The latest buzz on Elmwood Avenue is that Brodo and Spot Coffee are going to be splitting the former New World Record location. Rumors have been circulating for weeks about the expansion of the two homegrown businesses, and if you ask around, many of their customers will tell you that it's a good move for them. The Elmwood Spot Coffee is consistently packed, and it can be very difficult to find a table inside at any given point. Brodo's small size never appeared to be an issue, but with the added room they could go after more of a bar crowd than they are pulling in at this time. The expansion would give both businesses a considerable amount of new space to play with.
While checking out the Benchmark (developer/building owner) website I came across a traffic count that lists the number of cars passing by at 16,700 vehicles per day. This section of Elmwood is still probably the healthiest due to a number of strong businesses, but the two that come directly to mind are Spot Coffee and Globe Market. Those two businesses have become a huge draw for the rest of the businesses along that stretch. It still amazes me that Spot manages to draw such large crowds at all hours of the day and evening. A bigger Spot means that more people will congregate and shop in that area. So even though there is not a new business moving in, it is always cool to see two existing businesses flourish.
We'll have a comprehensive Elmwood update coming shortly that will include some well-known projects and some that are just hitting our radar screens.