Support local, say restaurateurs; give 'em reason to, say experts

For those who lament not having more locally owned restaurants in the Corridor, Kurt Friese, Amy Wyss and other area restaurant owners have some advice: We need to see you more often.

“Repeat business is the lifeblood of the restaurant business. No restaurant, local or chain, can survive long without it,” said Friese, who owns Devotay, 117 N. Linn St. in Iowa City, with his wife, Kim.

Wyss, co-president of Zins, 227 Second Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids, said it comes down to a finite customer base.

“In a market this small, you have to have the return business,” she said. “You hear customers say they don't like chains, and they want to support locally owned restaurants. Then we may have 90 people in Zins on a Saturday night, and there's still an hour wait at every chain restaurant around Lindale Mall.”

Randy Larson, owner of Monica's Italian Bistro, 303 Second St. in Coralville, and Bob's Your Uncle Pizza Cafe, 2208 N. Dodge St. in Iowa City, said national chains have more name recognition and tend to grab the best locations.

“Monica's was out on the edge of town on Mormon Trek Boulevard for a number of years. I think where we've moved to on the Coralville Strip is a much better location,” Larson said. “I'm so glad we took the plunge and paid a little bit more in overhead to get a more visible location. I think we'll be OK if I can dig my way out of the hole that we dug before.”

Location was initially a plus for Blend, a now-defunct restaurant that had been at 221 Second Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids. The Paramount Theatre and Theatre Cedar Rapids, both located nearby, brought people downtown for dinner before shows.

The June 2008 flood closed the theaters for a while - the Paramount still hasn't reopened - and the subsequent loss of customers was a major cause of Blend's ultimate demise.

“It had a huge impact,” said Andy Deutmeyer, co-owner. “We knew without a strong fourth quarter, we were going to be in pretty bad shape. All of our worst fears were realized, and we knew we were out of options.”

Larson said restaurants need time to develop a loyal following to withstand the slow periods, where chain restaurants have the advantage.

“If a chain restaurant isn't doing very well, they have another 200 locations that can offset it,” he said. “They don't have the same urgency when it comes to making sure that everything is just right for the customer.”

---- Customer support is important, but Faye Swift believes locally owned and operated restaurants need to “shine a little bit more than a chain.”

“Customers will come once, but you have to give them a special experience,” said Swift, co-owner of BlackStone, 503 Westbury Dr. in Iowa City, and Red's Alehouse, 405 N. Dubuque St. in North Liberty. “I think we can do it better than a chain, because we live here. We're invested in our communities.”

Lopo Rego, associate professor of marketing at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, said restaurant owners need to make their businesses unique to create strong and favorable associations.

“Those associations come from the quality of the food, the quality of the service, the right location and often a lot of luck,” Rego said. “The quality of the food and the service are important, along with price, but there has to be something unique to make people want to come back.”

Joyce Beschta, who owns 16th Avenue Grill, 3130 16th Ave. SW in Cedar Rapids, with her husband, Blane, believes the personal touch can set a locally owned restaurant apart.

“We try to get out to every single table and make our customers feel welcome,” Beschta said.

Beth Carter of Marion said several factors influence where she and her husband, Gregg, choose to dine.

“Location is No. 1 for us, because we don't typically like to drive across town,” Carter said. “After that I would say price, the overall ambience and the quality of food are important.

"During the summer months, we like to go to places that have outdoor patios. We also like to try the different ethnic restaurants in the community.”

With relatively low barriers to entry, the restaurant business has a lot of turnover, Rego said. While the failure rate is typically quoted as high as 90 percent, research tells a different story.

H.G. Parsa, associate professor and chairman of graduate studies in hospitality management at Ohio State University, tracked new restaurants from 1996 through 1999. In the first year, 26 percent closed. Another 19 percent closed their doors in the second year, and 14 percent shut down in the third year.