View Full Version : Downtown Retail Update



metro
03-31-2009, 07:59 AM
The Journal Record - Article (http://www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=97284)

Retailers follow downtown housing growth; gourmet market to open in Deep Deuce area of OKC
by Kelley Chambers
The Journal Record March 31, 2009

OKLAHOMA CITY – As Brenda Craiger worked to sell downtown condominiums, people kept asking when retailers were coming. Now she has an answer.

http://www.journalrecord.com/_images/articles/t_labskc-dtown%20retail%2003-31-09jpg.jpg
Charifa and Kevin Smith, owners of Sage Gourmet Cafe & Market, have plans for a grand opening in May. (Photo by Maike Sabolich)

Craiger is the marketing director for Triangle Development, the group building The Brownstones at Maywood Park and condo projects on the northeast side of downtown in the Flatiron area.The Triangle Group began planning the projects about four years ago. The company now has 20 brownstones built, with work under way on a loft project. About 25 percent of the brownstones are sold.

In November, pizza restaurant The Wedge opened in Deep Deuce. Sage Gourmet Cafe & Market is set to open in May, and last week sandwich chain Jimmy John’s leased space on N. Harrison Avenue with plans to open in July.
“A lot of people asked for a market,” she said. “Now that we have Sage coming in, it helps me.”

Maywood and the Second Street Lofts have some office and retail space, but Craiger said the focus has been selling residential units. At the lofts, the group plans to offer 30,000 square feet of office space for lease or sale.
Sage is in the historic Littlepage Building surrounded by the 294-unit Deep Deuce at Bricktown apartments and near Grant Humphreys’ Block 42 condo project.

Charifa and Kevin Smith’s Sage will be a restaurant and bar in one part and will include a store for sundries and gourmet takeout food items. It’s set to have a soft opening in April.

Charifa Smith said neighbors have been stopping by the store, at 228 NE Second St., to see what’s going on inside.

“We’ve taken down the paper off the windows,” she said. “People just come right in and ask when we’re opening.”

The new eateries join Leo’s Bar-B-Q and the Deep Deuce Grill in offering neighborhood dining.

Craiger said as each new business takes a chance on the area, it helps everyone.

“New businesses can only have a positive impact on the neighborhood,” she said.

Since opening in November, Elena Farrar, general manager of The Wedge, said the restaurant has been busy with a mix of locals, tourists and people who drive in from the suburbs.

The original Wedge is on Western Avenue. Farrar said the Deep Deuce restaurant, with seating for 75, opened in anticipation of the new housing.
“We’re a neighborhood spot on Western and we wanted to be a neighborhood spot here as well,” she said. “Our busiest nights are Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We’re always on a wait those nights.”

National chains, like Jimmy John’s, can lend credibility to an area, but Farrar said she would like to see more local businesses.

“I would love to see it stay local,” she said. “That’s really important.”

Humphreys said he is pleased with the retail that has followed the rooftops in that area, even while many residential projects are still under construction.
“I’m happy to see the retail that has come in is local, community-building retail,” Humphreys said. “That’s really important for the formation of a neighborhood and an urban community.” As the economy improves, Humphreys said incremental growth of retail in the Deep Deuce and Flatiron areas was likely. “We’re still at the preliminary stages of community formation in that area,” he said.

mecarr
03-31-2009, 08:01 AM
I didn't see any way Sage could have opened in March. May\June sounds more realistic.

mecarr
03-31-2009, 08:07 AM
The Journal Record - Article (http://www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=97284)

The new eateries join Leo’s Bar-B-Q and the Deep Deuce Grill in offering neighborhood dining.



This is the first I've heard of Leo's Bar-B-Q. Anyone know anything about this?

metro
03-31-2009, 08:07 AM
It's been there for years, well before any housing popped up.

OKCMallen
03-31-2009, 10:09 AM
Leo's in the Deuce? Seriously? I lived there two years and never saw it. There's a Leos at like 4th (or so) and just east of Broadway, but that's not really DDeuce is it...?

metro
03-31-2009, 11:35 AM
I'd consider it more Flat Iron than Deep Deuce, it's right there on the boundary though. The article didn't say it was "Deep Deuce," just said neighborhood dining. I consider the whole Triangle a neighborhood IMO.

dkbrewer
03-31-2009, 11:37 AM
Leo's 1st store is/was over on Lincoln. The site on Harrison opened several years ago -3?-great BBQ. You'll smell like a smokestack the rest of the day. Their dessert is also really popular.

jbrown84
03-31-2009, 04:03 PM
Last I heard, the original Leo's on Kelly was recovering from a fire. But the Flatiron location is just as much of a dive.

mecarr
03-31-2009, 07:27 PM
I've never heard of Leo's. I've walked and driven around alot in the area and never have seen it. Is it any good?

southernskye
03-31-2009, 08:02 PM
Last I heard, the original Leo's on Kelly was recovering from a fire. But the Flatiron location is just as much of a dive.
Dive is right. We went in there once, he ate I didn't as they only have chopped brisket and will not return.

okyeah
03-31-2009, 09:03 PM
I've never heard of Leo's. I've walked and driven around alot in the area and never have seen it. Is it any good?

It's decent/average...you should check it out if you've never been. The Leo's on Kelly was on Food Network on Guy's show,(a show called "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives".....or something along those lines.) so yeah, it's def. a dive

metro
04-01-2009, 07:49 AM
I don't think it's good at all, but some people love it, so as with everything, it's personal preference really.

kevinpate
04-01-2009, 09:31 PM
Haven't done Leo's in a loooonnng time, ut when I did pop in at the original, it was way better than fair. But hhen, I grew up enjoying Q from a mindset that said the more a place looked like a respectful eatery, the less likely you were to find good Q.

When your earliest memories of Q are Slick's in Muskogee, Wild Horse (way way bakc when Hubert ruled the world) outside Sallisaw, Pork Q from the Carolinas, Bob's from Ada, when it was really Bob's, your mindset is a tad different cause even Leo's can seem a touch fancy.

blangtang
04-02-2009, 12:33 AM
I went to city hall and when i left i went to the old school diner nearby. waiting for my buddy to get out of work. well maybe its a diner, but i had some chili and hot dogs. its right there, seems to have been there for some time.

IMO, thats the kind of retail that needs to flourish and hang around. kind of like ben's chili bowl in d.c., or whatever its called, the kind of eatery that has the legend attached.

problem is, i don't even remember what its called!

metro
04-02-2009, 07:39 AM
There isn't a diner by City Hall that I'm aware of. I do believe you are referring to Coney Island, which has been there forever and serves coney's and chili spaghetti and is a downtown institution. There is somewhat of an old school lunch cafe called The Lunch Box just around the corner from there, several blocks from City Hall, and it's a legendary place too.

jbrown84
04-02-2009, 07:54 PM
I'm sure he's talking about Coney Island. City Hall is only a block away...