I dont know if it's because of the ball park specifically, but between them, Smokestack, Bucks - they're all apparently closing the same weekend. I wonder if it's due to a landlord?

Lotta chatter that the park is pulling business away.

No doubt. One of the bartenders from smokestack said that patrons would come down on game days and just eat in the park as it opened 2 hrs early before games.

I was there yesterday and it was busy...it must be the ballpark during games because there is no parking.

Can't imagine anyone warned Worcester that it would be a problem....

The Banner is closing too?

This and Smokestack closing? That's fucking rough.

Worcester was doing so well for a while too. It's a shame they put a stadium in, because from my understanding it's short term profits for some, then a down turn for everyone once the stadium isn't novel anymore.

No.

It’s not only the Ball Park… lots of reasons, including high cost of food service items, and inflation, have eroded the razor thin profit margins. Also, most places can’t find staff and owners are working 65-80 hour weeks to make up for it.

Parking is obviously an issue… but the ball park is only open for home games 70-something days a year.

This place was open like 10 hours a week

Lol these were their hours, it’s like they wanted to fail

Monday Closed

Tuesday Closed

Wednesday Closed

Thursday 4–8PM

Friday 4–9PM

Saturday 12–9PM

Sunday 9AM–2PM

Parking isn’t an issue. Been down that way plenty of times during the games and find walkable parking with no issues.

All these places are pointing the blame at the ballpark, but they should be thriving because of it.

In reality, these and the other that are closing have just been poorly managed and honestly, are very unwelcoming.

Shrewsbury st is popping and that’s where everyone tends to go. These places need to step it up

You think thats because they don’t want to open though…? I’d bet that’s because of lack of staff. You can’t open if you don’t have people to work, and you can’t hire people if you aren’t making money. It’s the classic catch-22 of the small business world.

Welcome to the new normal in restaurant industry post-COVID. Reduced hours, fewer staff, inexperienced staff, shortened menus, higher prices, etc. Restaurants are still struggling to get by.

Over half of the restaurants I consider go-to spots in Worcester County have reduced their hours, shortened their menus, and raised their prices. Wife & I went to our favorite hibachi place last week and they had one hibachi chef cooking at 4 tables, running back and forth like a bat out of hell. Couldn’t find any chefs to work.

I was there last week and it was busy, BUT they seemed short staffed. And at least a few times in the past 2 weeks they were closed on days they were supposed to be open.

I mean it might not be parking specifically but restaurants in the canal district have been talking about business being bad during games ever since the park opened. The prediction that business would be flowing over from the ballpark is, with extremely few exceptions, not materializing.

Basically all of it can be tracked back to Covid, which led to the high costs/inflation and staffing issues, as well as a sharp drop-off in restaurant traffic, which is going weirdly underdiscussed.

The ballpark is probably getting too much attention as a cause of these closures, buuuut the city did pay $160m for something that is, at the very least, not helping the businesses we were told they would.

Yep. All valid points/well articulated.

Rumor has it that it will be for sale.

love how worcester managed to ruin its own canal district “revitalization” (gentrification) project by adding a big stupid ballpark in a big stupid location. like i can’t help but notice all the businesses closing in the area have only been there for like 4 years. brought in to revitalize or whatever then covid and the ballpark hit and none of them ever stood a chance

That area wasn’t thriving before the stadium opened. Just seems like they all want to blame something else, rather themselves. It was a golden opportunity to capitalize on the stadium, but they all seemed bitter rather than helping themselves.

Maddie’s had shit hours. Bucks attracted shit people and had bad service. Smokehouse was in the decline food and service wise for a while now.

Yeah same with Smokestack

Yeah if any of those places actually pivoted and tried to be open after the games, even with just a minor bar menu, I suspect they would have fared better. Seems like the Banner is always crowded after games and everywhere else was closed. Maddi's and Smokestack both have a great beer list and decent drinks, too. Why they close at 9 makes no sense to me.

Depends what you mean by "before the stadium opened" because the stadium opened in the middle of the pandemic. Before Covid? The area was definitely thriving and growing, that's *why* they put the stadium where they did.

I put the effects of Covid way above the ballpark as a cause for these closures, but blaming the restaurants themselves for the ballpark failing to help them when the promise was that they would is just silly. The Banner is literally the only place in the area I've heard of that gets a bump on game days, and they're also rumored to be for sale. And can anyone honestly say it's a better place than Maddi's, or Buck's, or Birch Tree, or Bay State Brewing? (The last two of which have both said they either get hurt or don't see a bump during games.)

Also, Maddi's was open on more weekdays and later on weekends only until the past year or so. The hours they had at the end are an effect of what closed them, not a cause.

What is Urban?

Smokestack Urban BBQ. I mixed up the first word in their name.

lack of staff is def exacerbated by the fact that there’s no parking, like sure there might be some parking for some patrons, but like where do they expect employees to park? i’m sure people just don’t want work somewhere if they have to fight for parking every day

Gotcha!

I’ve been a regular weekend customer at Maddie’s for well over a year. Great bartenders, great food, great beer selection. This is sad news. Over the past couple of months, Worcester public market has seemed to have fewer customers.

Its possible that the landlords upped the rent when the ballpark came in, recognizing that the area was being more attractive- but the revenue might not have ever grown to cover the higher rent. I don’t believe the parking issue.

It is due to Covid relief funds. Businesses received thousands $$ in relief. If they stay open, they have to pay it all back. If they close, and re-open somewhere else... no repayment needed

It's not due to the ballpark.

All the other recent closings sorta make sense but this place was always busy and their food was phenomenal. Don't understand it.

100% feel the same

They stole nearly $700,000 in PPP loans they don't have to pay back now. Weird way to say "circumstances beyond our control"

Couple of things- focusing one your one theory as to what Worcester or the businesses or the government did wrong missed the big picture.

Every restaurant closing has to do with cost of doing business, current and projected. There are a lot of factors that go into it. Most important is the cost to open your doors- Rent, utilities, food cost. All three of these categories have gone up in the past few years for factors outside of most businesses to control.

You need to be good at what you do to stay open for a long time, and enough of an attraction for return customers. That means you need to have something your competitors don’t have as a hook. A lot of the places that are closing now all had similar menus and atmospheres, and all operated in close proximity to each other. Add in The Mercantile and Ruth Chris Steakhouse opening nearby (both with giant footprints and owned by restaurant groups), and smaller places can’t compete unless customers turn out for them.

If their landlord raised their rent, or they had the opportunity to sell, or they didn’t like the uncertainty of operating near the ballpark, then they saw the chance to get out when they could and get a return on their investment before they ran out of money.

But let’s face it- Worcester has had a lot of restaurants with similar themes open up in the last decade. There will be closings when customers shift to new places, or add another few places to their regular choices. Also, as long time Worcester residents get priced out of housing, their local favorites will suffer when the transplants from the Boston suburbs move here and find their own favorites.

If you want to survive, be unique and good at what you do. Also, own your place if you can, or lock in a long term lease at favorable rates that won’t change when the landlord decides to cash in on the Worcester “Renaissance.”

That is a really good point that I didn't consider. It is kind of an asshole move to push the development of that park as something that would help usher more business into the area just to turn around and make a huge initiative to highlight the food that's available inside the park like Wonder Bar pizza, Coney Island, BT's.

Outside of the stationary offerings, they also have the 'Taste of Worcester' rotating restaurant offering different local restaurants the opportunity to provide their food. Which, on the surface seems like a decent opportunity for local restaurants but screws over the Canal District places that shouldn't need to pay more for the opportunity to be seen after being sold on more foot traffic.

100%. You probably don’t have time to go out to eat before a weekday game. You couldn’t go to these restaurants after a game, they were closing or closed. Is that Covid? Staffing? I don’t know. Ballpark probably didn’t help, but it’s like 70 days a year, it’s not the primary reason

Birch tree shouldn’t even be in convo of this type of thing. Nobodies going to get an egg flatbread after a baseball game at what’s essentially a big cafe.

Bay state is just a really awkward setup. Honestly can’t even tell it’s there.

The stadium isn’t stealing business. Unless you want to park in front of the place you’re going, it’s not hurting parking either.

Y’all want the area to thrive, but love to bitch about things that will bring outsiders in that can help out.

Covid is definitely to blame, but that area is just kind of shitty. You stay down there too late and it’s a rowdy college crowd, which foodies and what not don’t want to deal with.

These places also probably got PPP loans and can’t pay them back, which would make sense since they’re all closing around the same time.

Except Birch Tree is also a popular pizza spot and was running beer and pizza deals before games this past season, so they actually are in the conversation.

Bay State has the advantage of a dedicated parking lot, so they're a natural fit to see a bump during game days. But they aren't, because the people who go to the games aren't going out before or after. They're driving in, going to the game, and leaving after.

Meanwhile, it appears as though people who aren't going to the games are also staying away during games, likely due to the perceived lack of parking. This is something the city can and absolutely has to improve. And too much of the public simply does want to park right in front, and that absolutely needs to change as well.

This idea that the Canal District is or was this shitty area that needed saving by the ballpark is fucking psychotic - did you not see how many different small businesses opened in the area before Covid hit? The whole Crompton building, the Public Market, the ice rink, a few dispensaries, gyms, and all those bars and restaurants? It's been one of the few places in the city that has enough dense, walkable commerce to function like an actual city. Again, I'm not even placing much blame for these closings on the ballpark, but the idea that each of these businesses have somehow fumbled the bag is just nonsense.

Most small businesses fail.

It’s psychotic to blame this all on the stadium.

The reality is, nobody wants be down there, especially after a certain time. That’s why the market closes early, they get it. Nothing will survive down there unless it’s cheap food, that’s open late or an alcohol based business.

I already said two fucking times now I'm not placing much blame on the ballpark, what the fuck