Off-campus restaurants struggle to compete with campus options

Tomato Jake’s never got the chance to become a Franklin Street favorite.

The restaurant spent just 10 months in Chapel Hill before it had to close its doors over winter break.

The demise of Tomato Jake’s and Jack Sprat Cafe — which also closed down last year — has led Franklin Street restaurant owners to question why some restaurants on the street struggle to remain viable.

Tomato Jake’s owner Glen Gordon has said that competition from on-campus dining options contributed to the restaurant’s shuttering.

Mike Freeman, director of auxiliary services, said on-campus meals have increased from around 12,000 to 15,000 a day since last year.

But even with this success, Freeman said, he didn’t feel like added dining options such as Wendy’s contributed to the closing of restaurants like Tomato Jake’s.

“The Wendy’s is doing well, but I don’t think what we did caused Franklin Street restaurants’ sales to drop,” he said.

Sophomore Kenan Drum said he thought Tomato Jake’s saw too much competition not from on-campus options, but from other places on Franklin Street.

“There are too many of the same kind of restaurant,” he said. “A lot of the time business for one location cancels out business for another.”

Jonathan Browning, the general manager of Tomato Jake’s, said there were many factors that led to the failure of the Franklin Street location.

He said he expected running his new restaurant would be a challenge, because he knew many well-established restaurants on Franklin Street had years of experience and regulars to fill their booths.

“As a new kid on the block, we didn’t have any of those,” Browning said.

After less than a year on Franklin Street, Browning said, the restaurant could not come up with the money to stay in the location.

“Making the rent was definitely a problem,” he said. “In the summer, Chapel Hill becomes a ghost town. It’s hard to make rent.”

Don Pinney, general manager of Sutton’s Drug Store, said watching Tomato Jake’s quick departure from the Chapel Hill scene shows how the food business on Franklin Street is a financial balancing act.

“Most restaurants keep it cheap as possible while being able to make the rent, which is so high,” Pinney said. “That’s the hard part.”

“I wish the Franklin Street location had been done better. It was not the fault of the students or the campus food. The failure of the Franklin Street location was not solely a costumer issue but an execution issue,” said Browning.

But Pinney said overall restaurant success on Franklin Street has been declining in recent years.

“In the last nine to 10 years the numbers have dropped,” he said. “The tradition of eating on Franklin Street is not as strong.”

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.