Cursed | Why are some pieces of real estate revolving doors for restaurants?
Photo/Edd Cote
Jiao Ying Li, the latest in a string of operators of Chinese restaurants at 847 Edgell Road in Framingham.
In the past four years, the small Chinese restaurant at 847 Edgell Road in Framingham has changed identities four times as owners came and went: from Harvest Moon to Top Garden, from Top Garden to Yummy Yummy, then to Shanghai City, and then, just two months ago, to Zheng Garden.
It’s the type of spot everyone is familiar with, the kind people pass by, wondering if the building is cursed, allowing nothing to flourish within its walls.
Of course restaurant owners, and municipal officials who work with them on a daily basis, have somewhat more scientific theories about why certain places seem to be hotbeds of failure and bankruptcy. They range from observations of challenges at specific troubled sites to musings on the difficulties inherent in the restaurant business.
At the newly christened Zheng Garden, owner Jiao Ying Li acknowledged that there are some problems with the location. The spot is at the end of a strip mall and isn’t very visible from the street. And it’s within sight of another Chinese restaurant with a longstanding reputation and strong customer loyalty.
Still, Jiao said those factors didn’t concern him when he decided to open the place. He chose it because one of the former owners was a cousin of his who had to leave the business due to health problems.
And Jiao said he’s hopeful that, now that he’s changed the menu and signs, customers will be willing to give the place a try. As for the competition next door, he said, it’s just a matter of convincing people to give Zheng Garden a try.
“Our food is better than them, so if everything was good, the customers would know which one is better,” he said.
Roadway Competition
Maryellen Rupp, Framingham’s license administrator, works with owners like Jiao as they apply for the approvals they need to do business in town.
She said issues like a lack of visibility from highly traveled roads and a lack of parking are common obstacles that may face owner after owner at a “cursed” location.
But Rupp said there’s also a more general location issue for restaurants in Framingham: the prime area along Route 9 approaching the Natick Mall is largely occupied by well-capitalized chains that can afford to be there. Most independent owners have to settle for cheaper spots that get much less traffic, making it difficult to get a foothold in the market.
In Fitchburg, economic development manager Dan Curley sees much the same issue.
It’s not so much that any given location dooms its occupants as that there just aren’t many great locations around. Chain restaurants with money to spend tend to cluster around the retail areas and highway exit ramps in neighboring Leominster.
The independent owners that try their luck in lower-cost Fitchburg neighborhoods face the usual problems of getting started and establishing a reputation, with the added problem of being in a city where incomes are much lower than in most of the state.
“When you’ve got increasing utility bills, ordinarily someone would just pass that on to their customers,” Curley said. “In this region, in North Central Massachusetts, you may just price yourself out of having customers.”
In this environment, Curley said, the issue may be less that some restaurants are cursed than that those that manage establish a customer base and stay in business for years are lucky.
One Fitchburg restaurant that Curley and other locals predict will stick around is a new Sal’s Pizza location.
The Lawrence-based regional chain recently opened the store at 89 Whalon St. According to Curley, the restaurant was built in 2004 and opened as a Quiznos, then closed and reopened in 2007 as an independent burger joint, and then closed again in early 2008.
“You know, what’s interesting is, when I first looked at that location I heard that the location had been cursed, if you will,” said Chris Smith, Sal’s vice president of business development.
Still, Smith said he liked the demographics of the area and the traffic flow around the site. Then he heard rumors that reinforced his opinion that the location might not be the problem.
People told him the previous owner, who ran both the Quiznos franchise and the burger place, had an uncertain reputation for cleanliness and product consistency.
“I can’t tell you how many stories I heard about the operator and how he ran his business,” he said.
Smith acknowledged that the spot isn’t the sort of high-end location that large national chains typically choose, but he said that’s Sal’s strategy: finding “middle-of-the-road” sites and then running a big publicity campaign so people know where they are. It makes sense for a relatively small, 36-store operation that sells an inexpensive product like pizza, he said.
No Permits, No Problems
To understand why some areas seem to be “cursed,” it may help to ask why others are not. Shrewsbury Public Health Director Nancy Allen said she couldn’t think of any spots in her town that turn over frequently.
Allen said part of the reason is probably that only a small portion of Shrewsbury, including Route 9 and the town center, are zoned for restaurants.
Since those areas have plenty of traffic, Allen said many restaurants have done well there.
And as for less well-financed restaurants that could have ended up in “cursed” locations, she said they probably just couldn’t find a place to set up shop in the first place.
“If you look at those [restaurant-zoned] locations, there aren’t parcels of land that are vacant” she said. “There aren’t properties that are for sale.”
High Hopes
Meanwhile, back in Framingham, about half a mile down the road from Zheng Garden, Jennifer Wang is trying to make a go of another new restaurant, The Red Pepper, at 17 Edgell Road. According to Rupp, the spot opened in 1971 as Liam’s Irish Tavern, which survived for about 25 years.
For the past decade, though, as the town has worked to replace drinking spots like Liam’s with family restaurants, various incarnations have come and gone. Rupp said Wang is the fifth or sixth owner in that time.
Wang said she didn’t know about the location’s troubled history until she moved The Red Pepper in less than a year ago.
But she said she’s not worried — she thinks it’s simplistic to define a restaurant based on its location.
With complex factors like menu choices, marketing, economic conditions and even relationships with the landlord in play, she said, nailing down the reason that any of The Red Pepper’s predecessors disappeared is really impossible.
And she said she has high hopes for the future.
“The people, they like our food,” she said. “After the slow summer season, people are coming back.”
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