kopper kettle

Hi Mike & SRC,

You both would know better than I would the impact of summer traffic to the area. But I think its clear that economics in the Village itself are probably driven by a largely fixed retirement income stream. Many Villagers lived in the era when defined benefit plans really existed and not a few of them have worked for government as police, mail, etc. At least, that has been my take.

I suspect that you are right about vacation travel to the area. What CV has going for it big time is the ability to control expenses -- it's not a shopping, expensive eating out, expensive entertainment destination. Plus, housing is often through relatives and, relative to hotels, inexpensive weekly rentals. You may be right that many people will eat in, travel less, and so on this year. For the sake of our local merchants, I hope not as the local prices are very reasonable.

CV is the answer to anyone who wants to control expenses and have a leisurely vacation experience with swimming, lakes, fishing, hiking, or just sitting on the porch. ((I'd just like to do that with an iced latte.)

Yes, the economy has and will continue to have tremendous monetary effects on this area, no doubt. There is not a great deal of money here anyway, and to take more away cannot help matters. Recreation and other non necessities are the first to go. However, the summer season this year here may not be so bad. Vacationers are making reservations, however it is a different demographic and it is happening nationwide. People are still going to go on vacation but they are not going far away. Instead of more license plates from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida, you will see more Arkansas, TN, MS, MO, OK etc plates around. People are coming from shorter distances, but they are coming. Let's hope for a good summer!

springriver_chick wrote:Don't forget the economy. I saw a post from another forum that Fred's Catfish in Mammoth had 40% less receipts since the economy took a dive. It takes numbers of people with consistency. The Carriage House in Horseshoe Bend also had to close due to the economy after enjoying a 20 year run and a 50% dip in profits after the economy crashed.

Don't forget the economy. I saw a post from another forum that Fred's Catfish in Mammoth had 40% less receipts since the economy took a dive. It takes numbers of people with consistency. The Carriage House in Horseshoe Bend also had to close due to the economy after enjoying a 20 year run and a 50% dip in profits after the economy crashed.

Hi Mike,

Very thoughtful analysis. Based on quality alone, Words and Words Afterwords should be thriving. There's a mystery to the whole thing in my view. Certainly quality is always an issue, but quality alone seems not to be enough. I'm going to say something provocative now:

If it's true that alcohol sales would help lots of local places, then it is true to say that quite a few people have "extra" money to throw around when they go out. After all, alcohol at a meal is neither necessary nor inexpensive. So if that "extra" money is out there, then it is fair to say that prices could be higher for food items than they are.

My basic sense locally is that what is hurting and killing places is that merchants simply can't charge what they need to. I don't like paying more anymore than anyone else, but I think that's the root cause.

Think about, the only inexpensive places that are thriving do so by very high volume, long standing presence, and repeat customers who don't go elsewhere. Upstarts have a very tough road ahead of them.

That is easy.

The two biggest factors in my opinion are:

1) Winter

2) Dry County

Winter really has an effect on the hospitality industry in this area. The dry county thing does not help either.

That being said, not every eating establishment will be or should be serving alcohol, but making the county wet will without a doubt attract more visitors to this area than will those that will stay away. Studies show that the real numbers of people who stay away from wet counties is not an issue at all and nothing but a scare tactic by the dry side of that issue. I would go as so far to say it is a bold faced lie by the dry side. There is no net loss in visitors to any area that has become a wet county when it used to be dry. That is a myth and a discussion for another topic, not this one. The net gain of visitors would be very much to our benefit and to all of those in the hospitality industry.

I wish winter did not keep people out of the restaurants, but it does.

I also have seen some very poorly run places that you just knew would fail and they did.

However, there are quite a few that are thriving year round. Find out their key to success and you will find your answer.

To get back on topic, Kopper Kettle would have been the perfect restaurant to have a liquor license to allow them to serve alcohol. I believe it would have thrived tremendously.

We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot and then we stop and argue over why and who's to blame. To me it is just common sense and it blows me away. Oh well.

Hi Forum,

I have always been very curious what makes and breaks our local eating places. Does anyone have a take on why it seems hard to keep some places going and what we in the community can do?

I agree. We always enjoyed it. I never had a problem there. I don't know the whole story but did like the restaurant. I hope they can make it work again.

What happened to kopper kettle? I thought the food was good and I liked seeing young people try to make a go of it and stay for awhile.