Lunch may not mean all that much to you and me. The meal’s far less “important” than breakfast, so they say, and at best it’s kind of like dinner’s kid brother. The kid brother who makes you eat salad.
But if you’re a restaurant proprietor on C’ville’s Downtown Mall, you probably do a pretty good amount of thinking about lunch. How do you increase lunch business? What days of the week should you serve lunch? Heck, should you even serve lunch at all? These are questions with no easy answer, and restaurants on the mall tend to go back and forth on them, sometimes swapping lunch strategies with the seasons. So while it didn’t seem like a big deal when the new owners of Blue Light Grill announced several weeks ago they’d start serving lunch Friday through Sunday, it was a decision that wasn’t made lightly.
“We had to decide,” says Rich Ridge, one of four veteran restaurateurs who purchased Blue Light from Coran Capshaw’s management group on April 10. “We decided we would open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, knowing there is increased foot traffic, and so far it has been working out really well.”
If things continue to go well, Blue Light may go to lunch every day of the week, Ridge said, but the whole thing “is a trade-off,” he admits. It can be tough to be profitable during weekday lunch hours, but “you want people to know you are open.” Indeed, it’s a lot like the balance you strike for dinner: “Monday night isn’t as profitable as Friday, but you have to stay in people’s minds,” Ridge said.
At the end of the day, two things tipped the lunch calculus scales for co-owners Ridge, Kelly Tripp, his partner in Crozet’s Restoration, and Kevin Badke and Ryan Rooney, who own Coupe’s and Trinity Irish Pub on the Corner. First, they liked the idea of letting their kitchen tighten up its recently overhauled menu, and they figured cooking during the day would give their chefs an opportunity to explore dishes that weren’t ready for prime time. Second, being open all day exposes the restaurant to more people, who might become repeat customers.
“People come downtown for many reasons, and our restaurant provides a lot of ways for folks to unwind during the day,” Ridge said. “Back when I was in high school, Charlottesville got quiet during the summer, but that’s been gradually changing, over the past few years especially.”
Change indeed is the watchword. The venerable Brookville Restaurant gave up its lunch service in September of last year, and grab-and-go favorite Eppie’s closed its doors on May 30. Heck, not even proven burger chain Five Guys could manage on the mall; the fellas closed up shop last summer.
“It is tougher than it has ever been,” says Jon LaPanta, who owns Baggby’s Gourmet Sandwich Shop with his wife Erin. “As for changes on the mall, it isn’t just the food. I have no problem with competition, but if you look at what they are charging vendors, it’s hard to compete with people who have no overhead,” like the tabletop hawkers running down the center of the mall.
LaPanta says the city needs to do a better job of protecting its own investment on the mall. Why did they spend all that money to improve the area if they’re going to make it expensive for brick and mortar restos and vendors to locate there, all the while charging for parking and threatening to put up parking meters?
LaPanta points to The Shops at Stonefield and its free parking as a lunchtime competitor. He said he doesn’t blame customers who opt to head out to 29 to spend a couple afternoon hours rather than coming downtown.
But there’s evidence the Shops are struggling to draw lunchtime crowds, as well, as PastureQ recently shuttered after less than two years in business, and Parallel 38 discontinued its mid-day service last October.
Jennifer Keevil, who manages the business side of Brookville with her husband, chef Harrison Keevil, said the difficulty in drawing patrons for lunch isn’t location specific.
“We had a very difficult time in ending lunch at Brookville, as one of Harrison’s favorite things to do is to create fantastic sandwiches,” she said. “Unfortunately, we found that Charlottesville is very fixed in their habits, and change is very hard for the community. The lunch niche seems to be saturated and full of what the typical lunchtime consumer wants in Charlottesville. People do not seem to seek out the ‘next new thing’ but rather stick to what everyone else is doing and eating.”
Keevil’s right that for some spots on the mall, lunch comes naturally. Hamiltons’ at First & Main nearly always has a full house around noon, and when the kitchen rolled out its Sandwich Lab concept (which has regrettably been on hiatus for a few months), people were frothing at the mouth.
So what’s the secret? If restaurateurs only knew. For now, Ridge figures Blue Light will stick to its agenda and see how things go.
“We like to focus on our own product,” he said. “I don’t think we consider ourselves high- or low-end. We consider ourselves passionate.”