When we think of neighbors watching out for one another it is typically one person shoveling snow for another, helping out on a trip to the doctor, looking in on someone who hasn’t been seen in a couple of days.
But in Forest Park a close knit retail community also looks out for its retail neighbors. Sometimes it is sharing a promotion, offering advice or commiserating during a hard stretch of business. Last week, though, we saw something we hadn’t seen before.
Yearbook, the retro-modern retailer with the graphic design and marketing firm in the back room, reached out to a restaurant just down the block as it was preparing to celebrate its first anniversary. Tapas 7232 has frankly struggled a bit in creating a clear identity with customers. Is it a sports bar, which was the original intent of its owners? A live music venue? Or is it an actual restaurant which happens to have flat screens?
Yearbook’s Jef Anderson offered to help Tapas 7232 narrow its focus on its food roots with a vintage jazz feel to the setting. The result was a clear winner with large crowds turning out over the weekend. Now the restaurant’s owners need to do some fine-tuning of their service to keep those customers coming back.
But in a crowded restaurant scene, it is essential to have a clear identity. And thanks to a neighbor’s help now Tapas 7232 does.
