Restaurants: Coping as diners tighten belts
Brenda Langton, at her Spoonriver restaurant near the new Guthrie, says people are still dining out but scaling back on what they order.
In tough economic times, local restaurants have adapted to survive.
By BILL WARD, Star Tribune
Last update: October 9, 2008 - 11:11 AM
Leave it to the ever-blunt Brenda Langton to provide the most candid assessment of the economic downturn's effect on the local restaurant scene:
"It's scary for everyone," said Langton, chef/owner of two Minneapolis restaurants. "There's no question we've felt the effects."
Langton, who has owned Cafe Brenda for more than two decades and opened Spoonriver two years ago, has seen some tough times, "but nothing quite like this." She cites the loyalty of Cafe Brenda customers and Spoonriver's proximity to the Guthrie Theater and its nightly crowds as the prime factors in her places "doing OK."
