The Never Ending Orange Barrel Season
Yes, we want road repairs, but it's costing restaurants business
Hello, and welcome to the CulinaryWoman Newsletter! Bonne fete nationale to my French community and happy birthday to my nephew Parker! When he was growing up, we told him that everyone in France celebrated his birthday.
It is a big day for sports. The Wimbledon Men’s Final is being played and England is in the finals of the European soccer championship. I am spending today in Detroit, seeing the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Detroit Tigers.
I was in Detroit last week as well to attend a happy hour sponsored by the Diary Detroit podcast. Afterwards, I went to Baobab Fare with my friend Alexa St. John, a climate reporter with the Associated Press. This African restaurant is a three-time James Beard Award semi-finalist, and the food is terrific.
The Drawbacks of Constant Construction
Happily for those of us who witnessed Detroit’s decline, the city is in the midst of a revival, bringing with it a myriad of construction projects. They have mushroomed across the state, as well. I’ve learned this summer to build in extra time to any of my trips because of road work during what we call “orange barrel season.”
While everyone wants smooth running roads, as well as streets that are free of flooding, extended projects can be a real headache for the community, especially for restaurants and food places on their routes. They can go on for years, requiring proprietors and customers to come up with strategies to cope with them.
When I got to New Orleans in May 2022, I couldn’t help but notice the dreadful condition of many of its streets and roads. Construction detours could pop up unexpectedly, sometimes without advance warning. That was especially true in Treme, which is home to a number of notable restaurants, such as Dooky Chase’s, Willie Mae’s Scotch House, and Gabrielle, one of my particular favorites.
I remember parking very carefully where it was allowed to preserve my tires, and climbing gingerly over gravel and curbs. I don’t wear heels and I can only imagine how difficult it would be to navigate in dressy shoes.
Last week, Gabrielle’s owner Mary Blanchard Sonnier posted a photo on her Facebook page: the construction cones were finally gone. That ended more than two years of headaches, and Mary was not alone.
Problems in Evanston
In Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago, construction on a stretch of Main Street has been underway for more than three years, and will continue through October. According to the Evanston Roundtable, owners have reported declines of 20 percent to 40 percent as the construction lingers.
A banner reading, “Support Local Businesses” has gone up on a rail line overpass. But the barriers and orange cones make it hard to do that.
Louise Rosenberg, who owns Cultivate, a shop selling pet-friendly accessories and home decor, said she managed to survive Covid and past projects, but this might be “the one that puts us under,” she told the publication.
The road tear-ups come as many restaurant and food places hoped 2024 would be a comeback year. The frustration of not being able to access a favorite place is only adding to some consumers’ decisions to stay home and cook rather than dine out.
That’s a concern for vendors at the farmer’s market here in Ann Arbor, too. In the past, the market was relatively easy to reach, with several choices of parking lots as well as street parking within a few blocks.
But the city’s push for development means that two projects are underway in the market vicinity. One has eaten up a parking lot; the other has caused continuous disruption on a street next to the market. Vendors are concerned that older customers might skip trips to the market, rather than hunt for a spot or have to tread around barriers.
Taking alternate routes
There are some ways to get around all this, no pun intended. One is leftover from Covid times: curbside pick ups. A different farmers market in our area allows people to place their orders in advance online, and swing through to pick them up. I’ve done this once and it worked out well. Several items in my order were kept in a refrigerator until I collected them.
Another is for the restaurant or vendor to set up drop off spots. In Chicago, several restaurants, including Manny’s Deli, schedule deliveries to the suburbs on various days of the week. It saves customers battling their way into the city, where construction seems to be everywhere, and it keeps Manny’s on their radar.
As I did with my trip to Detroit, you can also bake in time and figure out alternative routes that keep construction delays to a minimum. That’s been tough for us, because several major highways have had projects going on at the same time.
I’ve been using the Detroit area’s wide surface streets, like Michigan Avenue and Ford Road to get into the city, instead of getting stuck on freeways. It takes longer, but I’ve discovered a whole set of food shops and other places that I never would have visited if I hadn’t gotten off the freeway.
The best thing we can do, of course, is to keep patronizing our favorite businesses. The construction can’t last forever (although it sometimes seems like it will) and we will benefit from the repairs someday. I’m already planning a visit to Gabrielle when I am back in Nola.
Hot Weather Blunts Outdoor Dining Plans
Last week, I told you about the obstacles that some communities have put up to outdoor dining. Here’s another one: the heat.
Even though Washington, D.C., is known for its muggy summers, this year seems to have been particularly unbearable. So much that restaurant patrons are opting to eat inside, rather than at sidewalk tables, according to DC News Now.
“Insanely hot. Overall, like yeah, stepping outside from the air conditioning you can obviously tell it’s not the best out here,” said Warren Small, a host and server at Jane Jane on 14th Street.
For places without a lot of indoor tables, finding spots can be a challenge. “We try to accompany as many people as we can. But obviously that’s not easy given the size of our space,” Small said.
Meanwhile, Phoenix, which always has broiling summers, is experiencing one that even hardy locals find to be difficult. The area is on pace to record its hottest summer in history with temperatures routinely over 100F.
Phoenix restaurants in the past have coped with the heat with cool water misters that are meant to make outdoor patios comfortable. But for some residents, the idea of leaving their air conditioned home for even a short trip in the car is enough to stay put.
Whataburger To The Rescue When Energy Maps Fail
Last week, Michigan got the tail end of Hurricane Beryl, which slammed into the Gulf Coast. It caused particular problems in Houston, where customers were unable to reach the access the usual CenterPoint Energy power outage map for Southeast Texas.
Where did they go instead? The Whataburger App. The beloved burger chain, whose logo is a jaunty W, posted a map showing which of its outlets were open. It operated as a de facto guide to neighborhoods with power.
On July 9, a day after Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast, Whataburger said that it saw a 286 percent increase in new app user sign-ups and 30,430 downloads.
“We built our app to provide an easy way for our guests to order their favorite Whataburger item, but we’re thrilled that it has been able to provide some help to the residents of Houston that are looking to find where power is on after the storm,” said Scott Hudler, Whataburger’s chief marketing officer.
I became a Whataburger fan when I lived in Phoenix, another area where the burger chain has a following. Now, we know that it serves more than good food — it offers a community service.
Keeping Up With Culinary Woman
This week, the Lions, Towers & Shields podcast continued its International Summer Vacation series with the 1949 film Stray Dog, directed by Akira Kurosawa.
It’s lesser known than his big Japanese historical epics, but well worth a watch. I got to talk about some of my time living in Tokyo, where I was a media fellow of the Japan Society of New York.
Remember that the CulinaryWoman Newsletter is also a podcast. I send an email with the audio version on Sundays at 5 p.m. Let me know if you like that version or prefer the written one.
I would be happy to hear from you. Here is where to find me.
Website: www.michelinemaynard.com
Email: culinarywoman (@) gmail dot com
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Etsy shop: City Tips Vintage
Tomorrow, I’ll be back with Red Beans & Advice for our paid subscribers. I’m going to tell you about a trend sweeping the produce world: sprouting vegetables. Stay cool, and I’ll see everyone next week!
