For years, my Beloved and I enjoyed Sunday brunch at Common Grounds, on Fayetteville’s Dickson Street. It serves as the whole region’s club district for those half-dozen blocks comprise a variety of restaurants and bars, not coincidentally adjacent to the University of Arkansas.
Common Grounds is an espresso joint but with a kitchen just supple enough for a-cut-above sandwiches, salads and a few breakfast dishes. It featured jazz combos on Sundays. In the last year, sometimes it hired a DJ instead of a band, and on big weekends (not just game days but crafts festivals or you-name-it) reduced its fare to the bar menu, and last kitchen efficiency slowed. Convenient free parking, though, was a lure, because we could linger to the end of the jazz set then walk to Dickson Street Books to browse, even if the veggies in the Cowboy Scrambler were mostly onions and almost no mushrooms.
Despite these developments, Common Grounds has a great atmosphere and its pastries, obviously catered, are terrific. CG still is our place for dessert and well-poured cocktails after an evening across the street at the Walton Arts Center. You don’t have to repark.
Up Dickson, the space formerly taken by Cable Car Pizza and Chloe’s restaurants now is Theo’s. We ate there for the first time in the spring. It has some kinks to work out. For all the nouveau, pricey entrees in a cinematically modern dining room and lounge, why do the servers wear starched white tops but any old blue jeans below? Two tables came after us and were served first; we complained and got only a grimace of agreement. Within a block are the established Bordino’s and Bistro/36 Club, all known for well-trained, longtime staff.
Theo’s does feature a new national trend in bartending, though: cocktails from scratch — no premade mixers or syrups. The citrus is fresh-squeezed, mint leaves are muddled in the glass and so forth. Even at $8 and higher, a mojito or sazerac there are by gosh real. They’re potent, authentically and lightly flavored, and not too sweet.
Yet the evening at Theo’s nearly began badly. No place to park. Theo’s offered — in Fayetteville? — valet parking. Grimacing, I gave them the car key. Afterward, I was relieved it was just $2. Big cities routinely force valet parking on tourists like us who don’t know secret parking places, and it’s a lot costlier.
Now today appears an editorial confirming recent news reports that essentially all free parking will end along Dickson, as well as our downtown three short blocks away. Both private and public lots, and a planned Dickson deck, will charge. The Northwest Arkansas Times opinion makes sense, for now. No free parking will, it states, encourage people to carpool or walk from more distant yet free spots. It will be easier to park close because fewer drivers will bother. It calls the city-owned parking a “revenue source.”
This rationale, however, is why downtowns began drying up about 50 — fifty! — years ago in favor of strip shopping centers and soon, enclosed malls. It’s why all but the biggest metropolises are scary at night — no one’s around. Parking meters and decks are why Little Rock downtown has that rundown look, despite repeated attempts to create shopping and dining meccas. Only the Clinton library neighborhood has any life.
Fayetteville may this year enjoy the “revenue source” of parking. Next year we surely will see posted losses on sales tax receipts for downtown-Dickson. We’ll see more boarded-up storefronts. The reason won’t necessarily be the national economy or gasoline prices. It’ll be that more local people are going to — whaddaya expect — Applebee’s or, better, places like the locally owned Penguin Ed’s locations. Or Chloe’s, now on the outskirts.
It’s not that unfree parking would be expensive here. A dollar an hour is easily affordable by anyone who can afford to buy a latte or a no-brand martini.
Paying to park is a nuisance. It’s easily avoidable by dining, drinking or shopping elsewhere. For Dickson Street and downtown to remain viable, the city must insist on a mix of free and paid parking. -30-
