Thursday, September 24, 2009

Life and Death (of restaurants) in a college town

We tried to go to a pulled pork place on the south end of campus this evening. They were all out of food. They still had ice cream if we wanted some, but no food. Last time I go there. I think if they want to stay in business around here, they better rethink their food service model.

Next door is J Dawgs, which started out in a little shack. They have recently moved in right next door into a permanent place. This is a place with a good business model. Beef or Polish dog, $3. Want a drink? $4. That's all they sell, and they don't run out. Tara got a Polish dog tonight with a drink. So did about 15 or 20 other people with in 15 minutes. They have one thing they do very well, and they appear to be doing very, very well at it. They also have tables in there that look like they might have made themselves.

Tara had a book club, I went to iBuffet. We've been there before, I kind of wanted to try the Mongolian BBQ. (And we had a babysitter, I took some magazines to read.) Tonight there didn't seem to be anyone manning the Mongolian BBQ. It looked like nothing had been disturbed from it for quite a while. I don't know if they were down an employee, or just didn't want to bother with it or what, but I didn't get Mongolian BBQ tonight. The quality and flavor of the food seems to be slipping as well. It's the bane of all Chinese buffets in the area. Eventually the food is no good, people stop going, and the place shuts down. If they continue on the road they are on now, I think this place will eventually shut down. I might have left after the first plate of food, but I was committed by then. Dinner kind of made the gut ache I have had lately worse tonight, hopefully it will die down soon.

My prediction? Two will close, one will continue on...

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