Economy and Its Effect on Restaurants

Richmond's Residents are Full with the Economy

With the economy in a rut, restaurants in the Monroe Park area of the City of Richmond don't seem to be hit hard by tough times.

By Laura Peters petersle@vcu.edu

With the economic recession hitting the citizens of Richmond hard these days, everyone still needs to eat. Despite closings of some business in the Richmond area, like Circuit City, restaurants in the Monroe Park area don’t seem to be suffering as bad.

Sam Chase, a server at the Village Café at 1001 W. Grace St. said there hasn’t been much change in business, maybe even an improvement.

“We’re not in a regular market space,” said Chase. “There’s 30 some odd thousand kids at VCU and they have to walk between the dorms and here so we kind of get a good break … Everyone has to eat.”

It’s not all about eating; it’s also about the atmosphere. Chase said that The Village is one of the few restaurants smoking is permitted in early in the morning and may be the reason why people keep coming back.

After the holidays are over some businesses struggle to keep their customers coming back.
Grayson Collins, a manager at the Strawberry Street Café at 421 Strawberry St. said business is down.

“Our business is down some,” said Collins. “But it typically is in January…the holidays. We’re probably down 5 percent from what we’d normally be.”

Collins also said Strawberry Street Café offers specials for lunch and brunch. He isn’t too worried about his business though.

“We’ve got a lot a history here and a lot of regulars,” said Collins.

Jeremy Dunn, a server and bartender at Mojo’s Philadeli at 733 W. Cary St. said that their business is pretty steady. They only thing he’s seen change in the five months he’s worked there is that there’s only one waitress working during the day rather than two. Mojo’s also offers a new budget section on its menu for customers.

The business at Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream at 26 N. Morris St. remains in good standing as well. Owner Jeff Kroll said it’s the same crowd, same people and regular business.

“We have not necessarily seen a drop in business as much as we have probably seen changes in what customers are buying,” said Kroll. “Instead of a $4 latte they’re buying a drip coffee. Instead of buying a sandwich, they’re buying a muffin.”

Kroll said that at Crossroads he hasn’t changed anything from the way he ran his store before. They only thing he said that has changed is making sure that there aren’t workers that don’t need to be there.

To keep customers coming back he said that it’s more of a routine for customers to come to his shop.

“I’d say it’s a cross between loyalty and routine,” said Kroll. “They don’t want to stop that routine just because they’re a little light in the pocket.”

The Roxy Café at 1104 W. Main St. has actually improved in business. Jason Quintana, a server and bartender at Roxy said after ownership switched last year numbers have been up. Roxy is also offering specials where everything is $5 and putting in a dart room to make it more appealing to get more customers in.

“It’s been up and down,” said Quintana. “It hasn’t really changed too much in that at night we pretty much still have the same crowd…but food sales are kind of if-y.”

Even though the current economic crisis has hit some places hard, the restaurants are still surviving.