FOOD FIGHT: NO END IN SIGHT FOR CAPE RESTAURANT GROWTH

Cape Girardeau has Mediterranean, Thai, Mexican, Italian, many versions of Chinese, Cajun, barbecue, pizza, sandwich shops, steakhouses, seafood restaurants, smorgasbords and many standard American restaurants, upscale eateries along with the gamut of American fast-food franchises, leaving one question: Anyone for Indian?

"Not many stones are left unturned here in Cape Girardeau," says Dennis "Doc" Cain, owner of the Port Cape Restaurant in downtown Cape Girardeau.

No one expects the city's appetite for restaurants to be sated any time soon.

Last year, revenues from Cape Girardeau's 1 percent restaurant tax totaled $731,000, translating into well over $73 million in gross sales for the city's eateries.

"It's an eating out kind of area," says John Mehner, president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Cape Girardeau's burgeoning restaurant market merely reflects the national climate, with sales of $399 billion expected this year, an increase of 5.2 percent. That takes into account the expected slowing of the U.S. economy.

Regional appeal

With more than 110 restaurants serving a city population of about 35,000, Cape Girardeau does have a lot of restaurants per capita, Mehner says. "The reason for that is us being the regional center we are."

Restaurants look at the size of the trade area, the population, traffic counts and other amenities when considering Cape Girardeau for a possible location. When Mehner talks to a prospective restaurant chain or restaurateur, he can tell them 200,000 people live within a 40-mile radius of the city and that many of those people come to Cape Girardeau to shop or attend events.

In the economic census conducted in 1997, Cape Girardeau County was the No. 1 retail sales county per capita in the state.

"We are a regional draw," Mehner says.

In recent months, The Lion's Choice Restaurant, Burritoville and the Bob Evans Restaurant joined the cast of eateries, and more are on the way. Willie Jack's, a restaurant that serves "fun food," is scheduled to open in downtown Cape Girardeau next month, and a Denny's Diner will open at the end of April at 161 West Drive in the building formerly occupied by a Shoney's.

Logan's Roadhouse, a steak and chops chain restaurant with peanut shells on the floor, reportedly is still considering opening a restaurant in the Cape Girardeau market.

More on the way

Plans to open a microbrewery and restaurant in the old Buckner-Ragsdale building at Main and Broadway have been developing slowly. Co-owner Mark Sprigg says the company is about to close on an Small Business Administration loan and hopes to open sometime in the fall.

Mehner says two more restaurants, one with Italian fare, are considering downtown locations.

Willie Jack's owner Robert LaGore says no overabundance of restaurants exists in Cape Girardeau. "I'm from the Paducah area," he said. "That should say it all. Paducah has many restaurants and they're all full."

Willie Jack's restaurant will occupy the Main Street side of the building on the northwest corner of Main and Independence streets, with Willie's Beach Club, a pub, taking up the rest of the building. Its doors will open onto Spanish Street. The latter will be a bar with a Caribbean theme, three 10-foot TV screens showing sports and 14 smaller TVs.

LaGore owns Fast Eddie's restaurant in Metropolis, Ill., and is part owner in a restaurant called Gunner Buck's in Mattoon, Ill., and in a Willie Jack's/Willie's Beach Club combination in Terre Haute, Ind.

"We came here because I fell in love with the old building downtown," LaGore said.

Willie Jack's will specialize in peel-and-eat shrimp and chicken wings. "If you're looking for serious food you are in the wrong place," he says. "We're about fun food."

New restaurants keep coming in, but that doesn't mean every one succeeds. Shoney's went out of business in 2000 after 16 years of operation and this year was joined by the Chinese restaurant Jade and by Schlotsky's Deli.

Cain acknowledges that a tremendous amount of restaurants have come to town the past five or six years. But, he says, "the supply and the demand are there. More and more people are eating out."

Cain's business grew by 11 percent last year.

"We've become very regional. We're not just feeding Cape Girardeau anymore, especially in weekend situations," he says. "People are spending money to go out on weekends, and some people are coming from Southern Illinois and Paducah."

Nostalgic dining

The Denny's Diner is a nostalgic take on the standard Denny's. It will have a jukebox playing tunes from the 1950s and '60s and offer a few menu variations -- double-decker burgers and open-faced sandwiches. Employees will dress in bowling-style shirts.

Lake St. Louis, Mo.,-based franchisee Jim Erkmann says the building has had a major renovation.

Erkmann said the company, which owns 19 Denny's in Missouri and Illinois, has been pleased with the local labor pool. "Hiring managers has not been a problem," he said.

The company stepped in where a Shoney's had failed because they saw shortcomings in the city's offerings for 24-hour food service, especially in a college market, and because they know the city's reputation for eating out.

"Cape in general is known as dynamic restaurant market," Erkmann said.