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| Tom's Restaurant in NYC |
One benefit that patrons of Roberts Stadium have enjoyed over the years is the large amount of good, quality restaurants around this facility. Yes, the plot of land that Roberts Stadium sits on specifically is indeed landlocked making it a "destination site." But that doesn't mean that supporters of Roberts Stadium haven't had a fair amount of restaurants to choose from near the arena.
As with every other sports facility project, these restaurants have used Roberts Stadium as an economic engine for their business for many,many years. Although I am 110% behind building the new arena downtown so that our downtown will thrive instead of more urban sprawl on the far east side, I also believe that the restaurants around the Roberts Stadium neighborhood are second to none and deserve to have a facility that brings in business for them as well.
In order to get a true feel for the quality of restaurants around Roberts, I decided to explore the three best restaurants closest to the arena. The following are those restaurants...
Western Rib-Eye
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| westernribeye.com |
Guests of Western Rib-Eye have argued for many years over what makes this restaurant the best in town. Some say it's the steak, some say it's the salad bar. No matter which one is your favorite, you can't go wrong with Western Rib-Eye who have hosted Aces, Bluecats, and many other team gatherings on gamedays.
Another great attribute about Western Rib-Eye is the atmosphere of the facility which takes you back to Evansville of the early 20th century....
During my visit to Western Rib-Eye I asked my waitress, Linda, if she supported Roberts Stadium. She quickly answered "YES!" I then asked her if Western Rib-Eye misses Roberts Stadium being open for games and events. She also answered yes to that as well. Losing Roberts Stadium means losing business for Western Rib-Eye. Why would we want to do that when we can use Roberts Stadium for mid-sized events. I support Western Rib-Eye and I hope Mayor Winnecke and the Parks Board does as well.
Kipplee's
By far and away, no other restaurant has felt the economic and community power of Roberts Stadium more than Kipplee's Stadium Inn. In fact, they grew up with the facility...
You can tell by the decorations through out the building that Kipplee's misses UE basketball games...
Although UE isn't coming back, there's no reason why we can't pack Roberts Stadium with events like indoor soccer, minor league basketball, indoor football, BMX events, expo events, lacrosse, youth sports tournaments, college basketball tournaments, and graduations just to name a few.
After these events, guests of Roberts Stadium will have the opportunity to eat from the same establishment that Mayor Roberts and architect Ralph Legeman ate at over 50 years ago. Kipplee's has withstood the test of time because of the taste and quality of their pizza. And if their pizza doesn't fill you up, their wide variety of salads, cheese sticks, and other side items will finish your hunger off for sure.
I support Kipplee's, does Mayor Winnecke and the Parks Board?....
Turoni's Forget-Me-Not Inn
For my last stop, I visited Turoni's Forget-Me-Not-Inn. The great thing about Turoni's is that we have the opportunity to help BOTH their Weinbach and Main Street locations by renovating Roberts Stadium into a mid-sized arena and then taking the removed seats and installing them in our ball fields project at Kleymeyer Park.
Obviously, Turoni's has pizza that isn't just good, it's great. In fact, I would say that the pizza is so good that it brings in tourists and guests from out of town just to try it. That's the kind of quality restaurants we have around Roberts Stadium and Bosse Field.
Like Western Rib-Eye and Kipplee's, Turoni's was packed before and after games, concerts, and other events. Although we cannot bring back the big time events that have moved to the Ford Center, we can certainly pack Turoni's on game days again with mid-sized tenants at Roberts Stadium. The nostalgic sports atmosphere at Turoni's is built to compliment a mid-sized Roberts Stadium....
I support Turoni's Forget-Me-Not-Inn, does Mayor Winnecke and the Parks Board?
The truth is, closing down Roberts Stadium doesn't just affect Roberts Stadium itself. Rather, it affects the entire community around it who have invested their lives, careers, and fortunes around Roberts Stadium. Roberts Stadium has served the Evansville community for almost 56 years. No matter where you go around it, whether it be Western Rib-Eye, Kipplee's, or Turoni's, you can see the affect Roberts Stadium has had on this area.
Building the Ford Center downtown was a great idea. We need to vastly improve that area if we are ever going to get Evansville to practice Smart Growth principles. We also need to get restaurants downtown that are of a little bit better quality than Main Gate. I don't think there's any question that the Ford Center will accomplish these goals.
But at the same time, abandoning the area around Roberts Stadium simply because our political leaders are paranoid of Roberts Stadium competing with the Ford Center (an idea that has been refuted by Venuworks) is simply unacceptable.
At all of my stops, the response to saving Roberts Stadium was ALWAYS positive and never negative. These businesses (and neighbors) understand what Roberts Stadium has done for them and what it can still do for them as a mid-sized arena. Demolishing Roberts Stadium IS NOT a widely accepted belief in the area surrounding this iconic arena.
We owe it to the restaurants, shops, hotels, and other retail around Roberts Stadium to reopen this facility as a mid-sized arena. I support the area around Roberts Stadium, does Mayor Winnecke and the Parks Board?
And now the city is closing Mesker Ampitheater and moving the summer movies to the Victory (which happens to be downtown). People will soon be forced downtown to do any activity over which the city has control.
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