ashe

I heard that the old towne jokery went out of business. is this true?

Scott I think we do alright for 7 months worth of tourists. The weekend homes mostly keep going except for maybe January and February. Not to mention the rental homes. Look at Four seasons rentals, Ashe high country realty, Ashe rental agency and their inventory of rental homes.

Wilkes just lost Golden Corral too, as did Statesville.

The problem is we are almost completely dependent on tourism in this area now. Manufacturing has largely left though GE still provides good jobs. The problem with tourism is we are depending on approximately 5 months of the year paying for the remaining 7 months in many cases with a our service industries, and that's a hard row to hoe.

The county desperately needs a tourist draw in those winter months, something to bring people up to the mountains despite the weather and enable our businesses to flourish more.

Scott I agree with what you have said. However none of the businesses in this county could have ever opened without the tourist , the second homeowner, and the weekend homeowners. Walmart and Lowes just to name a couple did not just pick Ashe county on the map for stores. They did so because of numbers and not for the population of the county being 26K. Stores like this will not survive without outside people. I would love for someone to give us a weekend population and a weekly population.

I would not have called J and J a high priced restaurant but rather one that the middle class could afford once a week. What all these entrepreneurs fail to do is put themselves in a customers perspective of their joint.

I for one am going to beat that dead horse until there is nothing left with those three puppet mouth breathers losing the opportunity to train a work force so that an opportunity for employment may exist one day in their future.

I also noticed in the dot's ten year plan they want to buy more land around that dam money pit landing strip. When will we ever convince the voters of this county that the landing strip that your money to the tune of almost 2million not counting the federal tax money of yours that goes to keep a landing strip for 30 or so Private planes land for some rich weekenders that wont buy a thing in our county.

The problem in Ashe county for any high price restaurant is the lack of customers.

You have to keep in mind a quarter of the county lives at or below the poverty level. They aren't going to be eating at high priced places except on a very special occasion like an anniversary or that time to pop the question if at all (that's 2500 of the 10,000 families in the county).

The county's median incomes less than 400% the poverty level for the state. So it's pretty safe to say the next 2500 families can't afford a high priced restaurant more than once or twice a month.

The next 25% might could afford to eat out regularly at a high priced restaurant once a week, maybe twice a week.

The top 25% probably can afford to eat out 3-4 times a week at a high priced restaurant but most likely choose a different one each time they eat out.

Most restaurants are designed to turn over the seating 3-4 times during lunch and dinner service to make it everyday. Now you start to see the problem.

In addition you add the high costs of rent in the county for commercial property (as well as homes) and other costs such as labor and it becomes pretty prohibitive. Usually restaurants then start going with lower quality ingredients,fewer staff etc. Service suffers and instead of attracting new customers they lose what they have.

The county has a serious problem with employment, and until that is solved I wouldn't consider opening a restaurant in the county. It's not entirely the county's fault. We had good employment with textiles and furniture for years, but due to actions by the Federal Government through various trade treaties we lost those. We've not found something to really replace those jobs. Until we do the county will continue to lag.

I never liked Coyote meat any way....lol

People in Ashe County want greasy Alpo to eat, as is evident by how well some of the restaurants in the county do.

Dog better also include the property insurance, liability insurance, workers comp insurance, propane, water, phone, trash pickup, accounting fees and permits.

Starting to get expensive to operate and that's without food and labor cost.

I guess I will have to drive to Boone to eat at Coyote Kitchen. Granted not everyone likes their food, but some people in Ashe do. I don't mind paying a higher price for food I actually like to eat.

Coop I think I threw you off when I put the rent down as weekly. Rent was 5000 and light bill 1500 should be 216 bucks a day just to make rent and the light bill.

I told someone that they wouldn't last. No one in Ashe is going to pay those high prices and get small amounts of food.

That comes to $91.67 each day just to clear the rent and electric. That building will not turn that kind of money. Not last year ( J & J ) not yesterday ( Coyote Kitchen) and not tomorrow.

Thats 1250 per week and the light bill would run around 1500 a month. No wonder no one can make it. Obviously there are no commercial realtors/management helping tenants and owners in the county.

While the food may not have been to the taste of everyone, there were dishes on the menu which were quite good, you just had to search for them and be willing to step outside of the normal buffet fare so often seen in the "quality" restaurants our population waddles to. David D, gets well paid for the use of the building, John G and his partner put in a tremendous amount of money to remodel the building for their steak house and still the rent was quite high, like $5,000 per month high. It will be interesting to see what comes along next.

Good news to see them gone with all those tattoos/piercings to turn off any customer. Plus the mystery food they served was a big scar. That location must be a jinx.
Maybe the servers should go apply to work at the new Gothic shop that will be opening soon in WJ they
would fit in real well there.

The steak joint started out very well. As time went by their service, food quality, serving size all decreased to the level people stopped going. This is called mismanagement. A good steak joint would make it managed correctly.

Maybe they should give it a try.

"Anything different"

You have to play to the audience you have. An Indian curry Restaraunt would not cause the farmers from Horse Creek to flock to town.

Sorry to hear this......I'll miss them. I'm sure the winter was the final straw. The food was different and very good. That location is awful, they didn't advertise, and anything "different" in Ashe county is too much of a challenge (which is really unfortunate). So what do we have left ....Boondocks and what? Has the Hotel Tavern improved any?

Sounds like a recipe for doom, no doubt..