Public House on Market St. closes

The Second Helpings blog broke the story: http://blogs.delawareonline.com/secondhelpings/2011/11/23/public-house-wilmington-closing-for-good-at-10-tonight/

I'll shed no tears for a gimmicky chain restaurant, but I must say I'm surprised that, according to an employee, business had become slow at Public House.  It seemed like a very popular place with a savvy marketing team.  The menu and decor were too conservative for my tastes, but I often heard others speak of going there.  It didn't get great reviews, though.  Maybe that finally caught up to them.  Again, I'll not be sad to see them go, but I *am* disheartened that a restaurant can't seem to stick on that block of Market Street.  That should be a prime location, with the Grand and Theatre N a block away, the Hotel DuPont across the street, and some of the highest paid workers in Wilmington in the surrounding office buildings.  Why can't any restaurant stay there for more than a year or two?  And yet Deep Blue and Mikimotos seemingly do fine.  Chelsea Tavern is sticking around.  Meanwhile, many new places have opened at the lower end of Market in the past year.  Maybe they're drawing business away from the Rodney Square end of Market.  I'd like to think there are enough diners for both ends, but I guess that's the nature of today's economy. 

Prediction: I bet a larger chain moves into the spot.  Something like a McCormick & Schmick's, Legal Seafood, or Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.  I would feel ambivalent about that (I'd rather something less bland than a chain, even a nice one, but I'd rather have that there than an empty room), but the lawyers in the area would eat it up.   We shall see.

Speaking of empty restaurants, I wish someone would buy or lease the former Armitage restaurant on 9th & Orange (which I think was Brandywine Brewing Co. years before that).  It depresses me to pass it by and see ads for theme dinners this place had 3 years ago.  But I can't say I blame restauranteurs for not wanting to take a chance a block away from Market when even restaurants right on Market don't have it made.