Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News,  Jan, 2001  

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That also helps promote the convention and tourism business, according to Barbara Mendell, director of public relations for the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Houston, over the past few years, has developed a reputation as a restaurant town. In the Zagat surveys, it shows Houstonians eat out 4.9 times a week.

"Downtown has blossomed considerably. The downtown of five years ago and the downtown of today are two different places," she says. "Now there is plenty to do -- you can go see a movie, a show, live music, go out to dinner, have a drink or have a dessert."

The development also is near the downtown theater district, which houses the Houston Grand Opera, the Alley Theatre, the Houston Ballet and the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

The new Euron Field for baseball opened last year near the George R. Brown Convention Center. And voters last year approved $250 million for a new arena for basketball and hockey.

Despite all the development the average price of a restaurant meal remains about $18, which reflects a modest cost-of-living comparison with other cities, operators say.

And the influx of operators has added to the variety of offerings.

"Ten years ago the city had the reputation for being a barbecue- and Mexican-type city," Lemmon concludes. "Now it's more diverse."

HOUSTON

(2001 estimates, except as noted; growth rates are est. 2001 vs. est. 1999, except as noted)

Population:

4.20 million, +5.00%

Population growth, est. 1999 vs. 1990: +20.48% 2006 population forecast: 4.71 million

Disposable income: $101.83 billion, +12.27%

Household income: $67,992, +6.92%

Per-capita income: $24,269, +7.26%

Eating-and-drinking place sales (1999): $4.00 billion

No. of foodservice & drinking places (1997): 5,798

Foodservice & drinking place payroll (1997): $1.06 billion

No. of foodservice & drinking place employees (1997): 109,167

No. of residents per foodservice & drinking place (1997): 662

Hourly minimum wage: $5.15

Employers' tip-credit allowance: $3.02

State and local sales tax: 8.25% Houston; 6.25% some suburbs

Annual economic impact of travel and tourism: $8.45 billion

Local unemployment rate: 3.7%

Sources: U.S. Dept. of Commerce; U.S. Census Bureau; Editor & Publisher Market Guide; NRN Research.

Indianapolis

Lori Doss

Operators shop for prime locations as mall continues to drive visitor count skyward

St. Elmo's Steakhouse opened its doors in 1902, but it wasn't until nearly 100 years later that the popular restaurant started seeing competition in downtown Indianapolis.

"It wasn't that long ago that on a Sunday afternoon it was a ghost town in downtown Indianapolis," says Chris Clifford, general manager of St.

Elmo's Steakhouse. "Now you come downtown on a Sunday, and there's activity."

Restaurant operators credit the construction of the $320 million Circle Centre mall in the heart of downtown for Indianapolis' restaurant boom. Anchored by Nordstrom's and Parisian, the 800,000-square-foot shopping mall attracts approximately 1 million visitors to downtown Indianapolis each month.