Two Top RI Restaurateurs Warn of a Coming Closure Tsunami
GoLocalProv Business Team
Two Top RI Restaurateurs Warn of a Coming Closure Tsunami
The restaurants are Circe. The one in Providence has been an anchor to the city, and the one in East Greenwich has been wildly popoular.
In an sit-down interview with GoLocal, Carlozzi and Poland said that it is a tale of two cities. The East Greenwich location is booming, but for the first time — other than during COVID — the Providence location will not see year-over-year growth.
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He is not, by nature, a public person. He may be best known for providing thousands of meals to first responders during COVID.
In recent weeks Providence has seen a closure of a number of longstanding restaurants. Minerva's Pizza (50 years), Noodle 102 (nearly 20 years), and Salted Slate (10 years) all closed, citing the impact of the closure of the Washington Bridge.
Poland and Carlozzi said there are two reasons for the decline and despite being "keep your head down" entrepreneurs, they believe it is critical for them to speak out.
They say the combination of the bridge closure and the perception of crime in Providence are major factors.
Carlozzi said that the failure of the Washington Bridge had a dramatic impact on the Providence restaurant — and it is the hardest hit he has seen in 22 years.
"In a short amount of time, too. It just happened overnight," said Carlozzi. "We started to see a little bit of a decline probably a few months ago, but now it's really dropped not only because obviously, our business is going to drop because of the weather being so nice …but now more than ever it dropped even more because we lost the people that come over from Fall River, Somerset, Swansea and even worse because they don't want to sit in that traffic at 5:00. If you try to come to Providence between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM you're going to sit in traffic on a Friday or even a Saturday."
Carlozzi said this downturn is worse than the Great Recession. "People were at work and would go out and have a drink afterward," said Carlozzi.
Crime Perception
“When you look at the perception of Providence, for a lot of our clientele that used to come down to Providence to see us — friends, family — it is they still won't come because it's a perception that that Providence is dangerous and they don't want to be here but we work here — every weekend we're here, every night and there are elements to the city that we really don't like. So when your business is either taking a hit or some are going out of business like other restaurants are, and other restaurants surely will and it's completely out of your control because the environment you're in or the market you're in is dictating that,” said Poland. “It’s a really big pill to swallow. We don't want to swallow it, you know, we really just would like to see support.”
Providence Police are few and far between downtown despite the thousands who work in the business towers in the Financial District and the growing residential properties.
Even during the Great Recession, it was not like this.
Two Restaurants
“We have two two restaurants and two totally different markets and when we look at the performance for the restaurants and there is a significant difference. We're fortunate that we have created two sustainable restaurants; however, when we're projecting the rest of the summer the rest of the year, it's glaringly obvious that Providence, because it's in Providence, will not perform the way we want it to. Now, East Greenwich is in a totally different marketplace, and we're seeing significant growth,” said Poland.
“We really just would like to see support, not directly to the restaurants but support the city. Somebody's got to step up and say, 'Hey, how do we make sure that these small businesses in the hospitality industry in Providence survive this downturn,'” said Carlozzi.
They said Waterfire is a great attraction and Providence Performing Arts Center are great boosts, simply more needs to be done.
“When we're looking at the city of Providence, the market we're in, and how that dictates the restaurant and before, if you put out a good product, you were inspired, you worked hard and you provide a great atmosphere you were going to be relatively successful. Now it doesn't matter — there is simply not enough people coming into the city,” said Poland.
Both Poland and Carlozzi wanted to make it clear. They are not looking for grants or loans; they are looking for help from state and city leaders to create more activities and reduce crime.