Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Downtown Sacramento Restaurant Closures

In the last few months several downtown restaurants have had to close their doors due to the continued sluggish economy. With the economy showing signs of a double-dip rescission, I expect to see a high turnover of dining establishment’s downtown and the metro area in the coming years.

Downtown Restaurant 2011 Closures to date:
Spin Burger Bar - 1020 16th St. – Open eight months
Brew It Up - 14th and H streets - 15 years in business
Table 260 - 826 J Street
Hangar 17 - 17th and S streets – opened 2004
Danielle's Creperie - 901 K Street
Fog Mountain Café - 10th and I Streets
California Pizza Kitchen - 1132 16th St. – Opened May 2009
Good Eats - 3145 Folsom Boulevard
Celestin's Island Eats  - 1815 K Street
Red Lotus - 2718 J Street
Garlic Shack - 19th and J streets
L Wine Lounge and Urban Kitchen - 28th and L Streets

On K Street, several businesses have seen tremendous support including Pizza Rock, Dive Bar and District 30. These three entertainment venues received a $5.7 million subsidy form the city to build the $8 million complex.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What does city hall think when they see so many businesses closing after they supported 3 venues for $5.8 million? Do they take any blame for adding more restaurants to an already saturated downtown and midtown market?

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't say so, to the above. The K street area needed a boost that the private sector wasn't willing to do own its own, even in a good economy.

If city council's going to spend its time other than playing politics, delaying things to death via review and commitee, and/or finding ways to sneakily keep the unions happy...cough, rant...they need to spend time recruiting private sector employers, making it easy for them to relocate here, and help foster small business growth. Unfortunately, they're just starting to realize this, and IMO, it's going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better in Sacramento.

And I'm rah-rah Sacto. I visit this blog because I see the beauty and potential in this city. But I recently left Sacramento because there were no private sector jobs remotely related to my profession. It pains me to watch the city continue to crumble while the hopeful few put up an ever-increasing battle against the negative status-quo.

wburg said...

Of course, Spin Burger was in a building that was also a redevelopment project, as was Table 260. And while places have closed, plenty of other new places have opened in their stead--the owners of Golden Bear and the cook from L Wine Lounge just announced they're going to open a new place inside of Hangar 17 (who closed due to non-payment of taxes), the owners of Mix and DeVere's already have a new place planned for the CPK site, and it looks like Spin Burger has a new tenant already too.

So, yeah, it's kind of a dynamic time, but it also seems like a lot of folks are jumping into going into business for themselves, as there are a lot of new businesses opening up in both midtown and downtown. I don't see how any of the restaurant closures mentioned can be blamed on the projects at the 1000 block of K Street--in fact, I have noticed an upswing in nearby businesses staying open later (such as Ambrosia, which now stays open until midnight on the weekends instead of closing once the state-worker crowd goes home) and new restaurants opening (like Mayahuel.) There's even a new live music venue opening up at the old Hard Rock Cafe location.

somebody else said...

Were in Obama's second recovery summer, how's that working out for you? Reality is, things are not getting better, they are getting worse. Expect more closures as the economy is getting worse, much worse.