chezbrad wrote:Location of the Doomed. Jackson has been ripped up and blocked off since last summer; the restaurant was even were pitching itself for a time--if a banner in front of the store is to be believed--as a Chinese-American takeout place. I'm sort of impressed they made it this long, considering.
I do wonder if opening in Chinatown, where they would have been among the first dry pot specialists, would have led to a different outcome than opening off the main drag in Greektown, in a spot with minimal parking.
I think that's potentially a semi shortsighted way of looking at it - just my own opinion. The US Census estimates that the area between Halsted, Madison, Van Buren, and the river has nearly 675 residents living in it born in China, with the area of The Loop out to State St with another 565, and the area of West Loop bounded by Halsted, Ashland, Madison, and Van Buren with another 350. A few hundred more north of these areas, and not counting what's in Streeterville, River North, South Loop, etc. And while there may obviously be people from China who don't like this cuisine or aren't even familiar with it, that's basically 2000 people from China living in West Loop area or west area of the Loop. This isn't counting people from any other country who would try it.
Is that enough? Who knows - did the pandemic basically screw them over? Wouldn't doubt it.
If I've learned anything from my wife though, it's that if you live in an area where there's no legit Chinese food then they'll support you at least in the beginning. At least here in NYC, our immediate area had no Chinese food and the only thing within a probably 2 mile radius were a few bubble tea shops. We usually order delivery all the way from Flushing. One opened up a 5 minute walk away summer of 2019 and my wife and I were legitimately eating there 2-3 times a week for a solid 1-2 months. It was pretty busy for a few months with a lot of Chinese residents in the area supporting the new business, plus others.
Here's the catch though - it was the only Chinese food in our area until very recently. We got sick of it and just started ordering from Flushing again. I would bet that a few more Chinese options in the general area could actually help something like that be less doomed. It will get support from a Chinese community if it's good enough tasting, but people will also get sick of it after awhile.
When I was working with someone else for an article about the Chinese population in Chicago, I asked why there's not more Chinese restaurants in say West Loop, McKinley Park, or Brighton Park where there's many Chinese people. He said it's because they want Chinatown to still be the epicenter. The only other semblance of something similar is in Bridgeport on streets like Halsted. Actually Bridgeport has more Chinese people now than Chinatown, but still doesn't have a MASSIVE amount of the restaurants. It makes sense but at the same time, there could be more benefit from having a few more clusters where there's a large enough population.