Reinventing restaurants (and rural communities)

January 13th, 2010 by Mike Knutson

There’s no doubt that good restaurants are important to rural communities.  They make rural communities more attractive places to live.  They often serve as “informal meeting places where community is built” (e.g., third places).  And they often improve the local economy by giving people a place to spend their money locally. 

My guess is that Reuben Wentz must appreciate the importance of a good restaurant.  The 93-year-old retired farmer recently gave $500,000 to his hometown of Napoleon, North Dakota (pop. 857) to create a new community-owned restaurant.   

The restaurant replaces the old, deteriorating building that housed the community’s previous community-owned restaurant.  It sounds like they’ve got a good thing going with the restaurant.  Its features include:

It’s also home to the Logan County Economic Development Offices, which set up the foundation that manages the restaurant.  I bet many of Napoleon’s neighboring communities are envious.

It’s important to attract people

It sounds like the community is excited about the restaurant.  The Bismarck Tribune quotes foundation board member Jennifer Schumacher:

“It was such a moment of joy. I thought - I think we all thought - this is such a turning point for Napoleon,” she said. Without much debt to service, the new venture should succeed, she said.

“We have a new drug store, young people are moving in and wind towers are going up. With such a beautiful restaurant here in Napoleon, we can do it,” Schumacher said. (source: Lauren Donovan, “Napoleon benefactor builds restaurant for community” Bismark Tribune, 12-2-09) 

That’s economic development

Any community seeking to attract young people (Gen Y) has to evaluate the availability of local food services.  It’s something they look for when choosing a community to call home. 

With this in mind, I’ve been thinking about how the Napoleon might leverage this restaurant effort for further economic development.  Two thoughts have emerged:

First, what can be done to foster a true “third place” atmosphere, making it a place where people of all ages and backgrounds meet for conversation?  We know that conversation between people of varying backgrounds in third places can lead to greater community trust (e.g. bridging social capital).  But third places don’t magically emerge.  They take thoughtful consideration and effort.

Second, could the community-owned restaurant be leveraged to create a local foods initiative?  Perhaps, they could make a commitment to buying locally raised foods.  The kitchen could also be a “shared use kitchen” that helps entrepreneurs develop new food products. 

Both of those ideas will take more effort and possibly more financial capital.  They may or may not be right for Napoleon.  But rural communities need to think like this to maximize their economic development efforts. 

Small towns also need people like Reuben Wentz who are willing to invest in their community’s future. 

Note:  Thanks to John Crabtree of the Center for Rural Affairs for making me aware of this story in their January newsletter.   Readers may also be interested in past ReImagine Rural stories about community owned grocery stores. 

Photo Credit:  FreeWine - Flickr  

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Posted in Agriculture, Community Development, Economic Development, Gen Y, Rural | Comments ( 3 )

3 Responses to “Reinventing restaurants (and rural communities)”

  1. Rebecca Says:
    January 23rd, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    Wakonda, South Dakota (pop about 350 or so) has a community-owned cafe, and they’ve been looking for a new manager. The community subsidizes the venture so that they can keep a lunch place open–rent for the place is only $150/month plus utilities. This seems like an excellent opportunity for a young person who wants to get into the restaurant business but lacks the capital. Unfortunately, the position hasn’t been widely advertised, so I’m not sure how that potential manager will find out about it.

  2. Mike Knutson Says:
    January 24th, 2010 at 5:40 am

    Rebecca,
    Good opportunity indeed. And too bad they haven’t haven’t been advertising more. I would think the opening could attract some attention on social media, especially if the restaurant alerady has a local foods connection. Thanks for sharing.

  3. Rebecca Says:
    January 28th, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    Mike–
    I did actually tweet and FB about it–it got a little RT circulation, but my e-mail request for more information from the folks who run Wakonda’s community website never got a response. Don’t know what’s happening with that space at this point.

    Great blog. Great inspiration here. Thanks for your work.

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