: 50% gross margin is a starting point).
Another is that Fridays could have limited the discount to lunch only—most casual dining operators are slower daytimes and are much busier in the evening. Work to fill in your gaps but play to your strengths.
Another is offering attractive, limited time offers with the price point and margin you can tolerate. Both Brinker (EAT) and Darden (DRI) have kept their product development groups busy lately, creating and rolling out such items.
About the author: John A. Gordon is with Pacific Management Consulting Group, an analytically oriented chain restaurant management consultancy; focused on restaurant economics and earnings
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Siam Square
Click HERE to check out information on Siam Square.
It's a real gem! Located in Fountain Square (downtown Indy)...may have the best thai food in Indy! Give it a try!
It's a real gem! Located in Fountain Square (downtown Indy)...may have the best thai food in Indy! Give it a try!
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