Local News

Are Boston’s downtown bars and eateries doomed? Turns out maybe not.

With help from the city and some enticing marketing, local businesses say the downtown is still holding its own.

Pedestrians in Downtown Crossing. Adam Glanzman, Bloomberg

September 24, 2024

As working from home remains a common practice — and more office workers seem to be opting to book it out of the city, ditching an after-work social life — some have wondered whether the bars, restaurants and other businesses that catered primarily to office workers might be doomed to extinction.

But it turns out reports of Downtown Boston’s demise may have been exaggerated.

In fact, downtown restauranteurs say the nightlife is blooming with the help of the city, the neighborhood’s Business Improvement District, scheduled events, and clever marketing. With continued help, many are actually optimistic about the future of downtown.

“I’m definitely feeling very confident about the downtown area, both short-term and long-term,” said Cheryl Cronin, the CEO of the Boston Public Market.

Even as downtown staples such as Fajitas & Ritas, Silvertone, and Porters Bar and Grill close, more restaurants and clubs, such as the Vermilion Club, Temple Records, the Chemist, Hobgoblin, and even Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, are opening in the neighborhood.

As a look at the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission’s most current numbers of liquor licenses by zip code shows, the areas surrounding Downtown Crossing still have more, by far, than any other neighborhood in Boston — showing a solid draw for the neighborhood remains.

But with hybrid work becoming the new normal, businesses have had to adapt to being busier Tuesday through Thursday than on Friday afternoons.

“Mondays and Fridays downtown can be like a ghost town,” said Kevin Treanor, the owner of the Chemist.

However, anecdotal evidence aside, not everyone says Fridays are a disaster: The Downtown Boston Business Improvement District (BID), a nonprofit funded by local businesses to keep the area clean, safe, and activated, has found that foot traffic on Fridays and Saturdays is as busy as Tuesday through Thursday.

Data they shared with the Boston Globe in February shows that foot traffic has increased substantially in Downtown Crossing and the Financial District since the pandemic, although it is still down more than 40%.

“I think our restaurants, by and large, are doing pretty well,” said Michael Nichols, president of Downtown Boston BID. “It’s sort of a new normal compared to what it was five years ago.”

And businesses are still choosing to locate downtown, said Nichols. The district is seeing more restaurants opening today than it did five years ago.

“We’ve probably lost some of the fast-casual … stuff that catered directly to an officer worker, but we’ve gained more full-scale restaurants,” Nichols said.

Many businesses rely even more on tourists to fill the gap in an area lacking office workers. Others are looking at hosting events, scheduling world-renowned DJs, comedy shows, trivia nights, and even promoting $1 oysters and taco Tuesdays to attract people to the neighborhood after work.

Still, following COVID, Cronin said that people aren’t lingering after work anymore. They are more interested in going home rather than staying in the city.

“Nightlife, I think generally, is changing,” said Treanor. “People are definitely not staying out as long as they used to before COVID.”

He said the younger people are coming out later, but the 28- to 35-year-olds head home.

“I think downtown is going to take a while,” said Treanor. “It’s injured, as they say now, but it can be fixed.”

As efforts to attract more residents to the neighborhood slowly emerge, especially with the city and state pushing incentives to convert office space to residential space, much work still needs to be done.

Treanor understands that converting offices is timely and costly and that it could take years before local businesses see more residents.

However, a few new buildings with residential apartments, including Millennium Tower, Millennium Place, and Winthrop Center, are looking for experiences in the neighborhood after work.

Not all hope is lost.

Support from the city

In addition to businesses that schedule specific events to entice customers, grant-funded events and programs sponsored by the city are also drawing more people back to the heart of Boston.

One program the city launched is the Supporting Pandemic Affected Community Enterprises (SPACE) Grant Program, which prioritizes small businesses most affected by the pandemic — many of which are downtown.

Funded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), the program that provides up to $200,000 to businesses is in its last stretch and is beginning to yield results.

Openings in Downtown Boston as part of that program include Bold Skin Bae, a day spa near City Hall, Flourish and Foundry, a home goods start on Tremont Street, Micro Plant Studio on W. Broadway, and Boardeaux, a charcuterie board shop opening next to High Street Place.

Another city program, Wake Up the Night, gives organizations $10,000 to put on family-friendly activities, many of which occur in downtown Boston.

“They are all pieces of a larger puzzle,” said Alia Hamada Forrest, the director of business strategy for the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion.

The initiatives being put on by the Office of Economic Development, Culture and Open Streets, and the Downtown BID are all working together to bring people downtown.

“It’s a collaborative effort,” she said.

Change is coming

Some business owners say downtown is a work in progress now. Still, the troubles are nothing compared to what it was close to 50 years ago when it bordered the combat zone and lost significant department stores such as Filene’s as people moved to the suburbs.

Many avoided the area like a plague.

“I’ve seen a change, but it’s such a slow change,” said Treanor. “I remember when I moved to Boston 30 years ago, going downtown was a no-no.”

Babak Bina, a local restauranteur, agrees. “Downtown has changed,” he said.

“With the pandemic, we didn’t know whether we were going to survive or not,” Bina noted. However, after surviving the initial panic, he expanded his downtown businesses to six concepts, creating what he calls a “Disneyland” on Temple Place. A few include JM Curley, Bogies Place, and Wig Shop Boston.

Bina is hopeful that the future of downtown is looking bright.

“I am very optimistic about downtown,” said Bina, who continues to open new concepts in the neighborhood. “I do believe that as long as the city officials and business people are committed to downtown, I think we’ll do well.”