I had a chance last night to vet at least a couple of rumors about downtown last night at our Best Of party. I talked to one business owner about a recent local blog report that the downtown chocolate shop, Chocolat e Gateaux,
is closing soon and that Astro and Marz may not be far behind as the landlord pursues a plan to remodel the Minnesota Ave. building that house all three. According to one of the business owners the rumor is partially true. The owner is putting the squeeze on tenants as part of an ambitious makeover. And the work would impact Astro. The bar would reportedly lose about four feet as the wall is moved in to create more space for a new tenant. But don’t expect Astro to disappear anytime soon. The timeline for the plan is more on the scale of months or years as opposed to weeks.
While it’s certainly not good news for Astro, the sky is not yet falling on one of Bend’s best loved nightclubs.
Still working on another rumor that changes could be in store for the popular Downtowner deli that could see it vacating its current home and joining up with its sister establishment, The Summit. Hope to have an update on that tomorrow.
On the topic of restaurants, also heard that The Phoenix restaurant in the Old Mill is closing its doors.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2009.
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Whew. I’m the guy that posted the rumor (see the link, above) and I am pleased to hear that what I heard was exaggerated. I think that losing three (or possibly five) small shops downtown in exchange for one big one would greatly reduce the diversity of the downtown environment. And suck.
Unlike real journalists, such as those at The Source, I am just a guy with a blog. Giving the power of online blogging to the likes of me is like giving hand guns to chimps.
Obviously what is needed is real journalists to wear fedoras with “press” cards in the hatband so people know who to talk to when they have the facts. Bloggers would wear something different.