"Midcentury Marvels" is a great find for the architect buff or just any art and history appreciating scholar. It contains photos, history and narrative around most all of the commercial architecture from 1945 through 1975. It can be found at Amazon.com.

We are delighted that Okra is settling in at the Crown on 7th! Here is a link to a review from the fine folks at EaterAZ! http://bit.ly/1L8skod

The Crown building facade--almost ready!

The courtyard at the Crown is an amazing bit of green space. 

The new VC boom is steering away from pure-play technology start ups and toward restaurant investments. Venture Cap firms are looking at the economy comprehensively and understand where the largest, fastest-growing growth sectors can be found.

Essentially Venture Cap firms are looking for profitable ventures to augment their portfolio and it appears that more and more that includes restaurant funding,

This article is a good read:  NYT Venture Capitalists Are Making Bigger Bets on Food Start-Ups

In addition to designing two adaptive re-use projects on this site, Brick & West is also designing a new restaurant inside one of the buildings at 6101 and 6107 N 7th Street. The new restaurant will occupy the former 'Joe's Liquor' a mid-century drive-thru liquor store.

From GQ's July 2015 Issue, this article looks at a ticketing system called 'Tock' where users pre-pay for tickets to dine out at the hottest new restaurants. An interesting quote form the article states that 'for a long time now food culture has been culture' - in other words, dining out isn't just a facet of the evening's events, it is the event itself. This is something we've understood for a while, maybe just because we love dining out so much. The article also talks about other platforms within the restaurant reservations space including one that users 'bid' on hard-to-get seats by promising to pay a certain percentage over the menu price. Much of the impetus for the depth of this market is 'no-show' diners who make reservations and then simply don't show up (or call to cancel). 

Following our blog post about national trends in restaurant growth last week, a story in today's Arizona Republic talks about the growth of Arizona's restaurant industry. Sales from 2013 to 2014 increased $500 Million, and are expected to do the same in 2015. Overall, valley restaurant growth is up 55% since 2005, and a 23.8% growth in restaurant jobs is expected by 2025 - the highest growth in the nation. Check out some of the restaurants mentioned in the article that are also Brick & West projects like SkySong Restaurants Building, Joyride Taco House, Old School and Taco Guild, and Annex. 

According to Mintel's report  'American Lifestyles 2015', per capita restaurant visits may increase by as much as 27% over the next five years. Taking advantage of this trend, according to NPD restaurant analyst Bonnie Riggs, will depend on restauranteurs understanding and meeting consumer expectations.

See the full article on 'Eat Beat' here