Quote:
Originally Posted by mtb_jeremy
I figure that will be more and more the case over time. Less new local places will be in downtown than in the past. People staying in hotels downtown will often take what is convenient for meals over other choices.
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Second Bar was definitely a casualty of the pandemic -- a ton of their Congress business came from either tourists or office workers. When all that evaporated, they did, too. (And worth noting that as a smallish local business, they didn't have the deep corporate pockets to make it through, like Fogo probably has).
But don't give up on local places. It may take some time for them to sprout back up, but the demand for them is definitely growing, and piece by piece, as tourism, and convention business, and downtown workers slowly come back, so will our local stuff. Not to mention our growing downtown residential pop.
And FYI, there is NOT a demand for Fogo. The people who come to Austin want a unique Austin experience -- they specifically come from far and wide to see our local stuff -- and of course Fogo is the exact opposite of that. Not even really sure how they survived as long as they did by the CC -- I have to assume that one way or another they're not going to last long on 2nd Street.