Eateries' business good, for now

Business is pretty good at Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich Shops at the corner of Fourth and Cherry streets these days.

"We've got a packed house at lunch," co-owner Kevin Hoeing said.

Even the restaurant's business in the evening, which was questionable when it first opened in August, has started to grow, and the restaurant will expand its hours.

But the slumping economy has Hoeing and his business partners wondering what's ahead.

"It's been a concern of all of us -- the partners," he said.

There have been some changes in recent months in the downtown restaurant landscape along Fourth Street.

People wanting something to eat are out of luck if they show up looking for two places that opened last year.

Scooters Deli closed in the building once occupied by Camel City Cafe near West End not long after it opened. It has since been replaced by Mozelle's, a family bistro.

The Bruegger's and Dilworth Coffeehouse restaurant in the Nissen Building is temporarily closed for remodeling and restructuring.

Guy Hunter, a co-owner of the companies Bagel Boys of the Triad and Coffee Boys of the Triad, which run the combination restaurant, did not give a reopening date but said that the goal is to reopen as soon as possible.

Management at the Nissen building said that people are regularly calling to ask about the Bruegger's space, asking if they can lease or sublease it.

In the meantime, other businesses have added breakfast to their menus.

Brew Nerds Coffee is now offering several varieties of bagels at its downtown and Hanes Mall Boulevard locations. The bagels are made by The Bagel Station, a longtime independent bagel shop on Oakwood Drive.

Co-owner Jennifer McKie said that customers have been asking for bagels since Brew Nerds opened on Fourth Street in the Chatham Building, so the Bruegger's remodeling project gave the business the chance to try bagels.

Quiznos, which is next to Bruegger's in the Nissen building, plans to start offering breakfast, including sandwiches, parfaits and juices by the first of November.

"We'll have a whole breakfast menu," said Eric Pucciariello, a co-owner of Quiznos.

A new restaurant, Mozelle's, opened last month and started with a lunch menu. It added a breakfast menu two weeks ago and will start serving dinner three days a week, starting Thursday, at the request of customers and to accommodate growing business.

Anne Rainey Rokahr of Mozelle's said that Mozelle's tries to provide quality food at affordable prices and as a result is doing great.

"When we were creating our menu, we kept in mind the economy," she said. "We make everything in-house. We make everything homemade, so we actually took a hit on our profit margins because we wanted to make sure it was still affordable.

Pucciariello expects that more people will eventually move downtown, but he says that there are too many restaurants in the area for the number of downtown residents.

Some of the restaurants on Fourth Street that offer sandwiches are Cat's Corner Cafe, Mellow Mushroom, Downtown Deli, and Bon Appetit Cafe and Deli. Those are in addition to Dill Pickle Sandwich Shop, Hutch & Harris Pub, and the Center City Grille, among others.

Pucciariello noted that several companies with a big presence in downtown have cut jobs.

"There are only so many people who eat out every day downtown," he said.

Some people are banking on the new Warthogs baseball stadium to attract customers, but Pucciariello said that there would need to be some type of shuttle between the stadium and the center of downtown for that to work well.

Hoeing agreed that competition is tough, but he said that there's probably room for more restaurants if they come in with a good business and marketing plan.

Like Jimmy John's, the Subway sandwich shop, which opened in April in the building that houses Skippy's on Fourth Street, has been doing well, said Kristi Harkrader, the Subway's store manager. Business has been steady except for when the Dixie Classic Fair drew customers away, Harkrader said.

The economy was on the minds of several people who were eating downtown yesterday.

Kelly Banner and her daughter, Autumn, stopped to talk on their way to Mellow Mushroom.

Banner said she is a lot more frugal when it comes to eating out these days and would like to see more of a variety of downtown restaurants with moderate prices on their menus for a quality meal, especially for dinner.

She doesn't want to spend more than $40 to feed her family of four, and that includes a tip.

"We are frugal, but it means that we're cutting out any fast-food stuff," she said. "If we're going to spend money now, it's going to be for something that's really good."

Joel Pruett and Scott Marion, who work downtown for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., usually eat out daily, but they are watching their spending more closely. They also question the viability of opening a restaurant downtown in a tough economy.

"Given the current economic situation, I think if you come downtown now, you're going to go out of business," Marion said.

"But if we weren't in this economic state and all the jobs were staying here, I'd say you need more -- more variety."

Pruett said that if companies keep laying off workers in the area as they have, downtown probably won't need many restaurants.

■ Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com.