Published: January 30, 2008 12:03 am      

Downtown ‘catalyst’

Pierpont C&TC has plans in works for student-run Fairmont restaurant

FAIRMONT — Thanks to Fairmont State, more places to eat may be on the way to downtown Fairmont.

The culinary arts program at Fairmont State’s Pierpont Community & Technical College has a plan in the works to open a bistro-style restaurant in downtown Fairmont.

Certified executive chef Brian Floyd, director of the program, said it’s a way for the college to have a greater community presence and help its students get real-world experience.

As part of the groundwork for the restaurant, the program is surveying area residents to get a feel for local dining habits.

Once the survey is completed, the college will share the data with the City of Fairmont and various community organizations, such as Main Street Fairmont and the Marion County Chamber of Commerce, Floyd said.

He said the process will create a model for student-run restaurants.

Pierpont C&TC students have been involved with every facet of the project so far. Culinary students have been working up lists of equipment, seating patterns and sample menus. Students with the interior design program have been creating concept boards for what the interior and exterior of the restaurant may look like.

Floyd said business students will be incorporated into the project next.

“Our restaurant goes hand in hand with the entrepreneurship model,” Floyd said. “What we hope to do is not only create our restaurant, but work with other groups to create a model for other restauranteurs and retailers to follow.”

“We would encourage other restauranteurs to follow us,” he said. “Ultimately, we’d like to be a catalyst for downtown revitalization. We would like to be the first restaurant operation in a niche we feel is under served in North Central West Virginia.”

Floyd said a cluster of small, independent restaurants will create more foot traffic in an area. The more independent eateries, the more foot traffic. Eventually, retail businesses begin to see more traffic and more retailers move in.

Local development experts are heralding the idea as something that’s been needed for a long time.

If the student-run bistro works, it will help further the mission of Main Street Fairmont, which is to create a more vibrant downtown area, director Vera Sansalone said.

“(Downtown) is open for lunch, but after 5 p.m., downtown dies,” she said. “We want more of a nightlife, and restaurants pull people in. It’s very important to the revitalization of downtown.”

From the city’s perspective, the bistro is an excellent idea.

“It’s what we’ve been looking for for years,” City Planner Jay Rogers said.

He noted the city has “battled some of the memories of downtown Fairmont from the ’50s and ’60s.”

Those memories of crowded downtown streets with large department stores just aren’t going to happen, Rogers said.

“But something like this will give folks a reason to come downtown,” added.

He said the development experts are trying to bill downtown as a place for couples to go. They might catch a bite to eat, then decide to walk to some of the local retailers, he said.

“We’ve got great businesses that are comfortable with their product. If we can get people to come downtown because their stomachs bring them, it’ll help out,” Rogers said. “When you go into business, you look at food because people are always going to eat.”

A gourmet bistro will create something in downtown that folks can’t get anywhere else, Rogers said. That should bring folks from outside Marion County who come for the food and stay to check out the businesses they’ve seen advertisements for on television and in the newspaper.

“It’ll broaden the customer base and economy,” Rogers said.

The survey is available online at www.fairmontwv.gov and will be sent out in the city’s water bills. Members of Main Street Fairmont will be receiving e-mail notification of the survey as well, Sansalone said. It also appeared in Tuesday’s edition of the Times West Virginian.

E-mail Katie Wilson at kwilson@timeswv.com.