| Restaurants add live music to menus |
By: By Erin Edgemon, Business Editor
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Casa Burrito on West Main Street is becoming known for being as good a place to see independent rock bands perform as it is for its heaping helpings of authentic Mexican food.
Weekend shows are attracting nearly 100 patrons into the restaurant, said Ryan Bruce, a MTSU student who books bands for Casa Burrito. Bar and food sales during shows brings in as much money as a full day of food sales at the restaurant.
With a new restaurant seemingly opening its doors every week in Murfreesboro, more are finding themselves having to do something different to attract a new crowd and increase the bottom line. Many have decided to provide a place for local and touring bands to perform which also helps feed Murfreesboro's growing music scene.
Restaurants like Casa Burrito, Mellow Mushroom and Coconut Bay Cafe have sites on MySpace, a popular networking Web site, to promote their entertainment calendar.
Bruce said it wasn't hard to convince Casa Burrito owners Jaime and Bertha Caratachea that having bands play at the restaurant would be good for business and for the local music scene.
"It seemed to be a place where the rock and roll crowd eat," he said. "I thought it would be great to have a show up there."
Bruce said the local hipsters, as they are often called, often ate at the restaurant, but they didn't flock there like they do now that Casa Burrito hosts about two shows every month.
Serving as a live venue can be good advertising for locally owned restaurants. It can be a way to attract new customers and grow its list of regular customers.
To have success, Tim Smith, who books shows for the La Hacienda restaurant in Franklin, said the restaurant has to book performers regularly, advertise and constantly be getting the word out to customers.
With Murfreesboro being a college town, restaurants can score big by booking bands with a local following that will bring in the college crowd and their friends, he said.
"It is helping our business," Bertha Caratachea agreed. "The reason we do it is mostly so they (college students) can have a place to come in and enjoy themselves."
But hosting the live shows has created some regular customers.
"Ever since we have started, we have noticed a lot of them are coming in during our regular business hours," she said.
Owners of Murfreesboro's Mellow Mushroom look at hosting bands from a business standpoint. Paul Lindlau, restaurant co-owner, said he notices a boast in sales when they host a publicized event at the restaurant.
Chef Raymond Daugherty knew that when he opened his restaurant eight months ago that he was going to have to do something different to make it.
"There are so many restaurants out there, you have to do something different," he said. "No matter how good of chef you are, I think with all of the competition they (consumers) are going to go to chains that people are more familiar with."
His restaurant, Chef Raymond's on Broad Street, turns into a club at night. Karaoke is a regular feature at Chef Raymond's and at Coconut Bay Cafe off Old Fort Parkway.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
On the Web:
www.myspace.com/casaburrito2
www.myspace.com/mborococonutbay
www.myspace.com/theshroommurfreesboro |
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