Good for restaurants
Ric Orlando, chef and owner of New World Home Cooking, agrees. “Absolutely, positively, yes, it makes a dramatic difference in my restaurant,” he says. “When HITS is in, we’re up 35 percent.”
He even has to schedule more staff to allow for the increased volume when HITS is in town, he says. “As it stands now, there aren’t enough people living in the area to support the restaurants in the market,” says Orlando. “The population is flat, and the number of restaurants is probably double what it was ten years ago, so we’re fighting for the same body of customers. There are so many restaurants in this area, but still the same amount of people; so we desperately need infusions of more people, and HITS does that.”
He doesn’t feel that the opening of the restaurant at Diamond Mills this season has taken any customers away from his business at all. “I have invested in promotions with HITS over the years,” he says, “so the regulars there have gotten to know us, and I think also we’re accessible because we have a sort of modern, hip but family oriented place; we get a lot of the young riders in, because it’s the kind of place they want to go. But we also get a lot of the high-enders that like our place, because they like the quality and it appeals to their sensibilities.”
Seeing is believing
Bob Siracusano is the owner of Sawyer Motors in Saugerties and the Saugerties Area Chamber of Commerce 2012 Business Person of the Year. He says, “Well, let’s put it this way. Two Saturdays ago, a woman came in with her daughter [a rider from HITS], and she went home with a brand-new Wrangler.”
The pair were from San Francisco, the car destined to accompany the girl to college outside of New York City. “That’s the type of impact it’s made with us,” says Siracusano. “Seeing is believing. Go up to our service department during these events, and you’ll see a lot of trucks from HITS getting serviced.” He adds that he eats out frequently, and sees the difference in the crowds at the restaurants when HITS is in town, too. “I mean, a major difference.”
Not as much buzz
Mery Rosado, the owner of Café Mezzaluna and the Village Inn, says that HITS has hardly any effect on her cafe, but accounts for 90 percent of her inn business. She thinks the impact on the cafe isn’t great because she doesn’t serve dinner late, and that’s when the HITS crowd goes out to eat. She doesn’t want to change her business model just to accommodate that, however, and says that her location being outside of the village doesn’t help, either. Her inn business, on the other hand, sees many people from HITS returning for their fifth or sixth season. The previous owner of the inn even built it with HITS visitors in mind, she says.
Rosado wonders, however, if perhaps the people from HITS have been coming to Saugerties long enough now that they’re complacent about the shops and restaurants here. She says that, generally speaking, she just doesn’t feel the “buzz” of activity from HITS around that she felt in years past. “Before, I’d see them walking around the village more, going to the shops, waiting in line at the restaurants, but you’re not seeing that anymore.” Maybe they’re more “contained” over at Diamond Mills this year, she muses, and out in the village less. “I still see shopping bags from [high-end clothing boutique] DIG around, but I just don’t see the people a lot this year. Maybe it’s me, and I’m not around at the right time, I don’t know.”
