Dirty Frank’s to open this week

Finally!

The rumors are true, Dirty Frank’s finally finally opens this week. More details at Columbusunderground.com

” After over a year of delays and setbacks, Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace is scheduled to officially open on Wednesday, July 1st at 4pm…”

http://www.columbusunderground.com/dirty-franks-hot-dog-palace-opens-this-week

Is Dirty Franks Opening Imminent ?

We’ve had many false alarms before but lately there seems signs of tangible closeness

first the Dispatch brought it up again

from

http://www.dispatchkitchen.com/live/content/food/stories/2009/04/15/hotdogs.html?sid=101

” … And, even before its opening, Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace — the fourth venture for Columbus restaurateur Elizabeth Lessner — boasts 168 Facebook friends, 461 Twitter followers and endless, giddy chatter on Internet message boards… “

And a blog on downtowncolumbus.com

http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/rightnow/2009/04/inside-43215-downtown-dish-14/

” The big debut of Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace (248 S. Fourth Street) is right around the corner.  No, seriously this time.  Everything that could possibly go amuck has already gotten mucked up.  Think it’s easy to open a restaurant?  Tell that to industry veteran, Liz Lessner.

Cuz it takes more than duct table.
As it turns out, Dirty Frank’s reasonable-looking address was in need of an extra makeover.  Liz details the horrifying process of discovery, “We thought the space needed a fresh coat of paint, but it was, in fact, out-of-code in just about every aspect imaginable.”  Her story ends in this magical phrase: gutted to the studs…. “

and then there is the ever tidbits to be found in there twitter feed

http://twitter.com/DirtyFranksDogs

such as

“old wood floors being sanded, stained and shined.”

“too rainy to paint so we are setting up payroll, going through last minute applications and running down to get our vendor’s license.”

“experimenting w/ some cool turkish and greek relishes today…spicy!”

It’s been nearly a year since Dirty frank’s project started and it looks like the end of this month of beginning of next it should finally finally come to fruition.

The Little Palace featured on DowntownColumbus.com

One of our little hood’s restaurants was included on the downtowncolumbus.com blog’s restaurnat feature

The Little Palace has been downtown for decades and to my knowledge is the only greek restaurant in downtown proper. Most people don’t know that they serve breakfast on the Saturdays either!

Check out it out here

http://rndb.downtowncolumbus.com/2009/02/show-your-love-john-from-little-palace/

and the vid

Dirty Frank’s still on Track to Open

Well it’s a bit later than hoped, but the good news is Dirty Frank’s Hot dogs is still on track to open. I’ve gotten word there is activity in the space again and the owners are shooting for a Mid to late March open.

It’s safe to say even the best plans can hit snags given the enormous credit crisis the banks are facing (and thus consequently all small businesses that need any sort of credit). That and the numerous zoning restrictions and odd building shapes and histories downtown can make getting past the red tape a bit tough for the new entrepreneur.

The good news is there is now a myspace page that for upcoming news

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=429835229

there is also a twitter account

http://twitter.com/DirtyFranksDogs

a webpage

http://www.dirtyfrankscolumbus.com/

a facebook account

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53734101113

and they routinely update the thread on columbusunderground

http://www.columbusunderground.com/dirty-frank-s-hot-dogs-opening-downtown-in-july/comment-page-7#comments

Quite a few ways to keep tabs on the progress eh?

There is also a great writeup on the excellent food blog/blogger CMHGourmand back in November, here’s a teaser of what he has to share

” Several times per week people will ask or e-mail me – “When is Dirty Franks going to open?” My answer is: not soon enough. However, like a fine red wine, a fine red hot hot dog place needs time to age. Progress has been slow but sure, however the wait will be worth it.

Take the site of the former Queen Bee Diner. Then mix in the power of Liz Lessner and Harold LaRue as well as many others and you get Dirty Franks Hot Dog Palace.

Columbus has been waiting for a dining destination in the Red Brick District (south part of downtown). Dirty Franks aims to deliver in the form of hip hot dogs and comfort food at comforting prices.

The Palace is inspired by Liz’s love of Chicago style hot dogs. Liz and Tim Lessner spent their formative years in Chicago. Dirty Franks aims to bring the authentic tastes of Chicago hot dog and beef stands to our fair city. You will see elements of the other Liz Lessner Restaurants – Betty’s, Surly Girl, and Tip Top Kitchen and Cocktails but Dirty Franks will stand apart with a Chicago focused menu and some new twists on old favorites.

You will find this hot dog hot spot at:

248 South 4th Street
Downtown / Red Brick District “

Please go check out the rest at ,

http://cmhgourmand.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/hot-dog-daze-a-dirty-franks-field-trip/

There’s lots of great pictures and information. If you weren’t excited before you probably will be now. I know I’m hungry.

Very Sad News Today, CJ Daniels is Closing

” Cj Daniels Clothing is closing its doors at 108 E. Main Street in the Red Brick District. We will be having a going out of business sale running January 22nd through February 6th. The closing is a sad event for the Daniels’. We will offer super discounts on all products and fixtures. More information is available online at CJDaniels.com. “

http://www.columbusunderground.com/cj-daniels-clothing-is-closing-their-doors

It goes almost without saying that losing CJ Daniels is a huge blow. Terry and Cathy are  co-creators of the district and are well loved and respected by all of us and the downtown community as a whole.

We wish them their very best in their future endeavours and will miss them very dearly.

Red Brick Retailer Podcast

This week three of of use were featured on Columbusunderground.com in a podcast about our opinions on retail and downtown

check it out!

Terry Daniels, Yusuf Sadiq, Jeff Zettler

Photo Credit: Walker Evans, Columbusunderground.com

http://www.columbusunderground.com/cu-podcast-episode-02-downtown-retailers

Downtown’s New School Set to Open Tomorrow

200 hundred students are set to start arriving daily  in our neighborhood as downtown gets in first public school in decades!

from

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/01/02/high_schools.html?sid=101

By Simone Sebastian

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

“The new Downtown High School and the revitalized East High School - two capstone projects in the first round of the Columbus district’s school-construction plan - will open their doors to students Monday…..

The $25.1 million Columbus Downtown High School, on Mound Street between 4th and 5th streets, is expected to help the district improve and expand its career-education programs. During a yearlong process, three of the district’s career centers - Northeast, Northwest and Southeast - will be consolidated into the Downtown building and a center on the Fort Hayes campus.

About 200 juniors and seniors in cosmetology, business, Junior ROTC and information technology will open the building Monday….

“The biggest benefit of this transition is the location,” said school Director David Mangas. “Being Downtown, we have the ability to partner with organizations and colleges for internships, speaking engagements and mentorships.”

The building, with an 800-student capacity, blends in with Downtown, appearing more like a modern office building than a school, Mangas said.

For the rest of the school year, students will continue to attend academic courses at their home high schools. In August, they will begin taking all courses at the Downtown school, eliminating travel time from their school day. The building does not have a gym, so students will participate in athletics and extracurricular activities at their home schools.

Equipment to operate a restaurant and provide cosmetology services are in the building. Mangas hopes that students eventually will provide those services to the public. Opening the school to ninth- and 10th-graders also is being considered, he said….”

Rumors are that they plan to let the students opeate a restaurant that will be opne to the public at some point the future.

If you want to see what the building looks like check out the thread on Columbusunderground or the writeup downtowncolumbus.com

RBD gets mention in DowntownColumbus.com Blog and some thoughts about Parking

Our little area got a nice mention in the Capital Crossroads’ blog the other day

 

From http://rndb.downtowncolumbus.com/2008/12/in-search-of-a-city-let-em-park/

” I have two wishes for 2009 to share in this blog.  The second of my two wishes is for the retail cluster at Main and Third to draw lots of customers.  It is the most extensive retail cluster in an otherwise lackluster downtown and will soon include 15 diverse businesses.

This area has three key blocks: South Third from Rich to Main; Main from Third to Fourth; and Fourth from Main to Rich.  Within this block are three clothing stores (Cj Daniels, T Jazz and Romanoff’s Tuxedo Classics), Zettler Hardware, two salons (Chez D’or and Jacob Neal), Graham Office Supply, Hawk Galleries, Flowers on Orchard Lane, Abeto Tailors, and Grisimer Tires.  The Little Palace, a wonderful “hole in the wall” is located here, and Liz Lessner is opening a new restaurant, Dirty Franks.

Outbound commuters provide a huge untapped consumer market for this area.  Unfortunately, on-street parking is prohibited during rush hour.   This problem is a fatal one for retail and brings me to the first of my two wishes: that the City eliminate its ban on rush-hour parking so retailers have a fighting chance to succeed. “

 

Cleve brings up an interesting dillema any would be downtown retailer faces. Any downtown shop would love to be in a walkable environment with lots of footraffic, it’s part of the allure of being a downtown store. There’s a certain romance America has with walkable shopping, it is after all what shopping malls and now town centers attempt to recreate.

That being said currently our downtown simply doesn’t have the residential density footraffic required to support such an environment, so the majority of downtown Columbus retailers are going to need business from outside the Belts to make a living and those customers are most likely going to come by car.

And yet downtown may be the toughest place for a customer to park in the city, It’s expensive relative to the burbs and there are many restricted lots. The multitude of rules and restrictions and the potential for having your car hauled off to Whittier can be univiniting for the potential csutomer. Clearly though with 100,000 commuters downtown has to balance their needs as well.

So what can be done? On Third and Fourth streets perhaps it does make some sense to leave the current rush hour bans in the places where they get heavy use (the south end of 4th in the morning and the south end of third in the evening), motorists’ safety probably makes that a necessity for the time being. However there seems to be little need to have those bans in place at low volume times. The southern part of 4th street in particular doesn’t need an evening ban. Lifting that ban would undoubtedly tremendously help The Little Palace and Dirty Frank’s (when it opens). The shops in the city center garage probably wouldn’t mind having the morning ban lifted there on third street either.

Perhaps the place where the current ban makes the least sense is the North Side of Main Street from 3rd to fourth.  The majority of car traffic during rush hour turns south on third out of the City Center Garage, any bystander cna tell you Main Street really doesn’t fully utilize all the lanes of traffic. With some protective blockers on the backside (to demonstrate to commuters that it’s no longer a traffic lane) of the spots the city can easily lift this ban. It would certainly help Cj Daniels and would undoubtedly help the Hartman land a first floor tenant. I’m sure the new owners of the Brownstone and the Hudak lawfirm wouldn’t mind either having greater parking.

Downtown can help us a lot by implementing these low cost low risk common sense changes to on street parking in our area.

Brownstone on Main to go on Auction on 12/15

Got 50,000 bucks on you? If so then you can go partake  in an absolute auction for the former Brownstone on Main on

Monday at 5pm.

See     http://www.ohiorealestateauctions.com/12-15-08.htm for more details.

Come see play “Mom & Pop” partially inspired by RBD member Zettler Hardware

Local playwright Sarah Tobin has a written a new play inspired by Zettler Hardware!

The show is put on by Raconteur Theatre.  http://raconteurtheatre.com/

Here’s a  videoteaser.

you can go see it at at the Columbus Dance Theatre at 592 East Main Street Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. next Sunday through Dec. 20  Tickets cost $10 to $15.

Call 614-804-1695 or visit www.rtheatre.org.

here’s a link to buy tickets
http://raconteurtheatre.com/tickets.html

You can find out more about the play in last Thursday’s Dispatch

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2008/12/04/1A_BLUN04.ART_ART_12-04-08_E4_HIC4AHG.html?sid=101

and

At raconteur theatre’s blog at

http://raconteurtheatre.com/rtcblog/every-generation-makes-its-choice/2008/11/09/