335 replies to this topic

[JerseyBoy]

ncbrian, on Jul 13 2006, 10:13 AM, said:

Does anybody have a list of the bars, cafes, restaurants and similar places in the Burke St area?

I would probably define the area as including 4th street from Broad St to where 1st St meets up with Hawthorne, essentially most of the West End thus including places like the Filling Station and West Cafe but not places along West End Blvd.

Also, I see that I now have reached Whistle-Stop ranking. How many more posts before the next level?

Well for bars we have Fusion, Black Bear, Gatsby's, and Rubber Soul. For restaurants/cafes we have Burke Street Pizza, Morning Dew, The Lighthouse Restaurant, The Filling Station, West End Cafe, and a smoothie shop on Brookstown but just one storefront down from Burke Street.

[intcvlcphlga]

DaAchiever, on Jul 13 2006, 01:00 PM, said:

Well for bars we have Fusion, Black Bear, Gatsby's, and Rubber Soul. For restaurants/cafes we have Burke Street Pizza, Morning Dew, The Lighthouse Restaurant, The Filling Station, West End Cafe, and a smoothie shop on Brookstown but just one storefront down from Burke Street.

Don't forget Christopher's on Brookstown and Broad - they have a pretty big patio where you can drink (good martini menu) and/or eat.  And, they have live music 3-4x per week.

[mikeyhy]

DaAchiever, on Jul 13 2006, 12:00 PM, said:

Well for bars we have Fusion, Black Bear, Gatsby's, and Rubber Soul. For restaurants/cafes we have Burke Street Pizza, Morning Dew, The Lighthouse Restaurant, The Filling Station, West End Cafe, and a smoothie shop on Brookstown but just one storefront down from Burke Street.

Fusion is closed, the building is for lease (again).  The main draw as far as bars go is Burke Street Pub, and there is also First Street Draught House, on the corner of 1st and Hawthorne.  I walked by the new sports bar yesterday (I work on Burke Street) and it's probably a month from opening.  They have a menu taped up on the door, pretty large, but not a ton of variety - your standard sports bar fare, mostly grilled sandwiches.  I think it will be a nice addition to the area though!

[mikeyhy]

The sports bar (Sports on Burke) may not happen...I talked to the building owner this morning who was on his way to court to evict "his tenant", meaning the sports bar. No details given on why, but what a shame to lose a new business from the area before it even gets off the ground

[ncbrian]

That is unusual for a prospective business to be booted out after all of the announcements and preliminary construction. My guess is that it is probably a personal dispute but we should find out soon enough what the cause is.

[twincity]

from journalnow.com

AllPoints buys $1 million building at First and Liberty

AllPoints Research Inc., a marketing-research company, has bought a building on First Street across from Corpening Plaza downtown for $1 million and plans to move there from leased space on North Point Boulevard in a few months.

Tara Olson, one of the owners of AllPoints, said yesterday that the company had been wanting to buy a building for several years and the building at First and Liberty streets fit its needs.

"We really believe in the downtown revitalization effort," Olson said.

AllPoints, which Olson owns with Sherrie Aycock, has 17 employees, including the owners. Olson said they plan to make improvements on the building and it would be a few months before the business moves in.

[intcvlcphlga]

twincity, on Jul 26 2006, 12:40 AM, said:

from journalnow.com

AllPoints buys $1 million building at First and Liberty

AllPoints Research Inc., a marketing-research company, has bought a building on First Street across from Corpening Plaza downtown for $1 million and plans to move there from leased space on North Point Boulevard in a few months.

Tara Olson, one of the owners of AllPoints, said yesterday that the company had been wanting to buy a building for several years and the building at First and Liberty streets fit its needs.

"We really believe in the downtown revitalization effort," Olson said.

AllPoints, which Olson owns with Sherrie Aycock, has 17 employees, including the owners. Olson said they plan to make improvements on the building and it would be a few months before the business moves in.

Is this the 1 story building?  It would be nice if they would tear it down and built something larger...but, I guess since they only have 17 employees, that's not going to happen.

[ncbrian]

intcvlcphlga, on Jul 26 2006, 11:10 AM, said:

Is this the 1 story building?  It would be nice if they would tear it down and built something larger...but, I guess since they only have 17 employees, that's not going to happen.

It is a pretty much an unremarkable building indistinguishable from any building you would see in any industrial park. It is on the sunken side of 1st street and is pretty easy to miss if you drive past it.

I concur that it would be nice to tear down the building. There are some surface parking lots surrounding the building and then there is that hollow behind it that goes under Business 40 and stuck in the middle of the hollow is a steel column supporting a billboard. It is not a desireable location by any stretch. In fact, I am probably of the mind to contour the land, plant some trees there and make it an extension of the strollway. The office buildings on Cherry and 1st can be much better locations for the current building's tenants.

On a side note, walking past the One Vista Place development, I see that the work crews are gutting the interiors now. It probably will be a while before they start tearing down the buildings but at least there is progress.

[suburban george3]

It appears we may have some shoppes opening in the Nissen building downtown

Quizno's, Bruegger's Bagles, and Dilworth Coffee interested in Nissen Retail Space Journal Aritcle

While this would be more for the lunch crowd and I'm a bigger proponent of local business, it's great for downtown when national chains start to think it's a good area to have location in as well!

[ncbrian]

suburban george3, on Jul 28 2006, 07:10 AM, said:

It appears we may have some shoppes opening in the Nissen building downtown

Quizno's, Bruegger's Bagels, and Dilworth Coffee interested in Nissen Retail Space Journal Aritcle

While this would be more for the lunch crowd and I'm a bigger proponent of local business, it's great for downtown when national chains start to think it's a good area to have location in as well!

So the Cheesecake cafe touted for the street level retail space is not going to happen?

The Quiznos shop will be a good addition when you consider that there is a lack of fast food retail downtown. Tokyo Sapphiro's takeout and some of the other sandwich shops cover part of the market but there is ample capacity for more and the location is far enough from the Subway on Main St so as not to take business away from there. If they are open late in the evenings, they could get a fair bit of trade from the hotels.

As for the coffee shop, we are not lacking for coffee downtown.

While I would prefer local indigenous retail stores downtown to foster a sense of community and identity, these franchises do provide a bit of stability for downtown.

Notice also that much of the latest announcements(Marshall McGreatys, Skippys, Downtown Billards renovations etc..) have been around the Marshall and Fourth St area which ties into the Twin City Quarter project around the hotels/convention center. Hopefully when the One Vista Place and the Civic Plaza projects are completed on the south side of Fourth St from Cherry to Liberty, then we will have a solid downtown core.

[twincity]

^ good point.  i saw that new york styles is closing at 4th and Cherry.  even though Winston is lacking in DT retail, im glad this store is leaving restaurant row.  This opens up another prime property, near Twin City Quarter.

[ncbrian]

Which brings up the question on what sort of retail, non-food, would be viable downtown. Arts and Crafts work well on Trade St but what would entice people to come downtown to shop?

Getting back to restaurants again, there was an announcement early this year that a casual dining sort of resturant with a California feel would go into the vacated space at the southwest corner of Marshall and Fourth, the old United Way offices. Haven't heard anything about it since the announcement but then again would an additional casual dining resturant work downtown? Within a stone's thrown away you have Foothills, Camel Cafe, Cat's Corner, Bistro 420, Mellow Mushroom, the hotel cafe and Dudleys on the Park all serving similar foods. The Downtown Thai is a good alternative so what would work well there? Before it closed, Kabab's Indian cuisine seemed to draw a good steady crowd. Vegeterarin restuarant may have some success too. WS Prime is good high end steak place, could we do well with another? My preference which I have mentioned before is that downtown needs a seafood restaurant first and foremost.

[JerseyBoy]

suburban george3, on Jul 28 2006, 05:10 AM, said:

It appears we may have some shoppes opening in the Nissen building downtown

Quizno's, Bruegger's Bagles, and Dilworth Coffee interested in Nissen Retail Space Journal Aritcle

While this would be more for the lunch crowd and I'm a bigger proponent of local business, it's great for downtown when national chains start to think it's a good area to have location in as well!

That's great that national chains are looking into downtown! I have always thought that to entice people to come to downtown and eat you need a national anchor there but sometimes that isn't always the case.

[suburban george3]

We still need to get a grocer, more mainline shopping, and (IMO) a movie theater established downtown.  Add a couple of true nightclubs, and downtown would be hoppin'!  

[DCMetroRaleigh]

True, Suburban. A downtown club district would really ignite a spark.

[yadkinv]

I'm ambivalent to this issue.  I mean I prefer local spots in whatever city I'm in, but realize that for cities on the verge like W-S, national chains downtown is a must for high profile.  The models of Portland, Oregon (larger than W-S), and Charleston, South Carolina; about the same size, but with a major tourist industry, should be a goal of W-S.

If W-S could emulate those two somehow?  Old Salem needs to advance to the next plateau, and become a mjor desitination; even a theme park, and there needs to be a major museum(s), or better, some sort of hall of fame (what's not taken yet?).

[ncbrian]

DaAchiever, on Jul 28 2006, 12:25 PM, said:

That's great that national chains are looking into downtown! I have always thought that to entice people to come to downtown and eat you need a national anchor there but sometimes that isn't always the case.

Continuing this sub-thread about downtown coffe shops, Scott Sexton has a column out talking just about that in the Journal. The lede:
  

Quote

Christina Sin and Gena Knighten have been down this path before. Though they're nominally competitors because they both own coffee shops downtown, they have something in common.

  They're small business owners trying to compete with larger chain stores.

  When Starbucks Coffee Company opened a spanking new branch last year in the lobby of the Embassy Suites Hotel - less than a block from the Sin coffee shop and three from Knighten's Chelsee's - both women swallowed hard.

  Making a living at $3 a shot isn't easy, even without a behemoth around the corner.

Edited by ncbrian, 31 July 2006 - 09:37 AM.

[transitman]

yadkinv, on Jul 29 2006, 09:53 PM, said:

Old Salem needs to advance to the next plateau, and become a mjor desitination; even a theme park,

Oh God no.  Theme parks are cheap facsimiles of things.  Main Street, USA, at Disney World is a cheap cartoon of a real American main street.  Old Salem is THE REAL THING!!!  Faithfully restored property that adheres to the Secretary of the Interior's standards for historic preservation.  There's no reason to treat it like Gatlinburg, TN.  

Old Salem is already one of the top 2-3 tourist destinations in NC.  We tamper with that success at our peril.

[ncbrian]

transitman, on Aug 16 2006, 08:02 AM, said:

Oh God no.  Theme parks are cheap facsimiles of things.  Main Street, USA, at Disney World is a cheap cartoon of a real American main street.  Old Salem is THE REAL THING!!!  Faithfully restored property that adheres to the Secretary of the Interior's standards for historic preservation.  There's no reason to treat it like Gatlinburg, TN.  

Old Salem is already one of the top 2-3 tourist destinations in NC.  We tamper with that success at our peril.

I agree; Old Salem is just about right where it should be. The re-enactors provide a nice semblance of what life was like then without veering into Williamsburg-type of place. Ironically enough this makes it more real than having scores of people walking around in some sort of fossilised outdoor museum. A hotel tower in this area is the last thing it needs though having a hotel in the nearby Gateway development would work as it would also be within walking distance of the NCSA.

[suburban george3]

I agree, Old Salem is a gem as it is and we don't need it to turn into Williamsburg.  I would like more complimentary retail/restaurants in the area but with the Gateway project hopefully that will come to fruition.

In other downtown news, the journal had an article on a couple of condo projects downtown.  The One Park Vista (Davis Bldg. site) and One Civic Plaza (Pepper Bldg. site.) WSJ article about downtown condo projects