Yep, that's right, right now on www.washingtonpost.com you'll find a glowing review of the nightlife scene in Harrisburg. It has been forwarded to me by a few different people today, and it's really, really cool. It's always nice when an outsider has good things to say about the place you call home. In all honesty, the article is a good reminder about how far Harrisburg has come in the last 20 years. I know when I was younger, there was no reason to come into the city. That’s not the case anymore. Regardless of how you feel about what’s going on downtown, getting a positive mention in one the three American newspapers that remain nationally relevant (NY Times, The Post, USA Today) certainly can’t hurt.

ABC27 and WHP are reporting that everybody’s favorite not-even-trying-to-hide-it illegal bar was raided yesterday.  The Regal Beagle, right across Second Street from the parking garage, was busted for selling alcohol without a license.  Generally speaking, that’s not something you want to do to an undercover state trooper. I was never at the RB, but judging by the crowd / fights usually visible at street level, I don’t think I missed anything.  I’ll stick to ABC and Fresco, thanks.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that Café Fresco is probably my favorite restaurant in Harrisburg. I haven’t managed to hit every place in the area since I moved back (I’m working on it, I’m working on it), but of those I have, Fresco stands out. I’m always impressed by the attention to detail shown in both its food and atmosphere. Not surprisingly, when I heard owner Nick Laus was opening Level 2, a new nightspot above Fresco’s downtown location, I was anxious to check it out. I still haven’t been able to go at night when the place is in full swing, but Nick graciously allowed me to poke around inside one recent afternoon. The interior of the place is absolutely gorgeous, and the attention to detail I always appreciated at Fresco stands out in even greater relief inside Level 2. I sat down with Nick at Fresco during happy hour that evening to ask him about his new business and about his thoughts on the restaurant and nightlife biz downtown: Q: You had a lot of success with the Café Fresco at the Scottsdale Plaza before you moved downtown. Were you sure that the downtown location was going to work? A: Yes and no. I mean, yes; I think as a restaurant owner you have to lay out your pros and cons, but nothing is ever guaranteed. I mean, people think restaurateurs make lots of money as soon as they open the door. They think that if you are busy, you’re making money, but it takes a while. Paxton Street took six months to work, and if I hadn’t had back-up money, I probably would have closed. It took six months to catch on and an additional $50,000 to keep it open. Most people, when they open up a restaurant, they put everything in to it. We were really fortunate; once people found out who we were — what we were about — it became a success. Down here, we had basically the same philosophy, but we kept tweaking and tweaking and tweaking to get where we are today. I believe we’ve become the busiest restaurant in downtown Harrisburg. Q: Obviously downtown Harrisburg is far, far better off than it was 10 or 15 years ago, but you still see a lot of restaurateurs come in, open a place and close it before people even knew it was there. What is the main thing that causes so many restaurants to fail? A: In general, if you look at national statistics, maybe three out of seven restaurants survive the first couple of years and one out of nine might survive beyond that. I think the people who are serious about restaurants and grew up in the restaurant industry, for the most part, get it. They know that there’s so much more to it than just saying, “I’m going to open up a restaurant.” I think you need to know all the fundamentals, understand the hard work, and learn to adjust. You can’t be hardheaded about it. I think you need to have a formula; you need to understand your demographics. There are certain things that might work in L.A. or Vegas that could be a great idea there, but you bring that here and you’ve got to know your area. I think that’s the key. It’s a lot of hard work. In the month before we opened Level 2, I think I got, on average, two hours to four hours of sleep every night. My staff did basically the same thing; maybe not quite that bad, but they pulled through and worked hard. That’s the other thing, getting the right people behind you. Q: Is there such a thing as oversaturation in the restaurant business? Do you look at new ventures that come in as competition, or is better for you if the scene is better as a whole? A: Let me go back to finishing that previous point for one second. Why do people fail besides what I said? I think they do things a little half-assed. It might not be popular to say that, that but it’s true. You’ve been to some places that have been done on a budget. You don’t get rich in the restaurant business quickly, so then ownership starts dropping the quality. Then it affects the business. I’m a firm believer in quality and service. I only advertise, for the main part, the first year to two years. I don’t advertise after that. The only advertising we do now for Café Fresco is basically 12 months worth of issues in two or three magazines. Just enough to keep our name out there. That’s it. I don’t do anything else. Q: Since you brought up half-assed, the trend in Harrisburg seems to be, every time a place closes, someone flips the interior around, throws a new sign up out front and opens it in a few months. Does that ever really work? A: The only thing I can say is this: What we did here, we started doing Asian-American fusion, and not just did we do something different, but I think we did our research. We hired a great chef and he’s done a superb job. I think a lot of people come down here and open the same kind of restaurant. Where you might have had one guy doing really well, now you have someone that’s trying to compete with him that is doing the same kind of thing. Everyone shares the pot. It’s like Italian restaurants. Now you have three or four down here, and all you’re doing is spreading that pot between everybody. To make Harrisburg successful, we need to have more variety. That way it becomes a destination. That way you can say, “You know what? Let’s go down to downtown Harrisburg, let’s park our car, there’s a lot of great restaurants.” Q: Looking back at the way downtown has evolved in the last decade, are you still happy with the way that things are going? Some people seem to think we’ve already reached the top of the wave. Do you see growth? A: I have to say yes, because I’ve been successful so far. I am disappointed in what we call Restaurant Row. We’ve become almost like, Restaurant/Bar Row. With that, the people who have money won’t stay here all night. The people who have capital, the older people, leave town by 10 o’clock, because there’s nothing offered for them down here. That’s why I decided to do Level 2 and market to people who were getting missed. Q: How long did the idea of Level 2 take to develop? A: Six months. Q: Was it just a matter of the space coming open and you found something to do with it, or had you wanted to do something like this for a while. A: The landlord kind of teased me with the property for a while at first, and then six months went by or a year went by. I had actually seen another property and was looking to do something there, but then the landlord offered me the space and we moved forward. Q: You’ve had a ton of success and you have a great track record, but a lot of people still think that opening Level 2 is a pretty big risk. Do you think it’s a gamble? A: Yeah. I think anytime you do a business it’s a gamble. It is risky. I think a lot of people don’t understand that you don’t just do a build-out and invest the money. Whether you spend $200,000 or $1,000,000 on the place, you also sign a lease. That lease can be five or 10 years that you are liable for, so if you are paying $5,000 and you have a lease for 60 months, then you are liable for $300,000. Plus, there’s also the issue of bankruptcy. You have to make a personal guarantee. Most people put their homes up. I had to put my home up to get a loan for Café Fresco, so if I would have lost, I wouldn’t have just lost my business and all my money, I would have lost the home that I live in. Yeah, it’s a gamble, nothing is ever guaranteed. Q: Is that part of the fun of it? A: I love creating. I love making things work. I’ll make things work no matter what. There are just people who are survivors in this world and in this industry. If Level 2 didn’t work out this way, I’ve already got a plan in place to possibly make it into a restaurant. You survive. Q: The interior of Level 2 is gorgeous, how much of it did you do yourself? Did you hire a designer? A: I had an architect who helped out, and I probably might have used about five percent of his ideas. It’s 95 percent my ideas. Q: How did the opening go? Are you happy with the way things have gone so far? A: Everything has gone phenomenally. Our opening party was a hit and every weekend since that it’s been getting better and better. We’re teaching people downtown to dress up. If you want to go somewhere nicer, you’ve got to look more presentable. It’s interesting, because there aren’t any other places down here where you need to dress up. It’s almost like going to a college campus, you go out and have a good time with your friends and eat and drink beer, whatever; there’s nothing wrong with that. I would just like to give people a reason to dress up and go out. We’ve actually had some of our guests tell us that they’ve seen different people downtown at Level 2 since we opened up because they haven’t been out in a while. It’s been good. Q: Anything else coming down the pipeline? A: This is going to be it for a couple of years. Q: Do you have a desire to do other projects in Harrisburg? A: Absolutely. Like I said, I love creating. I just need a break. Every place so far has been successful, so I enjoy it. To me, it’s not about the money, it’s about the recognition; it’s about the process of making a restaurant or a lounge successful. I think every project I’ve done, I’ve surrounded myself and done a lot of research and a lot of reading. That’s been my challenge. When you make it successful, it’s the pats on the back, the awards you win, the write-ups; that’s what I thrive on.

The anti-smoking law, aka, “Senate Bill 246, the Clean Indoor Air Act” was signed by our governor last week. For the last year or so, HarrisburgNightlife has been quietly supporting all the businesses who choose to go smoke free on their own by noting them along the left hand side of the page. Will we have to reverse this and start to note all the bars which will be exempt from the law to tell people where they can expect their eyes to be irritated, come home smelling like smoke, and wake up with a scratchy throat the next morning? According to the law there are several exemptions being made:

They include bars that have 20 percent or less in annual sales of food, as well as cigar bars, tobacco shops and private clubs whose officers agree to it. Casinos would be permitted to allow smoking in up to 50 percent of their gaming halls — though Philadelphia’s law prohibits its two casinos from allowing any smoking, and the legislation passed today will not change that. Also excluded under the proposed statewide ban: private homes and other residences and vehicles — unless they are being used for child-care services — and long-term care facilities, as well as residential facilities used for drug and alcohol rehabilitation and mental-health services.

So what does this all mean for 2nd Street for example?

• Will nightclubs which do not serve food such as Eclipse, Hardware Bar, and Dragonfly go non-smoking on their own will, or will they still cater to the smokers?
• Will these nightclubs install indoor smoking rooms like Level 2 did when they opened?
• How will smoking and non-smoking bars and restaurants be labeled? Will there be a big sticker on the front door that lets patrons know what is allowed inside? (In California, they post warning plaques like the Surgeon’s General warning on a pack of cigarettes)
• Will walking down 2nd Street be worse than going inside a smoking establishment because of all the smokers kicked to the sidewalk to get their fix? Will smoking be permitted outside within the realm of alfresco dining?
• What about restaurants that serve food, but can claim less than 20% of annual sales? What will that say about their food quality?
• How about restaurants that can claim around 25-30% of their food sales? Will they try to curb their fledgling dining business in hopes to attract more smokers and cash in on more alcohol sales?

Lots of questions still wait to be answered, but we’ll have to wait until September 12, 2008 until the law goes into effect.

Amazing how Harrisburg has changed in just the three years HarrisburgNightlife has been reporting…

I snapped this photo from my iPhone one evening last December just before we were getting ready to party along 2nd Street. You can find it inside Palumbo’s, but as noted along the top of the frame it is “not for sale”. This is also the 100th post of the “new” HarrisburgNightlife.com as it changed over to the new blog-style format. Thanks again for all your readership over the years!