FSR November 2022

SUBURBAN SPRAWL

“ e city has been unbelievably sup portive, which has been one of the other biggest differences between doing busi ness out here versus in Chicago,” Megan Curren says. “It’s great for us if we can market ourselves and put our name out there as a restaurant, but as a whole, St. Charles has a wonderful scene. So we’re all about promoting St. Charles as a des tination in general.” MIXED USE, MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES e Graceful Ordinary along with Rouge in Bellevue, Harvey’s in Falls Church, and Cadillac Pizza Pub and The Yard in McKinney are all nestled in walk able downtown areas, representing an increasingly popular city-suburb hybrid that in many ways resembles smal l towns of yore. But real estate opportuni ties within suburbs are not restricted to these compact locales. Traditional shop ping centers and malls have fallen out of favor in the past decade or two, but mixed-use developments have risen to take their places. Firebirds Wood Fired Grill CEO Steve Kislow calls these models lifestyle cen ters, and they’re prime targets for the burgeoning restaurant chain. Although Firebirds has begun exploring urban real estate opportunities, Kislow says that more often than not, the brand’s guests live in the suburbs, not downtown. And within suburbia, lifestyle centers are Firebirds’ sweet spot. e key to a successful lifestyle cen ter, Kislow says, is having a balancedmix of retail, restaurants, residences, gro cery stores, etc. that get daily usage. To that end, offices, once a pillar of mixed use developments, may be less relevant now as uncertainty continues to swirl around the future of in-person and at home work post-Covid. “[With] the evolution of real estate over the last 10 years, it’s certainly in the same suburb market, but I think you used to go, ‘All right, where are the retail synergies? Where is the best mall in the area?’ en you go after them, and that’s the bull’s-eye,” Kislow says. “ at’s changed significantly over the years.” Instead, he adds, Firebirds likes to

pursue lifestyle centers with anchors like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. “It’s that high visibility; it’s that traffic. Be where people are on a regular basis. And the reality is that’s not about the big malls and theaters anymore,” Kislow says. From his point of view, theaters— which were also once an integral part of mixed-use developments—have been supplanted by concepts like Topgolf. And while eatertainment brands do compete with traditional restaurants to a certain degree, their presence can make for a more desirable location. In fact, going into an area—downtown or mixed-use— that’s home to other restaurants can be good for the suburbs. A higher concen tration of dining options only intensifies the pull to a place that might otherwise be overlooked. “It’s really hard for someone who’s been operating in the city to pick up and move to a strip center that has no anchor,” Weintraub says. “It’s just like you don’t want to go to summer camp by yourself; you want to go with a buddy because it’s easier to be successful as a team rather than as an individual. I think a lot of the success that comes from the folks who have arrived in suburbia is either in a mixed-use [development] or a walkable downtown because people are already drawn there for other reasons.” Kislow predicts the independent res taurants will continue filling in revital izedMain Streets, but Firebirds will stick with its lifestyle center targets. It con tinues to be a winning formula—one of its most recent units is in the Alliance Town Center, a walkable development with shopping, dining, and entertain ment options in Fort Worth, Texas. Another factor is the physical space. Although Firebirds has built smaller pro totypes, its average size runs around 6,500 square feet. “I’m seeing a lot of smaller indepen dent spaces [downtown]. Most of our footprints are a little bit larger than what the downtown area can accommodate,” he says. But with mixed-use properties continuing to crop up, Kislow foresees opportunities aplenty. “It’s never been more exciting to have the majority of

your portfolio and your growth strat egy in the suburbs,” he adds. WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME For many operators, the slower pace of suburban life can be more conducive with connecting with customers, too. Before opening his own business, Harvey served as the executive chef for Tuskie’s Restaurant Group, whose multi ple concepts are scattered across North ern Virginia. Because his role entailed managing operations at all locations, Harvey spent a lot of time in his car—he estimates 60,000 annually. When Covid struck, he reconsidered this lifestyle. “I really wanted more of an urban environment with a small-town feel,” he says. “Falls Church is 2.2 square miles; it’s very walkable. e whole community knows everybody.” In an age when guest engagement is arguably the most essential part of full service dining, tight-knit suburbs have an inherent edge. Since opening e Graceful Ordinary last fall, the Currens have welcomed regulars and started recognizing their guests around town. is dynamic was always part of the plan, as evidenced by the name. Per the restaurant’s website, “ordinary” was a colonial term for a local tavern at the center of community life. “Within the first few weeks, we saw familiar faces at the bar or having dinner with us,” Chris Curren says. “And that’s really a big part of wanting to be in the hospitality industry. It’s the relation ships that you get to build and the lives that you get to impact on a regular basis.” Like e Graceful Ordinary, Harvey’s has experienced a similar phenomenon despite only being open a short period. Locals are already frequenting the down town spot. And if the last nine months are any indication, the chef ’s “Cheers” dreams may have already come true. “Since we’ve opened, people will be sit ting at the bar, and then you hear people screaming across the dining room, ‘Hey, how are you?’ And they’re shouting back and forth at each other [because] their neighbors are here,” Harvey says. “It’s really got a fun feel like that.”

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NOVEMBER 2022