“Stranded” Williamsburg Locals Produce Winners & Losers
Posted on 15. Oct, 2010 by Thomas Chan in Uncategorized
What a difference four blocks makes.
Last weekend, Bedford Avenue in trendy Williamsburg was much less crowded than usual. The L train was shutdown between Manhattan and the Myrtle-Wykoff stop so workers could replace some of the tracks.
With access from Manhattan severely limited, some of the restaurants and shops on Bedford Avenue suffered because of the loss of foot traffic.
But the shutdown also drew out plenty of locals who were “stranded” in Williamsburg. There were winners and losers on Bedford who seemed to be determined by distance from the L train stop.
For instance, An Nhau, a Vietnamese restaurant on the same block as the Bedford Avenue stop was seeing about half as much business as usual, said manager Cindy Ng. The restaurant, Ng said, typically serves a mix of locals – young professionals and families – and Manhattanites – tourists and other young professionals visiting friends.
Last weekend, said Ng, the loss of half of her restaurant’s business could be attributed to the lack of customers from across the river.
Meanwhile, The Rabbit Hole, a restaurant ten blocks from the train stop, had its best two nights in the two-and-a-half years since its opening, said co-owner Lawrence Elliott. Elliott credited the L train closure along with his restaurant’s focus on serving customers from the neighborhood with the surge in business – a sentiment that his neighbors shared.
Part of that focus, Elliott said, was an explicit lack of advertising and promotions which tended to draw first-time visitors from across the river.
“We’re not a place that’s going to make a lot of people from Manhattan happy,” Elliott said. “We certainly treat people well, but people get upset if the kitchen’s busy and it takes half-an-hour for the food to come out.”
The trend affecting restaurants seemed to hold true with retailers as well.
“On the weekends, it’s usually hard to walk,” said Joseph Grillo, referring to the sidewalk and the store he was minding, Trojanowski Liquors and Wines. Trojanowski, which was a block from the L train, was mostly empty that weekend, Grillo said.
Yarn Tree – a specialty knitting shop, 10 blocks from the train – Whisk – a kitchen supplies store, three blocks away – and Bedford Cheese Shop – four blocks away – all had a weekend that was about good as the last, if not better, shopkeepers said at each location.
Bedford Cheese Shop, made 278 sales on Saturday, only 13 fewer and about $150 less than on the same day the previous week.
“I guess people are stuck in town and going to cook for themselves,” said Carrie-Anne Murphy, a Whisk employee.
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