It may sound like a bad pun, but it’s actually one of the hottest trends in retail: restaurants feeding off each other for their success.
Dallas has long had its restaurant rows, such as Belt Line Road in Addison, which is home to dozens of chains. But independent restaurants are finding that restaurant clusters, especially in urban neighborhoods, help guarantee a level of traffic that might not be achieved if they were the only dining concept in a given area.
A restaurant cluster creates the kind of vibrancy that retail thrives on. A prime example can be seen on Fitzhugh Avenue, where stalwarts such as Jimmy’s and Mai’s Vietnamese are being joined by concepts like Urbano Café. I think more concepts would locate in this off-the-beaten-track area if they could find the space.
From a real estate standpoint, these areas often have cost structures that can be lower than those in traditional restaurant rows. That’s another reason why we see independents aggregate in these types of best-kept secret areas.
And of course, there is Henderson Avenue. Once home to aging apartments and high crime, this area has been transformed with some of the hottest concepts around, such as Alma and Café San Miguel. Café San Miguel was one of the pioneers in this area, and they’ve done so well, they’ve now joined the booming restaurant cluster along West 7th in Fort Worth—another area that is being transformed with new restaurants, retail and apartments.
Without a doubt, these restaurants depend on one another for their success. Diners like to go to areas where they know they have choices. And the clustering trend is representative of commercial-retail at its finest—creating vibrancy and traffic where there was none there before.
Bob Young is managing director of The Weitzman Group. Contact him at [email protected].
