How Old Pasadena Won a Food Fight with a Bad Economy

At my day job, I create advertising at Pasadena Advertising, Marketing & Design. However, in my spare time, I’m also the Marketing Committee Chair of the Old Pasadena Management District (OPMD). We’re a small part of the economic engine that we call Old Pas… and in case you missed it, the economy sucks.
Even in Old Pasadena. The merchants are suffering, stores are closing and even donations to our local charities are drying up. It’s undeniably bad. Yet it was far worse when Old Pasadena first began its breakout from decay in the late 80’s.
That was a desperate time. Block after block of boarded up buildings, and crime defined Old Pasadena. There was no Crate and Barrel, Tiffany’s, Apple Store or Gap. The only stores on Colorado Boulevard that paid their rents on time were three pawnshops and a Sex Store. But we not only survived, we thrived. There were no government bailouts, not even from the city of Pasadena itself. Our own business people, building owners and developers took direction action, and we pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We’re an ornery lot. We saw no reason why we couldn’t do it again this time.
OPMD decided to hit the doom-and-gloom despair head on. Economic collapse. Exploding unemployment. Homelessness. Helplessness. The end of the world as we knew it. We didn’t buy it. Our businesses needed customers. Our charities needed contributions. We decided to tackle both problems at once.

We soon realized that the two problems that seemed most basic weren’t our major concern. Yes, business was down. Yes, donations were down. But the central problem was “morale” was down. No one was having any fun. There seemed to be no relief. But one of Old Pasadena's greatest assets is an array of award-winning restaurants, and, as everyone knows, “food” equals fun. And that’s how the idea of “Old Pasadena Restaurant Week” began. The concept was similar to many other restaurant events. Restaurateurs would offer reduced price, prix-fixe, three-course lunches and dinners. Pretty standard event. The only real difference would be that 10% of the proceeds would be donated to Pasadena’s Union Station Homeless Services, celebrating 35 years of helping those in need.

The response from the district was amazing. Out of our 22-block district, more than 27 of Old Pasadena's finest restaurants offered to take part. Pasadena media gave us extraordinary support including magazines, newspapers and PCC, the local Public Broadcasting station, and soon even L.A.’s mainstream media joined in. We posted the special menus online and immediately noticed that our OldPasadena.org web traffic spiked to levels we hadn’t seen since the Christmas holidays.
Restaurant Week proved so successful that instead of just one week, OPMD extended the event for another week. Some owners reported increases of up to 80%, and many of the restaurants put their restaurant week specials on their menus permanently. Many non-restaurant merchants also noted a increase in business. However the real benchmark of success of that promotion came when OPMD presented Union Station with a check for $10,000.
Of course, the reality is that the economy still sucks. Business is still down. There are businesses that are still in trouble. But we’re not going away. Old Pasadena revived itself once, and we haven’t forgotten what we learned then. We‘ve found our bootstraps right where we left them. Now we’re just starting to pull.