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Warm and Cozy at Pillars. (photo credit - North Coast)
(cropped by Chevanston)
The North Coast blog took some great photos from Pillar Social Cafe's grand opening which was not quite a year ago. This blog post is dated January 22nd 2012 and the word on the street is that Pillars Social Cafe is having a hard time with its overhead. Maybe Pillars Social Cafe needs a liquor license? There is a coffee shop in Edgewater called the Coffee Studio on Clark that just got a liquor license and is selling craft beer by the bottle (gives this coffee shop quite an edge). That would certainly help with the bottom line. Pillars Social Cafe was basically trying to fill the niche of an upscale Panera Bread, which it seemed to fill well. But Pillars Social Cafe just hasn't seen the volume typical for a Panera Bread. Bob claims to have the first organic fountain drinks in the city, and they tasted great. The food was organic i.e. healthy. With this type of space its hard to survive with the dinner crowd without having liquor available and full entrees at a higher price point. Pillars Social Cafe seems fancy enough to rate waiters and waitresses and full service dining and prices. Its not even BYOB.
The outside patio was ripped up back in May and the cement was poured and dry in June. This patio was in sorry shape for the past ten, fifteen, twenty years, so it was a big deal when the old concrete was ripped up and redone. The patio for Pillars was awesome as can be seen below, (picture is from flickr.) From the chatter on the Village Messageboard its obvious that the service has been spotty (make it full service) and that they have been closed earlier than they advertised due to slow business, instead of open til 9pm, it was closed at 6pm. Another common complaint was the lack of signage and visibility. Pillars Social Cafe also started a blog, but like most blogs had too few posts and died a quick death, last post there was May 2012 and most importantly Pillars hasn't used the Village Message Board to post special events or dishes etc. We certainly hope that Pillars makes it because its the best thing that's happened to Sherdian and Pratt since ? many many years.
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| Fun in the Sun at Pillars. |
3 comments:
We're usually looking for the kind of place that serves organic and has veggie options, but Pillars slipped totally below the radar. They need more publicity, fast. The "build it, they will come" faith has probably sunk more interesting businesses than lack of capital. They seem to have something salable, but so far have not gotten the word out. Unfortunately everybody thinks the marketing part is something anybody can do.
Will be checking them out if they last long enough.
Yes being a booster for your business is important. Look at Mayne Stage, even with deep pockets you have to publicize yourself. Which is ofcourse easier if you have deep pockets.
Mayne Stage advertises on light poles, radio, everyblock etc. Its essential.
What is the Village Message Board?
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