News
Email
Print
Downtown gets parking service
Business owners hope it will promote sales
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: June 2, 2008
Dining downtown has a new bit of glam: valet parking.
Two restaurants on Fourth Street -- Hutch & Harris and Camel City Café -- are offering the new service to their customers. The service began Friday.
"This is a positive step in our continued efforts to make downtown Winston-Salem more customer friendly," said Jason Thiel, the president of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. "It speaks to the growing vibrancy of downtown, the heart of Winston-Salem."
The company that's doing the parking, Valet Services, is operated by Spencer Schaible, his father, Wade, and Camron Marsh.
Schaible, who used to work as a valet in Charlotte, said that the valet company was created because of the demand from local restaurant owners and patrons to offer a needed service to their growing downtown clientele.
"I think it's going to take off," Schaible said. "All the restaurant owners we have talked to are really excited. I think this is what they've been missing downtown to get their business to pick up. A lot of people were afraid of coming downtown because they don't want to deal with having to find a parking spot, and once they find one, having to walk three or four blocks to go to a restaurant."
John Hughes, the owner of Camel City Cafe, had tried for two years to get valet-parking service downtown.
"The problem had been just coordinating where the cars would be put and then finding somebody who could handle the service itself," he said. "It was going to be cost prohibitive before, but now that there are more restaurants opening downtown, there can be some shared costs to that."
Hughes said that there is just off-street parking near his restaurant unless people walk a block or more, and that it's typically hard to find a parking space in the deck at the Marriott when the hotel is full.
He said that when his restaurant moved downtown from the West End area more than three years ago, he lost a lot of customers because of downtown parking.
"Every restaurant's got a different style, but because we are a fine-dining restaurant, our customers are probably not very much into walking two blocks to come eat with us," he said. "Now the problem has gone away."
The service is offered from 6 p.m. up to midnight Monday through Saturday. The company is insured, Schaible said.
The parking fee is $5, which covers the company's costs, Schaible said. The valets work off tips.
The vehicle drop-off area for Valet Services is at the corner of Fourth and Marshall streets, where cars come down and make drop-offs on Marshall Street beside the Stevens Center.
Valets will park cars in a guarded lot off Spruce Street behind the Loewy building on West Fourth Street. Schaible said that Valet Services is renting a portion of the parking lot for 32 parking spaces from Rudolph Carver of Winston-Salem.
Sgt. Tom Peterson of the Winston-Salem police Downtown Bike Patrol said he met with the owners of Valet Services to ensure that the valet service is safe, doesn't take up more parking space than necessary and doesn't impede the flow of traffic, among other regulations.
Schaible said he knows of only one other company offering valet-parking service downtown, but that's at a hotel, and Valet Services is the first full-service, parking-management company focusing on restaurants.
The company hopes to expand to other businesses in the city and offer parking services for private events. It plans to offer another drop-off site downtown and more parking lots.
■ Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com.
Email
Print
