EDITORIAL: Service with a trial: Restaurants face tough choice

The Destin of today is getting a taste of its storied past — and, for many restaurant employees, it’s a bitter course to swallow.

Restaurants are finding it increasingly difficult to weather the brutal economic climate, and some – such as Dagwood’s, Ruby Tuesday, Camille’s Sidewalk Café and Royal B’s — have closed up entirely.

Others, such as Destin Chops 30-A and now Tim Creehan’s Copper Grill and Beachwalk Café, are closing for the winter.
This isn’t a new concept devised in response to a global economic crisis. Rather it is a return to the Destin of old — where traffic was nonexistent and options were few and far between.

It was just part of doing business for restaurants who sometimes closed for up to nine months out of the year.

Then came the rush of tourists who fattened up business owners’ wallets to the point that they could survive the off-season with the help of a few Snowbirds and committed locals.

In response, the industry boomed to the point that you could pick a different place to eat every day of the year and still have leftovers to go. But now it’s a different world.

In a recent Northwest Florida Daily News story, Carol Dover, the president and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, said she heard that restaurants in Destin were going down at the rate of about four a week.

While we think this number is greatly exaggerated, we recognize there is plenty of pain on the plate of local restaurateurs and their employees.

And the consumer fast of fine dining is likely to continue.

“I don’t know how many more restaurants Destin can handle opening,” said Destin Area Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Shane Moody. “We only have 60,000 to 80,000 people for three months of the year. The rest of the time we only have about 20,000, and you can only support so many restaurants with a small population like that.”

Moody added that closing in the off-season can keep a restaurant on sound financial footing.

And so, Destin restaurants face an agonizing choice: Retreat into the past or brace for a vastly uncertain future.

“It’s a fine balance that owners have to find, and shutting down for four months is sometimes the answer.”