EDITOR'S NOTE: LehighValleyNews.com recently spoke to restaurant owners who were candid about the struggles the industry is facing, including inflation, labor challenges and more, including one area that has borne the brunt of the changes. Read the full story HERE.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — If you’re looking for an energetic place to eat, drink and socialize, Eric Cutting hopes you’ll consider taking a stroll through the ArtsWalk in downtown Allentown.
On a nice night, it’s where you’ll find fire pits, an outdoor bar and patio seating that spills beyond the interior confines of Blended Bar + Grill (formerly Blended by BRU Daddy’s).
The restaurant, which Cutting and his business partner quietly took over near the end of 2022, is a spot where folks can grab a bite to eat and experience the energy of downtown Allentown at the same time.
At least that’s what Cutting is aiming for.
“One of my first bosses always said that a restaurant is a double-sided coin," he said. "You have to have good food and good hospitality. Without one, you're no better than the other.”
But like other establishments, Cutting is battling higher food costs and labor challenges, and fighting each night to get folks through the door.
Here are his thoughts on a range of subjects, including issues facing the industry and how he’s working to bring business not only to Blended, but to breweries, wineries and businesses in and out of the downtown area.
His responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Operators continue to struggle with higher food costs, a decline in customer traffic, staffing and more. Can you offer a perspective on what you’re dealing with and what your experience has been at Blended?
Cutting: “Well, luckily, being a newer place, we get kind of a newer perspective. So people are curious, and the curiosity ensues and entices people to come out and check out a new place.
“But for a lot of the traffic that's around here, it's only during activation [specific events or experiences]. And I think a big struggle that we have is getting people in seats on a daily basis. We've optimized this space to utilize it not just like a restaurant, but almost like a social place, a gathering place — whether it be events that are related around food or not so much related around food.”
Q: Can you give me some examples?
Cutting: “For instance, we have a plant bingo coming up, so that brings in traffic and drives and gets a broader audience. Because you think people that are going into plant shops aren't necessarily going out to eat. But if they know there's a place to eat next to a plant shop, they're more inclined to come to visit for lunch or a quick lunch and go and buy plants. Or, to meet friends and go, ‘Hey, listen, there's a cool plant shop there. You want to go?’
“So it’s people with similar interests, and hitting those interest groups and opening up the event space for different audiences. Broadening or widening the net, I guess you could say, to get people here.”
Q: So by bringing these different worlds together, it’s going to be a draw for everyone?
Cutting: “Absolutely. I think grabbing the audience is kind of the challenge, knowing who's going to go out while you're hosting these events, or collaborating with these partnerships with these nonprofits, or local retailers.
"We’ve done it here in the past with local retailers down the ArtsWalk, and it was an opportunity to kind of understand the community and understand the audience that was coming downtown. It was almost like an experiment, and learning from those experiments was like a trial run.
“During the day, a particular business may attract a lot of attention. So we have specials geared toward that crowd and, of course, at night there is a completely different element. We have residents who live down here and they want to go out and they want a place to enjoy themselves without worrying about driving halfway across the Valley to a hotspot destination. So we kind of bring that here.
“But yeah, that's definitely an experiment. Definitely a challenge. And I think we've conquered a couple of those and kept what works. You know, it's all about trial-and-error. You’ve got to try something.”
Q: Has the Downtown Allentown Business Alliance been hands-on in terms of helping you get off the ground running and also sustaining some of these events and generating some new ideas?
Cutting: “Definitely. They help out, they definitely start sparking some activation down here. I’m also a sitting board member, so I do my best to voice my concerns and my opinions.
“I think the gears in motion here need to be more centralized around the foundation, and by that I mean I think food and drink and having places like this to accommodate that attraction happens first. And then the retailers can kind of satellite around that attraction. You need a huge magnetic force and then everything kind of gravitates around it.”
Q: I’ve talked to other restaurant owners who say it’s hard to get traction downtown if an event isn’t going on, and that folks in the suburbs aren’t coming here otherwise. What are your thoughts?
Cutting: “That has some truth behind it. Yeah, I see a lot of that. But also, you know, on our end of it now, coming from the restaurant point of view, I'm trying to grab those audiences and bring them in. I have a lot of ideas that I'm working on right now and a couple of projects. One would be to take a bus tour that starts here in the city for residents or, you know, people within a certain distance, get on a bus and go venture out to a brewery they may not want to drive to. So we can offer and facilitate that transportation to go check out a brewery, check out a winery and then come back and still have a good time when that event is over.
“I think about grabbing those communities in suburbia and bringing them into the city and seeing what the city has to offer. Not necessarily like, ‘Hey, stay in the city,' but 'Hey, come visit the city, we can facilitate your needs.’ It means that, you know, we can house you all day and find you a proper means to get from point A to point B.”
Q: What about rewards points and similar programs to get people in the door?
Cutting: “Those rewards programs, they do help a lot, especially if you advertise and let the guests know about it. For instance, with our point-of-sale system that we've worked with, customers will be notified when they check out and asked if they want to redeem those points or not. So if they're not advertised, they don't even know that they have those points.”
Q: So that’s an example of one thing that’s helping and can be a potential draw. What’s working against your bottom line?
Cutting: “We’re definitely seeing an impact of higher food prices. Without a doubt. And, you know, we've had to adjust some pricing here and there. Not on major items or major upticks, but gradually put some prices up, you know, we've had to, in the past, but that's just something that's ongoing.
“Even with the delivery charges for some of our food products and even with the gas prices, like, CO2, nitrogen, we get charged for. Everything that gets delivered to this location gets an extra trip surcharge on it, so we try to manage the best we can to not make the customer or the guests feel the impact. We try to take most of that on ourselves.”
Q: One of the big trends boosting business for a lot of restaurants is social media. In this era where everything has to be Instagrammable, what are your thoughts and how do you meet that challenge?
Cutting: “The answer to your question is that you resort to social media, you resort to Instagram, you look for those trends that are getting views, that are getting people interested. Those are the dishes that people will come and buy, and even if it's not the best dish in the house, they will order it just to take a picture of it.
“You know, it's wild to even think in this day and age that a ‘like’ on a social media platform is worth more than the value of the food going into the stomach.”
Q: Is that a double-edged sword at all? What if something does go viral and now there are 1,000 people at your door you didn’t prep for?
Cutting: “Well, in that aspect, yes. That would be bad. Because you know, 1,000 people at the door is almost an impossible task. But I've always had that mentality and the staff here, as well. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of how can we do things. And my mantra going into this was not if I can do it. It's how I'm going to do it. Not if I'm going to get people and how many people and I constantly go back to that kind of concept. It's rather simple, actually. Just give them a great place.”
“When you have people walking through the door, and the first thing to hear is, ‘Hello, friends!’ I think that makes a difference right there rather than, ‘Hi, guys.’ When you say, ‘Hello, friends!’
you're opening your door to a friendly conversation and also to a safe place. And that's goal number one.”
Q: When you look to the future, do you think Allentown has the right mix of things going on downtown now and are you optimistic for the future?
Cutting: “With everything that's going on down here with the new DaVinci Center opening up and all the other attractions that are opening up like Archer Music Hall and the Moxy, I think that the potential is here.
“I think having a true foundation like a restaurant alliance, rather than a retail alliance, a restaurant association, build that foundation first, and have those staples that are down here, like a Bell Hall would have been great to kind of gravitate toward and to be around. You want places that are easy for everybody to come in and venture and, you know, patronize.
"After that, you can expand a little bit more, but you have to bring the attention down here. First, the foundation has to be built.
“We haven't quite seen the numbers that we've seen in the industry pre-COVID. It's still a little ways away. I think downtown is a little bit out of the loop for it, but I think with all the small steps its taken, I think it's going to pile up.
"And when it does pile up, I think the restaurant industry needs to be ready for it. I think the downtown area needs to be ready for the retailers. They’ve got to be ready, and the community and all the committees and board members and associations that are here and alliances need to be ready for it when it happens.”
Read our interview with Allentown Brew Works owner Jeff Fegley HERE.
