Originally Posted by Jayhawk

Businesses don't shut if they are profitable. Maybe more customers would have saved them.

Exactly!

How does a business keep their customers?

Well, that's easy, offer a fair product/service at a fair price and treat them the way in which you would expect to be treated.

Voila!

[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

I can’t understand why over and over in so many different threads people complain about closings, it’s very simple you close a money losing place , you keep open a money maker , why all the whining ? Have any of the complainers or there families ever kept a business going that was consistently lost money ?

[TimeForChange]

I also hope that someone will get interested and re open Hacienda Bar and Rest. Great old FL architecture and really a great location between Spanish Springs and Sumter Landing. I have heard well over $100,000 in repairs are needed. Doubt it will happen but I love the golf course and it needs a bar and restaurant. Good food, clean and great service will bring people just like Lopez after their renovation.

[hoopsterdad]

in conversation with a gentleman currently in the village's food business, it was looked into, kitchen much too small, and roof in need of repairs, just for starters. deemed to expensive to get into.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by vintageogauge

If someone felt there was an opportunity to have a profitable restaurant there it would already have been opened. Organic is a tough sell and expensive. There are those that will eat nothing but organic but they are in the minority. The Villages Grow should get into beef it they want to become successful, they have the land, they have the stock, just need wholesale and retail distribution. A little organic food for thought.

It's a tough sell among the older Villagers who live for their preservatives and jarred sauces and mid-range chain restaurant fare.

But there is a whole new generation of people moving into the Villages now. They're not quite as "crunchy" as the generation that followed them, but they paved the way with their gourmet coffees and cruelty-free cosmetics and natural fiber clothing as a "trend."

Locavore dining is a thing, outside the Villages - especially in metropolitan areas. Organic dining has been a thing for years, outside the Villages. Seems to me the time has come for it to start making its way here.

I'm thinking it would -probably- do better in the southern half of the Villages, simply because of the new construction bringing in the most new residents.

My ideal would be to turn Hacienda Hills into something akin to a miniature indoor RiverWalk or Faneuil Hall. A dining area in the middle, surrounded by kiosks and small local food artisans. A lobster vendor here, a hotdog guy there, a salad guru, a soup and sandwich maven, etc.

So instead of one place having a huge menu, there'd be several places having limited menus. I could go one day for a falafel plate with humus and pita and tahini, and another day for a grilled pastrami and swiss on rye. And each would be authentically made.

[Northerner52]

Rather, the North didn't support it for whatever reasons.

Originally Posted by TomOB

The Villages doesn't seem to care about the north end any more. Santiago, Katie Belle's, Hacienda all closed. All attention seems to be to the south where new homes are selling.

[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

Is this a joke or a dream of a Fanusl Hall guy

[thelegges]

Originally Posted by davem4616

I'm not sure who the actual owners of Village Grown are...my guess is that at some level the Morse family has a financial interest in it (if not backing the whole venture)

if that is true, I seriously doubt that they are interested in doing anything that will compete with the restaurants that are already in TV and are trying to reopen/survive

Frankly I'm disappointed that Village Grown seems to be evolving so slowly....

They have a lot of buildings, but it seems very little is actually being grown yet...

it appears that they have their hands full right now just trying to get off the ground and get their arms around doing what they've defined as their primary business..

hopefully once they hit full production the cost of their produce will become a little more reasonable

Organic is more expensive...but when you're able to grown 10 x's as much on the same area as field grown I'd hope prices will come down

but, I suspect that there will be a resistance to compete with the local farmers on a cost basis as that could ultimately drive those small family farms out of business

The Village grown game plan was always , Supplying fresh produce to all the assisted living, memory care. Then providing restaurants. If there was excessive produce then the public would be able to buy. Think of how much they save by growing their own.