by Leo Suarez

Plaza Cafe

According to this piece of paper on the door, Plaza Cafe will be coming soon to one of the spaces in the Progress Energy building on Fayetteville St. It might not be too crazy to think that Plaza Cafe may open when City Plaza opens this Fall but I do not know this for sure.

There are four entrances to some spaces on the sidewalk of the 400 block of Fayetteville St. in the white Progress Energy building. The space with the old RBC Bank looks torn up but perhaps there is work being done here. Two spaces are covered by paper, one being this coming cafe, and the third is the entrance to the building lobby.

by Leo Suarez

BeerCon: Boylan Bridge Brewpub

The Boylan Bridge Brewpub is a brewpub near the Boylan bridge. (duh!) Anyway, besides the simple name, the ‘bridgepub’ deserves a visit by any beer fan in downtown Raleigh. The beer is brewed on site and they serve a variety of styles from their lighter colored Gaston Golden to the darker Bruno Bitter. You can also order wine if a tasty brew does not quite hit the spot on a warm evening. (ladies?) The food has received mixed reviews but if you want to play it safe, go for the onion rings.

The big draw of the bridgepub is the large outdoor patio with a great view of the Raleigh skyline. Every nice day or night I’ve visited, the patio has been packed with others enjoying the weather and the view. Walk down Hargett St. from downtown and give it a try.

website: http://www.boylanbridge.com/

201 South Boylan Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27603
(Go to map)
(919)803-8927


Via DTRaleigh on Flickr

by Leo Suarez

Public Wifi And Its Potential Impact

Recently, the Raleigh city council has gone ahead and given the OK for public wifi in the downtown area. According to the N&O, the area bounded by Person, Morgan, South and West streets will have free access to the internet over the wifi network. Spending the money for a free service does come with its criticisms as many people are nervous about the economy these days. As a big internet user and downtown resident, this makes my life better, as well as my options for ‘geeking out‘ around downtown. However, the service is not aimed for residents but more for visitors and, as the city’s website states, to:

…support downtown revitalization efforts, including the reopening of Fayetteville Street to vehicular traffic, the opening of the Raleigh Convention Center and the highly anticipated opening of City Plaza in the fall.”

I’m not sure I agree with this wording because vehicular traffic and wifi are not a great match but that is just me being snarky. Anyway, I have never had the experience of using free public wifi even though it is a growing trend in many cities across the nation. I would imagine that wifi makes sense because of the increasing amounts of internet capable devices people are buying. Also, I’m sure it is safe to assume that many of the Raleigh Convention Center’s visitors are from out of town. The laptop is such a common device that many have with them while traveling for business. So does easier access for visitors make a difference? We’ll have to find out on our own but I looked at the City of Seattle to see what they have been doing with their now four year public wifi experiment.

Seattle has a very informative website that talks about the wifi situation in the city. Some of the items they list are its affects on businesses, usage numbers, and future plans for the network. One section, that should be read by anyone interested, is titled “Evaluation: Does It Make A Difference?”. It looks like there was a positive impact and as the website briefly states:

In short, there was an economic benefit seen by about a quarter of the businesses, and users found a great deal of benefit through cost and transportation savings and convenience for personal and business uses.

There is a very thorough 32 page report (pdf) for you to peruse through but I’ll stick to the three page summary for now. Here are some key facts taken from this report:

  • One-quarter of businesses surveyed have seen a positive impact on revenues and customer numbers.
  • It is not viewed as a significant competitor to those who already had wi-fi, and is seen as overall beneficial to the district.
  • Two-thirds [of users] said yes when asked whether Seattle Wi-Fi contributed to their coming to the area today. Three-quarters said that Seattle Wi-Fi encouraged them to go into a business in the area.
  • Over half the users in the survey (53.3%) answered that the presence of Seattle Wi-Fi had saved them driving.
  • Seattle Wi-Fi increased the use of Seattle.gov

It looks like Seattle saw mostly positive signs from the wifi in the specific areas that had it. This is just one example out of the many areas around the country that have public wifi so whether the benefits will be the same in Raleigh will have to be seen in a few years. Comparing Seattle to Raleigh is tough but it is good to see other cities having success with their wifi projects. It could be one more benefit to doing business and spending money in the downtown area, where the tax revenue is felt by the entire city. If usage is high once the network goes up this fall, there is the oppurtunity to create revenue from the service in order to possibly pay for itself and future upgrades.

Maybe Raleighwifi.org will get a makeover once the network is up and running.

by Leo Suarez

Shimmer Wall Showing Canes Pride?


Photo taken at 9:08pm, 5/26/08

During the Canes’ implosion last night, I decided to get one last picture of the shimmer wall. I read here that the Raleigh Convention Center was lighting up the shimmer wall the color red while the Carolina Hurricanes were working their way through the playoffs. Having never seen this, or previously known about it, one last picture before the season ended was in order. Sadly, this was not to be. Did anyone see it during the last few weeks of hockey action? What do you think of the shimmer wall light show overall?


The shimmer wall always looks good during the day. See this picture large on Flickr.

by Leo Suarez

Downtown Raleigh Restaurant Refresh

This list is always popular so here is a new one for you to glance over. We have always talked about the new restaurants and bars that have opened or are planning to open in the coming months. This time, it is important to notice that a list of recent closings can be made. Has the bar been raised in downtown Raleigh and heavy competition forced American Pita to close? Is the slowing economy to blame for shutting down the always empty Fayetteville St. Tavern? Was it European Wine and Espresso Cafe’s boring name that drove people away? I’m sure it was a combination of things but here is a list of new, opening soon, and closed restaurants in downtown Raleigh. Let us know what you’ve tried, miss having, and are looking forward to.

New

Closed

  • American Pita Grill
  • Joe’s place (N&O article)
  • Enoteca Vin
  • European Wine and Espresso Cafe
  • Fayetteville Street Tavern
  • Champa Thai
  • Hard Times Cafe

Coming soon

  • Gravy – Bella Monica and Empire Properties collaboration restaurant in the old Riviera space.
  • Natty Greene’s Pub & Brewery (based out of Greensboro)
  • Noir – Bar and lounge on Glenwood South.
  • Edelweiss Cafe – German cuisine.


Noir is opening next to Solas. The now hiring sign claims it will open in the summer of this year.

by Leo Suarez

Dense Downtown Neighborhoods

It does not take a scientist, or some fanboy blogger, to tell you that more people are spending time downtown. Overall, more restaurants are opening up and being patronized by people outside of the nine to five work week hours. It still takes a major event to bring more people downtown on a weekend day then a weekday but the once sleepy ghost town has recently found new life. Visitors are on the rise because of the options on nights and weekends and the amount of downtown residents have slowly risen as well. I’ve always thought that downtown is at an interesting point with new businesses and new residents. New places may not open because of the lack of residents living close by. At the same time, people may not want to move downtown because of the lack of available shops and convenience stores. Slowly, downtown Raleigh will break this cycle when it reaches a certain amount of residential density and I see potential in Dawson St. leading the way.

I want to mention The Hue condo building and how it may be a key boost in residential density in downtown. The Hue and its neighbors, Park Devereux and The Dawson, form a cluster of people living close to each other unlike any other area. According to the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, these three buildings have 319 units between them. Spanned across only two blocks, this will be the densest residential area when The Hue opens. (dense by Raleigh standards) Putting their look and architecture aside, I think I like what has been built here. The five to seven story buildings do not feel overwhelming and create a more livable environment compared to a corridor of twenty plus story towers. If another condo building in the seven to ten story range was built across the street from The Dawson, we may have a condo neighborhood district forming.

With a couple hundred or even a thousand homes so close to each other, new types of restaurants and shops may pop up. This location, away from the more ‘touristy’ centers of Fayetteville St. or Glenwood South, should see neighborhood style cheap eats, convenience stores, and could support a small grocery store too. I’m not knocking on some of the great places to eat and drink around Fayetteville St., I spend most of my time there right now. The only problem with the core downtown area is the higher cost, resulting in much higher rents. The places that are now open need to draw in people from outside of downtown and become a destination to be very successful. They also rely heavily on pedestrian traffic. Downtown Raleigh will really reach a new level when we have businesses that can solely survive by the condo-dwellers that live within a few hundred feet around them.

I’d be curious to know if the Urban Design Center has any plans or strategies to encourage this kind of density.