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

I feel like these closures are getting progressively worse. Hangover had some good ideas but never operated well, Buck's had some good food, Smokestack had a solid 10 year run, and Maddi's seemed like a beloved neighborhood spot (Worcester Eats is fucking *devastated*). Gotta be worried about who's next.

Well in my opinion lazy liberals looking for handouts are worse. But, just an opinion 😀

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

I have 2 different neighbors that are a lesbian couples and see several pride flags driving around. Seems its very lgb friendly and open to me

What is Urban?

Scrolling through their Instagram, do they only do like 2 styles? Is the place owned by Caryl Rae Jepsen?

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.

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.

Yeah same with Smokestack

Don't get me wrong, I still go to chashu occasionally since it's convenient for me based on where I live.

But during covid I learnt to despise take out ramen, where you throw precooked cold noodles into warm broth... Blegh!

I thought dining in there would be different, but nope. As far as my ramen snob self can tell... It's still take out ramen, just in a fancy bowl.

I just can't rave about it.

Instant ramen is better....

Ew. I think of nothing more unappealing than rich white conservatives.

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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.

rats nest on grove street!! cannot recommend them enough !!

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

The Main St. / Mill St. / Cambridge St / Webster St /Park Ave / Stafford St figure eight shit show is always being blocked at multiple different points in those two blocks. It's honestly impressive how fucking selfish drivers in worcester are.

+1 that's where my kid goes

Valet Service 👍didn’t even think of that. (I don’t drive so not on my radar)

Rumor has it that it will be for sale.

Worcester needs to adapt. Not having any parking available at all is one thing. Not having parking right outside the establishment door because people don’t want to walk for three-five-ten minutes is something else.

A shuttle would be nice, but not necessary imo. Afaik the wrta can’t keep up with the regular routes due to driver shortages so I can’t see them adding any additional rn.

Eta- there are at maybe 2-3? Free busses that run the complete length of green street now. I’m guessing at least 1-2 of those also run down the other street on the opposite side of the peanut. No idea how late though.

Table talk built a brand new facility. The little store will be back on Green St eventually.

Please feel free to kiss my rich conservative white butt 😀

Yep. All valid points/well articulated.

That's gonna have to change if we want businesses to succeed in areas where rent is high and space is tight. It is neither practical nor in any way desirable for every business to provide free parking immediately adjacent to its front door for all of its customers.

Just think about restaurants - they have tons of patrons on Friday and Saturday at 7pm, fewer at other times, and zero much of the time. Meaning that for all of their weekend customers to be able to park right there, really valuable land has to be set aside for parking and go completely unused the rest of the time. That drives the cost of owning a restaurant way up - because you have to own the parking lot, too, which brings you no revenue and spends most of its time sitting empty.

Here's a video illustrating the problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akm7ik-H_7U