The Hook Up Building Turning Into Italian Family Style Restaurant?
The building at the corner of St. Mary and Johnson Streets doesn’t have the best track record of keeping a restaurant in business for longer than a year or two. We even came to the point a few years ago as to call this location cursed when the Hook Up seafood restaurant opened (and quickly closed) back in 2008.
The ‘For Lease’ sign is down and there are workers inside doing work to revamp the space for a new restaurant. From what we are hearing, it will be a family-style Italian restaurant with ties to another current business in the area (we will research this a bit more before mentioning their name). Hey, more pizza!?
Hopefully, the new restaurant, pizza or not, can kill the curse that seems to be hovering over this building. The fact that Glenwood South is starting to expand more to the West and all the new condos that have opened only a block from the building look to be better signs for business than a few years ago in this area.
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RaleighRob
03/27 11:25 AM
As I’ve said before, the location itself isn’t that bad. Afterall, it has better parking than most downtown locations (small lot plus lots of side streets), and the patio is excellent.
The thing is, you just have to put a Destination there. Any restaurant that depends on people driving by and stopping isn’t gonna work. You need something there well-advertised and popular, that gets people actively seeking it out. Think of Neomonde as a good example….no one just drives by it. That’s what this location needs….a destination restaurant. Hopefully this time, it’ll have it! -
smitty
03/27 09:28 PM
I’m starting to get worried, eventually all restaurants will be pizza.
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DPK
03/28 07:20 PM
Are the lights up around the roof line new for this iteration of this place? Noticed it all lit up last night when I drove by.
I definitely think RaleighRob is right about this place needing to be a destination in order for it to succeed. All other things considered, it’s a great location. It certainly helps that the apartments next door are now up.
What version is this current corner on? -
year of the tiger
03/29 12:23 PM
Duh. The location is across the street from a funeral parlor. Bad feng shui.
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Dale
03/29 01:25 PM
BBQ place shut down after a decent run because parent company got into financial trouble. The seafood joint was awful and deserved to close.
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Marco
03/29 03:20 PM
Tony’s Pizza Quarterly ranks Raleigh as the #1 pizza city in the US with more restaurants per capita than Rome, Italy.
Eh, whats-a-matta you!? -
AW
03/29 03:50 PM
It would’ve been cool if the original gas station that was there before this building was built had been renovated into a restaurant somehow. Perhaps it would’ve cost a little more to do it, but it would’ve been a much more interesting space than this generic building.
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John N Wall
03/29 06:28 PM
The funeral parlor is long closed, so that should no longer be a problem.
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Little Timmy
03/30 09:13 AM
Plus, it’s next door to a yoga studio. Good karma!
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kg
03/30 01:37 PM
i’m pretty sure this location use to be an indian burial mound.
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BPM
04/01 04:45 PM
St Mary’s is one of the slower and quieter streets in downtown. I think they should start over from the ground up. This time do it right and build a 3-5 story D.C. style condo/apt building with retail on the ground floor. Surely having residents just above would help the ground floor retailers in their chance at success.
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