Rochester Writers

Was this an attempt to create a Rochester version of Buffalo’s Chippewa?  Probably.  Chippewa has a lot to offer in a centralized location.  You get that critical mass of people that creates the momentum to keep an area a hotspot, even after the shiny new veneer has faded.

    Last decade, the city of Rochester looked at the 18-35 year old brain-drain problem and tried to compensate by increasing investment in the High Falls entertainment complex and housing in Corn Hill.  At the same time, they fixed up Upper Monroe and developed the East End Fest. All these things were targeted at making the city more attractive to young adults.  During the late 90s when all this was happening, there was a large spike in telecom jobs.  Life was good.  20-somethings were employed, living in the city, and spending half their paycheck at The Blue Room. 

    Okay, I was spending half my paycheck at The Blue Room.  You get the idea though.

    We know what happened to those companies and those jobs next. We don't need to go into it.  Something interesting happened through all this though.  Despite the investment in High Falls and Corn Hill, during this period and following, it was East End, Alexander Street, and the South East neighborhoods that saw real growth and development. And why not?  At The Blue Room I could get a martini for the price I would pay for a bottle of beer at Center's.  No cover charge either.

    Despite how interesting and beautiful High Falls is, the cost of drinks at Empire Brewing Company, Keys, and Jillian’s made them hard to compete with the cheaper offerings at The Blue Room, Alexander Street Pub, The Park Bench, and Preps.  Not to be rude, but if you're paying $4.25 for a bottle of Labatt Blue, you're worse than a snob, you're a dumb snob that doesn't know the value of a dollar.  A guy in his twenties wants cheap hooch in a joint where girls out number the guys; not a damn bathroom attendant that does nothing but stoke your catholic guilt for not tipping him.

    And don't give me some line about cosmopolitan culture.  I've been there. I've seen the silk shirts and chest hair.  Culture isn't coat check girls and someone handing you a towel before you can zip up your fly.  Culture is being true to yourself.  People that think these clubs offer some kind of “Gateway to Gotham” should consider whether their just trying to be something they're not.

    Anyway, that kind of went off track there.  The point is that the first incarnation of High Falls flopped. 

    Which brings me back through a meandering rhetorical fashion to first iterations of concepts.  The success of High Falls is inevitable.  It isn't a question of a faulty concept or a bad location.  Failure and success in this case is a function of cost, and so far the businesses that have set up shop there can't mitigate those costs.  Ironically, High Falls fell victim to the same thing that killed the Ferry: size.  Whatever the structure that Center's originally operated out of was called, it was and still is the “centerpiece” of the complex.  Unfortunately, like Jillian's next door, these massive places could rarely fill themselves on the weekend, forget about them doing so on a week night.  (Although I remember Center's doing some kind of incredible $.25 bottle Coors Light drink special on Thursday nights which would suck up most of the business from the other bars.  Unfortunately, the crowd that congregated at Center's for this was the worst kind of odd-ball mishmash you could ever hope to have congregate in a night club.  My friends and I eventually migrated to Salinger's on Thursday for $2 Guinness pints which was much more agreeable to all those involved.)

    Ultimately, it boils down to having to carve up the square footage of those units at High Falls in order to get them to work.  The original business plan at Center's tried to leverage this by attempting to be “3 bars in one”, as did Jillian's.  However, both places track-records show that the conglomerate approach to entertainment complexes really doesn't fly in Rochester.  Personally, I'll go as far to say that nightclubs in general don't fly in Rochester, unless they're anchored by some kind of hook, like Mother's has.  No, it looks more like Rochester and Rochesterians prefer pubs, especially pubs that offer a deck. 

    So how do you make this work in the future?  That's a tough one.  I'd say there isn't much of a window for success right now.  In order to have sustainable business in that area, you really need to develop more housing and foot traffic through the area.  The continued creation of housing along the Genesee will contribute to this, as will the renovation of the neighborhoods surrounding Pae-Tec Park.  It’s likely that High Falls will have a resurgence in the next 5 years. However, whether or not it is a sustained resurgence is another question entirely. 

    When the city gets that window again, they need to proceed by looking at what has worked in the past and what has flopped.  I’m telling you, if they pitch some kind of big club, it shows that they just don’t get it.  Look at what has worked at East End and on A-Street.  Smaller pubs that operate with some degree of a theme seem to have the greatest success.  If owners want to put something in that is different, look for something that is maintainable without a huge capital investment.  We don’t need a psychedelic bowling alley like the one at Jillian’s.  A simple candle-pin bowling alley would suffice. Cheaper to operate and cheaper for the patron.  As much emphasis should be placed on making these places affordable as there is on making them unique.  I’m not saying this because I’m cheap.  I’m looking at what works.   Can the area support some diversity?  A Milestones type bar, or a Downstairs Cabaret type of theatre?  Do we need to have a slew of night clubs that make an initial splash and then hemorrhage attendance until they resort to $1 Coors Light Bottle nights?  Remember many smaller players means diversity, not just in attendance but more importantly in overall risk. 

    A failed first-run is forgiven by a successful follow-up.  Let’s hope the people behind this have learned a few lessons about what it takes to be successful and why their predecessors have failed.