Downtown Businesses Expect
by NINA LALLI

Downtown Oberlin’s restaurants face particular challenges that make the ingredients for success hard to pin down. Like in many college towns, owners have to either pick between, or try to satisfy, two different pools of clientele. For newcomers on College and Main streets, financial success is a surprisingly difficult goal to attain.
According to Frankie Ahwal, a Java Zone employee, Campus Restaurant on South Main Street, will be changing hands once again. The business is for sale through Realty One for over $100,000. The diner switched owners as recently as last winter, barely after Rick Nader bought the business. Nader could not be reached for comment.
Though no other greasy spoon competition exists in town, the restaurant lost out to more expensive omelettes at the Black River Café, also a new establishment. This makes reading the town difficult n terms of what customers will embrace.
Ahwal suspected that one major reason for failure was the fact that the hours never extended past 3 p.m. “He didn’t have a night manager. He should have been there himself,” Ahwal said.
A San Francisco native and a self-proclaimed Mexican food expert, Ahwal said that what Oberlin needs is a Taco-ria. “It would give Oberlin a little variety,” he said. Ahwal vowed to provide tacos and burritos, either in the form of a new restaurant downtown or by bagging the ice cream bar currently at the end of the Java Zone’s counter. “I’m sick of that shit,” he said. “If I wanted a burrito right now, I would have to drive to Lakewood or Cleveland Heights to get one, and they’re not all that compared to San Francisco.
Ahwal is the son of Sam Ahwal, the Java Zone owner, and nephew of the manager, also called Sam. In his opinion, the most important element is the menu, with some healthy options. “You don’t want McDonald’s kind of stuff. That’s crap,” he said.
As far as overlapping with the food available at other places, Ahwal said, “If you have the same thing but can make it better, go for it.” Above all, his philosophy rests on the old saying, “the customer is always right.” Ahwal was quick to add or change items on the menu based on reports from regulars.
This would not be the advice given by Brent Smith, the new owner of the former Foxgrape Café. His plans for the space rest on the goal of providing something different from the already-existing businesses. “You don’t want to offer the same old same old,” he said.
Smith also stressed the importance of recognizing Oberlin residents — not just students — as the targeted market. Students are not reliable in the summer months and during Winter Term, but many businesses make that mistake. “The College is not the sole market,” he said.

Paul Jambor, owner of Pauly’s East Coast Pizza, which opened in August of 1999, offered the same advice. “Don’t depend on student business because students leave,” he said. He pointed out that Oberlin is small and isolated, and people will not drive to get something they can buy nearby.
Jambor also warned against overlapping with other businesses. “If there are three places they can get something downtown, you’re kind of cutting your own throat,” he said.
It seems that reliance on students and overlapping with other restaurants are risks more established places can take.
When asked about the dangers of depending on students and faculty for patronage, Ahwal said, “The town ain’t much without the College.”

The Java Zone, Pauly’s and many other businesses downtown, hold shorter hours during the summer. “In the summer, it dies down dramatically, but not enough to put us out of business,” Ahwal said.
When asked of the essentials of good business in this unique climate, Economics Professor Gregory Hess focused on the fact that most businesses are not very successful. “Indeed, firm failures and marriage failures have similar dynamics: they fail most often in their first and seventh years. Both marriages and businesses involve making a good match, which is a pretty delicate thing to do. The fact is that if a marriage and a firm last past seven years, it’s a sign of a good match which is why it seems like some businesses last forever and some seem to last just a short time,” he said.