For some Anchorage restaurants, ‘flat is the new up’

At Ginger, a sleek restaurant and bar on Fifth Avenue in Anchorage, managing partner Matt Gill says sales took a hit last year as people ordered fewer entrees, shared dishes and called more frequently to ask when happy hour is. There's always a wintertime slowdown for restaurants, but right now, things feel different.

"You can tell people are a lot more price-conscious," he said. "Not spending as much."

Alaska's recession is a compounding factor for what has traditionally been a skinny season, local restaurant owners say. Downtown eateries, in particular, face the added challenge of trying to attract locals to spend money in a less residential part of the city.

All of them are looking at creative ways to tackle the problem. Some restaurants have cut their lunch service. Others are tweaking what they serve, looking to catering and events to keep business steady, and owners are still concerned about the future.

"It's rough," said Robert DeLucia, co-owner of Crush wine bistro downtown. He's noticed less foot traffic on the streets in the last few years. "One of the jokes I have among my colleagues in the industry is, 'flat is the new up.' If you're keeping your sales flat year-to-year the past two to three years, you're rocking and rolling."

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Laile Fairbairn, co-owner of Crush, Snow City Cafe, Spenard Roadhouse and South Restaurant and Coffeehouse, agreed.

"I think, always, winter in Alaska for restaurants can be a little nerve-wracking," she added. "But last winter was pretty nail-biting."

Snow City, which is downtown, had a good 2017 thanks largely to a strong tourism season, Fairbairn said, and her other businesses were pretty flat. Restaurants in town are "always retooling" and need to constantly remind people about their specials, events and happy hours to survive right now, she said.

"You have to be top of your game to get people to get past their barriers to go downtown," Fairbairn said, though she's noticed restaurants struggling all over the place.

Andrew Halcro, executive director of the Anchorage Community Development Authority, said a lack of housing downtown is the single biggest factor affecting all sorts of businesses there.

"In communities like Seattle where there is a population that lives downtown, unlike Anchorage, the city doesn't shut down at 6 p.m." he said. "You leave work at 5:30, 6 p.m., you're not coming back."

Guy Conley, executive chef and co-owner at pizzeria Fat Ptarmigan on Fifth Avenue at E Street, said business there is typically driven by events around downtown in the winter.

"There's not a great population in downtown Anchorage," Conley said. "It makes it very difficult for restaurants to survive in the wintertime. … Events aren't as much as they used to be."

He said some downtown eateries have scraped lunch from their menus. Fat Ptarmigan looks to winter specials or events like paint nights to bring in customers, or expanding its catering program. This time of year, it's just about maintaining business, Conley said.

At Ginger, 2017 was the first year in a decade of business that sales were down noticeably (11 percent) from the previous year, Gill said. Ginger is also rolling out a new menu, "making our price points a little more friendly to what's going on," Gill said.

Matt Iverson, bottle shop manager at Crush, said one of the perennial problems with downtown is parking, for both customers and staff. Fairbairn said there are a lot of cheap, good parking options in the area if people are willing to walk a block or two.

But, she added, "Anchorage wants to park right in front."

Halcro echoed that. Polls have shown that people who go downtown regularly don't have an issue with parking, he said, but people who head there infrequently perceive it to be a problem if they can't find a space exactly where they want.

Crush recently relocated to a more central downtown location on G Street, where it merged with Sacks Cafe. The business was already looking to make a change before the economic downturn started a few years ago, DeLucia said, but the recession was a factor.

"There was kind of an influx of a bunch of new restaurants that came in right as the economy started to crumble," he said. "We thought it would be a good way to consolidate. … We have a labor pool we can pull from."

Most industries have lost jobs in Alaska's current recession, and the restaurant sector is no different. Employment in food services and drinking establishments in Anchorage was down an estimated 300 jobs in November 2017 compared to the same month the previous year, according to the most recent data available from the state.

Bill Popp, president of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., said continued pessimism about the future of the local economy doesn't help things.

"Anything that's not a must-have starts to become a little more at risk when your consumers lose confidence," Popp said. He said restaurant owners in town are happy right now if their sales are simply the same as the year before.

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There are exceptions. Club Paris co-owner Charles Selman said the restaurant "did very well" last year, crediting its small size and consistency over the years.

Club Paris, with its well-known neon sign and Eiffel Tower protruding from its facade, focuses on steak and seafood and only seats 75 people, including the bar. The 60-year-old establishment also has low overhead costs because the family that runs it also owns the land and the building.

"We've managed to make this very streamlined," Selman said. Scraps from filet mignon get turned into hamburgers. Ribeyes or prime ribs that go unsold become stroganoff or chili. "We try to use everything."

Dylan Buchholdt, a co-owner of Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse, Williwaw and other restaurants downtown, said controlling costs is key.

"Making sure we're running a pretty tight ship, making sure that we're not trying to chase money in terms of getting customers in this time of year especially when really, people tend to hunker down," he said.

The important thing, DeLucia said, is getting creative with classes, tastings, catering, and events that provide a unique experience beyond just having dinner in a restaurant.

"Being able to supplement those sales is huge right now," he said.