Restaurant chains not rushing to downtown
By KRIS HUNDLEY
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 31, 1998
 sk Ed Droste, co-founder of Hooters Inc., why his chain hasn't
put a restaurant on one of the empty lots around St. Petersburg's
Tropicana Field and he starts talking about architect Frank Lloyd
Wright.
 "When Wright designed a college campus, he didn't put in the sidewalks
until he saw where the students were walking," said Droste, who
oversees site selection for the Hooters chain. "That's what we're
going to do around the Dome. We're going to see how the traffic
patterns shake out, then make our call. But we certainly haven't
ruled it out."
Thousands of hungry baseball fans will be milling around Tropicana
Field in the months to come. If they want to eat within walking
distance of the Dome -- but not in the stadium itself -- they
won't be able to rely on well-known restaurant chains. Instead,
a handful of independent restaurateurs are scrambling to serve
the anticipated crowds, which will number more than 45,000 at
sold-out games.
Click here for a map of downtown restaurants inSt. Petersburg
"We've hired about 50 new employees and we're still hiring," said
Greg Brett, general manager at Ferg's Sports Bar and Grill. "On
each event day, we're scheduling 75 employees to work. Plus we're
going to have to order more food. And storage, especially cold
storage, is a scarce commodity. My head is spinning."
Ferg's has also started work on a rooftop expansion, expected
to be complete by mid-summer.
Just down the street, at Extra Inning Ballpark Cafe, owner Ed
Mlotkowski is philosophical about the baseball invasion. "We're
pretty well staffed, but I don't know if anyone is really prepared,"
said Mlotkowski, whose restaurant on Central Avenue in a former
movie theater seats about 300. "We won't run out of beer, but
getting it to the customer is another matter."
Both Mlotkowski and Brett are surprised no big chain restaurants
have encroached on their turf. Brett, who is also a partner in
the Hot Corner Cafe, catty-corner from the Dome, said, "I think
they might be waiting to see how the first year goes."
Chain executives confirm that's part of the reason they haven't
raced to build in the Dome area. Their reluctance also stems from
concern that baseball's limited roster of home games -- 81 for
the Devil Rays -- doesn't constitute a solid customer base.
Outback Steakhouse Inc., which serves only dinners, thought 81
game days wouldn't translate into a profitable business. "We're
not sure that enough people living around that area meet our demographic
hurdles," said Bob Basham, Outback's chief operating officer.
"Though if more people move downtown, we might reconsider."
Shells Seafood Restaurants Inc. had considered taking a space
inside the stadium's Taste of Tampa food court but decided it
wasn't worth the expense.
"It was a tad more difficult operationally than we cared to undertake,"
said Chip Roehl, Shells' vice president of marketing. "If we wanted
to operate it as a marketing tool, just to get our food out there,
we'd break even. So we had to judge whether we'd be better off
putting our resources in other operations."
Roehl and Hooters' co-founder, Droste, also said they were concerned
that Dome area restaurants would pull business away from their
existing stores in the area. Shells has a restaurant on 7005 Fourth
St. N, and Hooters has a location in the Tyrone area, close to
the Devil Rays' training facility.
"You've got to ask if it's worth spending several hundred thousand
on a new location when you have a similar investment four miles
down the road," said Roehl. "Whenever you go in that close with
another store, there's a certain amount of cannibalization."
Still, chain executives confess a grudging admiration for independent
entrepreneurs, who can open a restaurant on gut instinct, hard
work and considerably less capital.
"It just kills me to see Ferg's down there," said Droste of Hooters.
"They're going to do great and, to tell you the truth, I'm envious."
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