OP

Quoted from pookycade:

Add to the apparently closed or closing list unfortunately
https://www.facebook.com/thesilverballsaloon/photos/a.1281645251897616/3274011102661011/?type=3
https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/08/07/abari-arcade-bar-closes-in-noda.html?ana=wsoc
https://luckycharlotte.com/about-luckys/

OP

Quoted from pookycade:

https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/dave-busters-watchers-wonder-if-chain-will-declare-bankruptcy
Will admit that it won’t be the saddest day for me if these guys don’t make it. Never been a big fan of D+B

OP

Quoted from pookycade:

Decades opened some 5 years ago originally as Paul’s Pinball Palace. We suffered literally ever sling and arrow you could throw at us since that time. First, it wasn’t ever supposed to be a business, just a hangout for our pinball league, then some pop up pinball for the public. Lost our first lease after 4 months when they knocked the building down (to be fair we knew this was coming, just not when). We were about to close when we got offered a last minute lifeline in a dusty warehouse. Just as we were making it into a home, finally inching above the red in our new location, COVID hit. $30k of machines sold just to pay expenses. If I recall during the Covid reopening we hit a low of $700 for one week. I had to cancel Friday night hours because we made less than it cost to pay employees to be open.
This January to add insult to injury, we got booted out of our warehouse location to make way for a conversion to ghost kitchens of all things. It was looking grim, and I was scoping out storage facilities to put it all on ice.
But this is not a story of paradise lost, a dream destroyed, 5 years of struggle (during which time there had been $0 ROI). Nope, we crawled up from the depths of possible non-existence, finding a new home on our city’s downtown mall. I’ll admit, I was more than a little worried given that we had moved into the high rent district whether we could hack it or not. It could easily have been one of those broadway plays that closes opening night.
But we had several things going for us: 1) a great landlord who wanted us to succeed to make our downtown mall a better place to be for everyone (like most downtown malls it is mostly restaurants and high end shops). 2) a superb manager who kept our finances straight and poured hours into redesigning our layout and making sure our social media presence stayed visible while we were closed. 3) Luck, yes lots and lots of luck. Right location, right timing, right people.
My goal for our reopening was to simply move sideways - at least keep us in the black and viable. I do not know what our future is here, but in the 3 months we have been re-openned we have more than doubled our preexisting business. We had 75 people lined up waiting to get in at opening this weekend. Will that continue. I hope, but I will also have backup plans if it doesn’t.
What’s my take home ? Perseverance to exist, great personnel who all have a passion for what we do, combined with fortuitous luck can take you places. You just have to be patient, in it for the long haul, and let it unfold organically. And yeah luck, don’t ever forget luck. You aren’t as smart as you think you are, your decision making isn’t nearly as good as you believe it is.