Two new businesses try to find the secret of success in College Park

Opening a new wing shop downtown amidst heavy competition and an economic recession is risky business.

But Kulin Amin and Nihir Patel are confident their Wata-Wing franchise can weather the dog-eat-dog restaurant scene. 

As owner and manager of the new eatery taking the place of the empty store front left by South Street Steaks, the duo hope unique recipes and free delivery service will set them apart from Wing Zone and Cluck-U Chicken, veterans of the College Park chicken scene.

“We live here, and we know the market,” Patel said. “I have relatives that go to the university. We talked to them a lot about what students want.”

Wata-Wing’s grand opening is scheduled for later this month, and Amin and Patel are angling to do something South Street Steaks, Insomnia Cookies and the Fractured Prune couldn’t: stay in business.

There’s no proven plan for success on Route 1 — a fickle market crowded with restaurants and at the mercy of a student population that leaves the town en masse every summer. Each business has its own theory on how to survive, but Chris Warren, the city’s economic development coordinator, said even he doesn’t have many answers for why some businesses succeed and some fail.

“Who knows, it could be lots of reasons,” Warren said. “Typically it’s just the same old reasons. It’s the same old issues of high rents and competition.”

Warren thinks sometimes there may be a disconnect between students and business owners.

“People get really excited about being their own business person and don’t think about things,” he said. “They’re sold a fantasy.”

Jimmy John’s sandwich shop has been thriving in College Park for over five years. Manager Joe Zammar said flexibility is the key.

“We make money while everybody’s sleeping,” Zammar said, referring to his business’ late hours.

Zammar added that businesses can’t rely solely on walk-in traffic and have to distinguish themselves from the competition.

“You have to be different,” Zammar said. “If you’re like every other place, you don’t have a chance.”

Opening next week near Ratsie’s is an eatery that aims to do just that. Yogiberry is a new-age, buffet-style frozen yogurt shop where the customers make their own yogurt sundaes complete with as many toppings as they desire.

“There’s not a lot of competition, and it’s a pretty hot trend right now,” manager Andy Chiu said of the dessert shop. “People are trying to eat healthier.”

Along with cookies and chocolate chips, Yogiberry offers healthier toppings like fruit, nuts and cereal.

Chiu, who currently manages the Rockville Yogiberry, said he expects the business to flourish even as the winter months approach.

But Director of Public Services Bob Ryan, a lifelong College Park resident, maintained that the city’s businesses all too often fall prey to seasonal fluctuations.

“You can’t run a business without customers, and a lot of the customers in College Park are University of Maryland students,” Ryan said. “A lot of these businesses take a beating in the summertime. If you’re not different from the sandwich shop next door, it’s kind of a coin toss to see where people go.”

Ryan used the Fractured Prune, a short-lived donut shop just a few doors down from Wata-Wing, as an example of a business that didn’t quite know their clientele well enough. 

“I think Fractured Prune misjudged the market,” Ryan said. “There apparently was not a significant amount of people willing to buy their product.”

Managers at Jason’s Deli, an eatery that opened up just five months ago, attribute the success to offering things other restaurants can’t or won’t.

“I think one of the things that got the buzz out about us is our complimentary ice cream,” manager Adrian Taylor said. “It gets us good word-of-mouth.”

General manager Jay McClurkin said they have to gain students’ trust by giving into their needs and understanding what they look for.

“I think in a college town, the quality of food is most important,” McClurkin said. “It goes quality, quantity, price, then atmosphere.”

rhodes at umdbk dot com