The Puck's Stopped Here

The NHL lockout began September 15th, and as of this writing, much of the season has not only been cancelled, but the owners' representatives and the players' union are not even talking. This is a grim, grim scenario for restaurants and bars in downtown St. Paul.

Workers and staff at many bars, restaurants, and ancillary businesses have seen their shifts eliminated or drastically reduced as the giant revenue monster that is the NHL takes the winter off.

Ken Plunkett, who runs Grand Management Company, the managing partner of Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub, tells me that more than 70 percent of its annual gross revenue comes from eighty lucrative nights, half of them Wild home games, which are either gone or in jeopardy. The only remaining events that generate such dollars are the WCHA and NCAA hockey playoff games.

How big is hockey to the downtown St. Paul scene? Hockey nights can generate up to $40,000 in sales at Tom Reid's (the record of $41,000 belongs to the Gopher men's 2003 national championship game), while on nights the X is dark, sales can plummet to under $1,000. (Liquor and beer sales make up 75 percent of Reid's gross revenues.) Assuming a generous aggregate cost of sales on those beverages of 20 percent, clearly hockey nights really are profitable.

Joe Kasel, owner of the Eagle Street Grille, puts it bluntly, "Any night there is hockey, we do five times the sales of an average nonevent Saturday night." With alcohol sales making up 65 percent of his revenues, the NHL imbroglio is a disaster.

The loss of forty-one Wild home games hurts everyone, but surprisingly, not all proprietors are crying in their beer.

Cossetta's Ray Vanyo admits he misses Wild fans, but hadn't noticed a decline in business at October's end. "People are not coming for drinks and the game, they are coming for the food. We are located next to the hospital, Grand Avenue, and the Science Museum as well . . . . Not having hockey makes it more convenient (for those customers), since they do not have to compete with Wild fans." 

Moe Sharif, owner of the Downtowner Woodfire Grill, concurs. He says NHL games create traffic jams many regulars simply avoid. "Not having hockey has not hurt business," he says. "It's not having an effect on food-based restaurants."

Sharif is nonetheless delighted that Xcel management is scheduling alternative events, such as concerts, to take the place of lost games, because the concert crowd are better customers than Xcel sports fans. "Business is up 18 to 19 percent," Sharif says. "Hockey is nice for St. Paul, but I'm not going to sit down and cry without them."

That said, I believe the lack of Wild home games eventually will harm the Downtowner, Cossetta, and others-perhaps intangibly. Hockey may not be as vital for their day-to-day business as it is to the bar owners, but since the NHL returned to St. Paul in 1999, more than a dozen bars and restaurants have opened downtown, and the face time they receive from Wild fans is invaluable. Tonight's hockey fan is tomorrow night's restaurant customer.

It's not a good winter to open a new eatery on this side of the river. 

Restaurant columnist Andrew Zimmern can be reached at azimmern@mspmag.com.