How is the experience living downtown at Front Street? We are potentially looking to place a café near the bank and we are wondering about the vibe of the area. We know about the parking but how is the foot traffic? Are there lots of people out and about?

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ganduvo t1_iwlodat wrote on November 16, 2022 at 3:48 PM

Cafes seem to do fairly well downtown. Most foot traffic is morning and business hours.

No_Cartographer_5298 t1_iwndkuj wrote on November 16, 2022 at 10:35 PM

Standing at city hall, there's maybe 6 or 7, or even more cafes within a 5 minute walking distance. La Central Bakery just opened last month, Fuel America, Theatre cafe, Fortissimo, Brew On The Grid, Dunkin's if you wanna count that. It does get busy downtown and but I'm not sure if adding another cafe over there would be good for business.... but I also have never owned a business, so I could be wrong

MARetro t1_iwqg4a5 wrote on November 17, 2022 at 4:11 PM

I came here to say something similar to this, as I agree with it.

Things like this also worry me when I see a new Shawarma place opening up every few months. I love both cafes and shawarma, but too many of the same businesses would in theory hurt everyone. I'm not doubling my coffee intake just because cafes doubled in numbers.

honeylesbian t1_iwpm5cu wrote on November 17, 2022 at 12:12 PM

Foot traffic in worcester sucks these days, you’d have to be ready with a business model that can support a lot of online takeout orders and other regular business. i don’t think businesses that rely more on foot traffic than other methods of customer contact these days in worcester will be able to survive. numbers aren’t good enough for foot traffic

nbaabn1 OP t1_iwpq4b8 wrote on November 17, 2022 at 12:53 PM

Thank you. We are existing cafe and have strong takeout numbers. But a lot of the anticipated growth was expected to come from downtown foot traffic. Thank you for your input.

legalpretzel t1_iwo5l7n wrote on November 17, 2022 at 2:10 AM

I work in the mercantile complex. There’s definitely a need for soup, salads and sandwiches that don’t suck. There’s plenty of people in those buildings on any given day, but they won’t bother if your food isn’t good.

The lunch options in the area that aren’t busy don’t offer anything worth buying. And based on the number of times this topic has come up in my office, no one is excited for ziggy bombs and we are all tired of falafel.

incandesantlite t1_iwtbeum wrote on November 18, 2022 at 4:38 AM

Most coffee shops/cafe's in that area close early, like by 6pm. Even Dunkin's closes early. There are some really good, established, sandwich shops and cafe's on Main St. between the Courthouse and City Hall that are open during the day. Front St. is a challenging area because after everyone goes home from work, unless there are events at the DCU Center (which let's face it, there's never much going on there lol) there is not much foot traffic other than MCPHS students and maybe some foot traffic from the Mercantile Center. If I had to open a café in Worcester, it wouldn't be on Front St. Lot of competition, not really a high demand area, and the market Downtown is already very competitive.