Diners hungry for more restaurant options

The financial crisis rippling through the economy has derailed consumer confidence and, as a result, curbed Americans' appetite for eating out.

NPD Group, a national research group, recently said that 57 percent of consumers surveyed plan to cut back on their restaurant visits. Yet while many big dining chains are curbing their expansion strategies to conserve cash, culinary entrepreneurs in the Charleston area still are cooking up plans to open new places to eat.

With worries about securing financing and looking out on an empty dining room, it prompts the question: Who would open a business that relies almost exclusively on discretionary income under these conditions?

Casey Glowacki would.

A part owner and chef behind the local Five Loaves Cafe chain, Glowacki said customer visits are up and that revenues are on pace to post a 10 percent gain over last year. He's also seeing more new diners, whom he suspects are trading down from high-cost establishments to his moderately priced menu since the global financial crisis deepened this fall.

Glowacki said local residents still can scrape together enough cash for a quiet night out, and it's those customers who many of these new restaurant owners say they're targeting. Offering entrees priced under $20 and more modest atmospheres, they see a chance to pick up customers who no longer can afford the tabs at high-end establishments.

That strategy could work in this economy, said Jim Moring, a Charleston-based real estate broker with The Commonwealth Co. Inc. who specializes in restaurant sales.

"I don't think that now is a bad time to open a restaurant if you open the right type of restaurant," Moring said.

Read more about how restaurateurs are weathering the economic downturn in Monday's Business Review.