Southern cooking

THURSDAY, SEPT. 3 — Melissa Quon Huber wants to see south Lansing popping with “vibrant corridors,” and she has a plan to achieve it.

Working with residents involved in Rejuvenate South Lansing — a new community group formed in the last year to address development and community issues in South Lansing — she has helped push a new plan to identify and work with locally owned and operated restaurants.

“This will increase their visibility and magnify their presence,” said Quon Huber. “That will bring more people and more money to the south side. And, of course, being locally owned, more of that money will stay in Lansing and the local economy.”

Quon Huber and others from the group have worked with the Lansing Economic Area Partnership to develop a baseline of information on where the local restaurants are. Using that list, LEAP created maps showing hotspots of south-side eateries That initial list of 300 is being whittled down, she said, because not all the businesses originally identified exist anymore.

Using this program, Quon Huber wants to identify locations in the south end where restaurants will co-locate, creating a type of synergy.

“Say you want a burrito and you go to a place in a food hub that serves them. After dinner, you notice an ice cream place and say ‘Oh, I want some ice cream!’” she said. “After the ice cream you notice a new restaurant that is serving something different and you say, ‘I have to come back to eat there.’”

And the group’s research shows this model works. With a 2014 U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey in hand, they found the average American consumer spends $2661 a year dining out. That’s slightly over five percent of annual expenditures. (continued after image)

Image: This map shows where all the restaurants and liquor licensed establishments are in south Lansing. Red indicates higher concentrations of businesses. Source: LEAP 

The idea was born on the group’s closed Facebook page. There residents were expressing concern and surprise about the struggles of Naing Myanmar Family Restaurant, located off Cedar Street. Back in May, the business was shut down by the county health department because it did not have running water. The water, it turns out, had been shut off by the Lansing Board of Water and Light because the landlord had failed to pay the bill for the property. After being closed for nine days, the business reopened when water was re-established and with help from Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. Community members also launched a crowdfunding campaign which raised $8,500 within 24 hours.

“Many of us were concerned about what happened,” said Quon Huber of the impact of the Naing Myanmar crisis on the community group’s actions. “We have to do something to support these businesses.”

For Quon, supporting those businesses is about creating places where they can thrive.

This is about creating place for restaurants, Quon Huber said. It's about looking at more than what is the rent going to be, and more about how can we work together in this area to make this a place where people want to come eat.