A Unique Downtown Dining Experience

Recently I had the privilege of planning a dinner for a group of people who were in town for a conference.  Since I do not usually do things the conventional way, I planned a “progressive dinner” through the downtown for this group of about 25 people.  The diners were from all over the state of Kansas, so I thought that this would give them a great opportunity to experience downtown El Dorado and the many locations that make it unique. 

The group began their journey at Robin’s where they shopped and dined on spinach artichoke dip and hummus from Jacob’s Well.  Always the perfect host, Robin provided wine and other drinks.  From there, they traveled up Main Street to the Art Room 114.  This is one of my favorite locations in downtown because Brenda has designed this gallery so simple, but elegant with open space to hold a group of people.  Soup and salad was served while they browsed the most recent gallery show that the Art Room has on display. 

Further up Main Street, the group was greeted in front of Walter’s Flowers and Interiors with a rose petal-scattered entryway into the beautiful store where they snacked on sandwich wraps made across the street at Willie’s.  They were in awe at the beautiful displays and items in this downtown jewel.  Many left Walter’s with treasures that they purchased.   

As the evening continued, Alfredo and his staff at Fiesta Mexicana provided great ambiance and even better food as they dined on tacos and burritos.  With the large space in this restaurant, the group was able to all sit together at one large table and enjoy each other’s company.  They were finally lured away from the margaritas and queso by the sound of a live band and the smell of amazing pie in Jacob’s Well.  Here they finished off the night socializing and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere that Jacob’s Well has captured. 

While this was a very involved dinner which took over two hours to complete, this group of people will never forget their dinner in downtown El Dorado.  While this is only the second time downtown businesses have hosted a dinner such as this, we would sure like to do it more often.  If you have a reunion, office party, or a large group of friends who would like to experience a downtown progressive dinner, please call the El Dorado Main Street office. 

Spring is in the air!

Have you noticed the hanging flowers are being placed back on the light poles in downtown?  Last year ws the first time the City of El Dorado hung the hanging pots that overflow with pretty flowers.  After speaking to City Manager, Herb Llewellyn, he told me that they are doing them a bit different this year.  Last year, full size plants were purchased and planted in the pots.  This year, the city employees planted starter plants months ago and had been growing them in one of the public works buildings.  This has greatly reduced the cost of the plants, with the same end result.  The flowers sure are nice hanging throughout the downtown and we are so thankful for City employees who care for them.  After talking about the labor involved in watering, Herb told me that they are placing irrigation systems in many more places throughout the community to reduce the labor costs.  For example, the beautiful flower beds in front of the City Building had always been watered by employees.  They now have placed sprinklers in that area to reduce the employee costs.  All of this results in positive improvements in the community and shows that we are proud of our community and how it looks to residents and visitors.

Pinterest...isn't that just for recipes and fashion?

Last week at the National Main Street conference, a topic that kept being discussed was the new craze in social media, called Pintrest.  Many Main Street directors had still never been on the site, but the speakers all instructed us to start learning about it.  Recently ranked as third in the social media websites (behind Facebook and Twitter), Pinterest has shocked all of the marketing experts and it has grown faster than anyone could have imagined.  If you are not familiar with the site, here is a brief summary of what it can do.  Pinterest is a virtual pin board.  You create your board topics such as recipes, places that I would like to travel, craft projects and etc.  The pictures that you "pin" then lead back to blogs which show tutorials/recipes or the websites that they were originally found on. 


Latte Art which can be found on
ilovethewell.com and also on Pinterest.

 So how does this apply to small businesses?  Well, if done correctly you can lead more people to your blog or website by pinning pictures that are interesting to people.  For example:  There is a trend called Latte' Art.  If you search on Pinterest using those words, you find hundreds of pictures of designs made into coffee drinks.  Jacob's Well has a post on their blog where they show some of their latte art creations.  By pinning one of the pictures and labeling it "latte art" it pulls up anytime anyone searches for it.  If they click on the picture, it will take them to the Jacob's Well website.  Clear as mud??  You really have to play around with it to understand how to make it work. 

El Dorado Main Street now has a Pinterest account.  While we just started it today and are learning how to make it work for us, we will be helping other businesses do the same...when we figure it out.  Believe it or not we are getting help from high school students on how to do all of this stuff.  Find our Pinterest boards HERE

Business in Baltimore



Kansas Main Street group in Baltimore



Last week an

El Dorado Main Street

volunteer and I attended the National Main Street Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.  While this is the third National Main Street Conference that I have attended, this one was very different than the past two years.  Location, Location, Location!  The past two years have been in the Midwest.  With Des Moines and Oklahoma City as host cities, the experience itself was very similar to if it had been held in Wichita.  I love living in the Midwest, but being in Baltimore was a completely different world for me.  I was able to see the resources that they have on the east coast, the differences in architecture (oh my, lots of different architecture), and how they behave differently than most cities in the Midwest.  What I learned and observed made me think about some of our assets, behaviors and architecture in a slightly different way. 

If you have traveled to the East Coast (or many other places in the country), you are familiar with row houses.  These narrow, but tall structures are everywhere in the Baltimore area.  What was very interesting to me was the use of these spaces for commercial retail and dining.  Here in Kansas, when I talk to new business owners, they usually want large open spaces and have troubles considering small spaces because of the inability to have more floor space as well as storage.  I visited so many shops that were less than 1,000 square feet in size (which is very small compared to most retail shops around here).  The way that they used every space for the optimum use and tied in with the characteristics of the building made the stores very charming.  The best use of space that I visited was a small restaurant named the Blue Moon Café.  This place was recommended to us by a couple locals to check out.  If you are a fan of the Travel Channel TV show “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain, you may have seen their “Captain Crunch Stuffed French Toast” featured on the show.  We were told to go early to get a seat.  We walk in at about 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning and grabbed the last available table.  The place seated about 40 and was a bit smaller than our Jacob’s Well here in El Dorado.  On the walls were large, loud paintings by local artists.  The walls had blue retro wallpaper, the ceiling was wooden as well as the flooring and there was a stone fireplace right near our table.  We quickly realized that this was an old home that was transformed into a restaurant.  Within 15 minutes there was a crowd of about 25 people outside in the 40 degree weather waiting for tables.  When one was available, a waiter would open the door and call “NEXT!”  The vibe of the place was so neat, but also very comfortable.  Our waitress explained to us that they were open 7 days a week and 365 days a year.  Even more impressive was that the hours of operation were 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.  This place, even though it was so small and quaint, had gained the reputation of being the place to get a good breakfast. The use of space was brilliant and had I not been there myself, I would have not have understood why the Blue Moon Café was so successful. 

Finally, an observation during my week in Baltimore was the importance of appealing to pedestrians.  Everyone walks or rides bikes all over the city there.  Because of this, merchandise is moved outside, musicians are outside, and artwork is outside.  Here in El Dorado and many areas across Kansas, signs are meant to attract the drivers in their cars as they pass by.  In areas such as Baltimore, the signage is lower and much more detailed.  It almost seems more personal as you walk by a business.  They make an effort to invite you into their store with displays and other attractions. 

While we are very different in many ways, I think that we could learn a lot here in Kansas from the way that those on the East Coast do business.  It was refreshing to see a completely different approach to success and it gave me many ideas to share with our downtown businesses.