Restaurants are full, kitchen gadgets are flying off the shelf, handmade, high-end chocolates are selling faster than they can keep them in stock.
You have to ask, what’s going on?
Dare we think it – is this the light at the end of the tunnel? Could the Great Recession actually be over?
Food-related businesses and real estate often are the canaries in the financial mineshaft, illuminating the next trend to affect the general economy. Both industries did well here in 2013, and this year the pace is even better.
Of the more than a dozen owners of established restaurants and food-centered businesses interviewed for this article, everyone saw an increase in profits and patronage in 2013. Also, proprietors of the new businesses that opened say they are doing well in their fledgling year.
For some, the upturn elicits a sense of relief – they made it from the dark times into the light.
“Every business probably had to do something in a different way to make it through,” said Karen Barger, owner of Seasons Rotisserie & Grill.
For her restaurant, that meant sourcing as much food locally as she could to reduce shipping costs. It also meant offering moderated luxury – truffle shavings instead of truffle chunks over that house-made pasta. The strategies paid off with earnings up 17 percent over projections and 2013 equaling 2007, the restaurant’s best year ever, dollar for dollar.
Barger noticed a different attitude among her customers, as well.
“Some people got tired of not having what they wanted and said, ‘I’m going to go and have my big bottle of wine,’” she said.
Steamworks Brewing Co. saw more business in 2013 than the year before, but that’s normal, said Assistant General Manager Joel Hayes. Business was up 25 percent during Fort Lewis College graduation last weekend, which is big, Hayes said.
“That’s awesome,” he said. “We’re full almost all the time.”
The stock market reached an all-time high last week, proof enough that Americans are feeling more confident about the economy and more flush in their personal bank accounts.
But for some, that marker makes them worry.
“What goes up must come down,” said Chuck Norton of Norton’s Catering and Highway 3 Roadhouse. “Everybody’s feeling good right now, but I keep looking over my shoulder.”
Nonetheless, his catering operation is up about 5 percent from last year and the restaurant at least 15 percent. He opened the Roadhouse five years ago in the height of the recession because his longtime catering business had fallen off. Memories of those trying times are still too fresh to be ignored, leaving Norton optimistic but cautious.
So, you might wonder, how did they do it? How did some businesses stay afloat while others sank? Did an improving economy lift all boats? Did a particular owner develop a brilliant secret strategy to survive the crushing drop in customers? Or did they offer consumers something new and novel?
For owners of businesses less than 3 years old, the latter seems to be the answer. Restaurants such as Fired Up Pizzeria, Rice Monkeys and Olio in Mancos all provided something the area didn’t have – Neapolitan pizza baked in a wood oven, Vietnamese comfort food prepared from family recipes and French-inspired cuisine that changes weekly in a remote and romantic setting.
The same holds for relatively new food-related businesses that aren’t restaurants. Urban Market opened on Main Avenue in 2012, selling everything from sofas to carving knives, cookbooks to bracelets, and quickly became known for having great foodie gifts. Its sales are up 20 percent.
Carley Snider started Animas Chocolate Co. in 2011, selling her hand-made truffles and chocolate bars to local shops. Since then, she’s moved twice, most recently to a full-service shop on North Main Avenue. There, she serves hot chocolate and entices customers with creations like the Sunrise, a truffle shot through with fresh orange, and the portage, filled with, you guessed it, port. Her business doubled in a year, and her product line tripled.
The good times keep rolling, but for some, they can be hard to pin down. How much better did you do than you projected, I asked Rice Monkeys co-owner Jimmy Nguyen, who opened his tiny restaurant downtown a year ago. He looked at the ceiling, contemplated the question, and said, “A lot.”
Ten percent? Twenty? Twice as good?
“Twice as good,” he said. “We’re blessed.”
I got a similar response from Josh Klarer, owner of The Missing Link, an almost year-old butcher shop on Florida Road behind Star Liquors. Did you do better in your first year than you expected?
“Yes, business has been amazing.”
How amazing?
“Really amazing.”
After some shrugging and ceiling contemplating, Klarer figured his business was 50 percent better than he had predicted.
While hard numbers may be a little iffy for some of the young owners of new businesses, old-hand Jack Llewellyn, executive director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce, backs up the notion that business is on the rise.
“A few years back, you saw a lot of people downtown, but they weren’t walking around with bags in their hand. Now they are,” he said. “So, yes, the economy is picking up.”
Another sign of that, in the food industry at least, is the burgeoning number of new businesses continuing to sink their stakes in Durango. North Main Avenue’s cheaper rents and more ample parking lured start-up coffee company 81301 to the plaza with Zia Taqueria.
Open just three months, co-owner Taylor Anderson says the location has been everything he and his wife, Sage, could ask for – bringing in a consistent morning rush for their piquant, on-site roasted coffee and a steady stream of customers looking for a welcoming place to take a break. Their numbers are up about 25 percent over projections.
Baker Jocelyn Skill recently moved out of her food truck and into a space in Nehemiah Plaza she calls her sugar shack, a studio where she can create custom-made sugar flowers for wedding cakes and see customers for appointments. Her Skillfully Decadent Desserts specializes in cakes, cupcakes, cookies and desserts of all kinds, and in case you were wondering, she also makes gluten-free confections.
But opening any new business is a risk, and Skill admits the move from truck to terra firma has caused her sleepless nights.
“You worry. You don’t want to be that person who doesn’t make it,” she said.
(If you’ve ever tasted one of her cookies, you know she will.)
She and her fellow foodie compatriots are betting Durango will be their ticket to success, and by hook or by crook, they’re making it so. Veterans of the local food scene like Barger and Norton chalk up their longevity to doing a certain thing – high-end cuisine for Seasons, down-home cooking for Norton’s – and doing it well.
But if 2013 was a good year for restaurants and food-related businesses, they made it an even better one for Durango’s legion foodies. Here’s to 2014.
phasterok@durangoherald.com
