Downtown businesses lose customers during Summit

While some Downtown businesses closed their doors last Thursday and Friday for the G-20 Summit,… While some Downtown businesses closed their doors last Thursday and Friday for the G-20 Summit, others stayed open with the hope that business would still run smoothly.

Among them were Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches on Liberty Avenue and Palazzo Ristorante on Sixth Street. However, roadblocks and security checkpoints left Downtown Pittsburgh fairly desolate during the Summit.

“It was a ghost town. I felt like I was in ‘I Am Legend,’” Adam Papalski, an employee at Jimmy John’s, said.

Port Authority diverted its buses to points away from Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Streets. Papalski said that said he saw many bicyclists but very few cars.

As many had expected, business was slow. Papalski said that none of the usual customers came in and most of the sales derived from party platters that KDKA ordered for its reporters. Despite the business lull, a few people from England and China stopped in for sandwiches.

Palazzo Ristorante had a similar story. Managing owner Susanne Sager said the restaurant had planned to stay open and hoped to feature a special G-20 menu if there was enough business. But instead, the store closed on Thursday and Friday because of low customer turnout.

“It was the slowest week we’ve ever encountered in 14 years of business,” Sager said.

The increased security perimeter caused other establishments that had planned to stay open during the Summit to close. Management at August Henry’s City Saloon on Penn Avenue decided to close the restaurant for the weekend on Thursday afternoon after a blockade made the location difficult to reach.

Similarly, MixStirs Café manager Dayna Lowe said the restaurant closed on Friday after a day of unsuccessful business on Thursday.

“There was a big, black, 8-foot-tall cast-iron fence surrounding our Grant Street entrance at the Omni Hotel, so we were only allowed to serve customers inside the hotel,” Lowe said.

Despite talk of riots and protests, some business owners said that they generally felt safe in the city because of the police presence. Except for some peaceful protests outside the stores, neither Papalski nor Sager mentioned disruptive behavior during their restaurants’ business hours.

“I felt so safe. We even had our own personal security guard outside,” Papalski said.

He said that a SWAT team and other armed forces had stationed vans and Humvees at a temporary base in front of the store Friday morning.

“They were nice people. We let them use our bathrooms,” Papalski said.

Papalski said that Jimmy John’s made about 75 percent less revenue over the two-day Summit than it would have over a normal Thursday and Friday period, but he still thinks keeping Jimmy John’s open was beneficial. New ownership has taken over the restaurant and recently received equipment had to be set up and cleaned.

“It was good to have everybody here and get a lot of cleaning done. Now we don’t have to do it later on in the week and we can focus on the food,” Papalski said.

Sager said that it was a relief to reopen Palazzo Ristorante on Saturday.

“We had more tables on Saturday night than we had all week Monday through Friday combined,” she said.

In regard to the emptiness of the city, Sager said, “I don’t think it was because of the actual G-20 event, but because of the way the local media hyped up the situation.”

She said she thought there was greater anticipation for security difficulties than what actually occurred, and as a result, many people changed their daily routines and avoided spending time Downtown.