Marcano's South American takeout closes on Packard after less than a year
Less than a year after the South American restaurant debuted, Marcano’s Takeout closed last month.
The restaurant, owned by Elizabeth Marcano-Kennedy, opened in the 864-square-foot building at 1906 Packard in November 2010.
Marcano's Takeout closed its 1906 Packard location last month, less than a year after the restaurant debuted.
Photo from loopnet.com
Marcano’s offered authentic South American dishes, like reina pepiada, yucca, plantain fritters and empanadas.
Prior to opening the takeout location, Marcano-Kennedy was selling South American dishes wholesale at the Westside Farmers’ Market under the name of My Kitchen Gourmet.
Marcano-Kennedy said she decided to close her takeout restaurant when it came time to renew her lease.
"Business was doing okay and we had our regular customers, but we didn't have too much foot traffic," she said. "It wasn't enough and so I decided not to stay."
She said she is now in the process of starting a catering business, and she hopes to rent a kitchen in the area by the end of September.
"I'll be putting a menu together for the catering and it's going to be on the website soon," she said. "I'm still around and I'm not going anywhere."
Before Marcano's opened in November, the building was occupied by Cottage Inn Pizza and then BTB Burrito. BTB closed in August 2010 because the location was unprofitable.
Now, the space on Packard just south of East Stadium Boulevard is listed with Colliers International for $2,700 a month.
Jim Chaconas of Colliers said there is a lease in the works for the space and the building should be occupied soon.
“We have a new tenant,” Chaconas said. “That’s a good spot. It gets a lot of high schools kids in there during lunch breaks. There is also outdoor seating and 10 parking spots or so.”
Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.
Comments
puncturedtime
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 : 2:37 p.m.
If you're relying on a realtor or agent for honest information, you've probably been misled a lot in your life. The location is a bad spot and the building not much better, despite whatever frilly reasoning a realtor dreams up to convince people otherwise. I'm not a realtor, just an educated resident, and a small amount of common sense tells me $2700/month is an absurd price for that building. I know journalists are obligated to lay aside judgment, but I'm sure even this one chuckled to herself when she thought her story was a "good spot" for quoting Chaconas' misleading comment.
seldon
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 : 2:32 p.m.
I'd really like to see Jim Chaconas demonstrate how you could get 10 cars in there. Jim, if you're reading this, please send annarbor.com a diagram showing how to get 10 cars into their lots.
Chicagobob
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 : 11:18 a.m.
The Zal Gaz organization on West Stadium has a professional grade kitchen. Maybe Elizabeth should check to see if it would be available for her new catering business.
Hmm
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 : 12:41 p.m.
What is the Zal Gaz organization? Is that like a club or something?
Robot Charles
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 : 4 a.m.
What high school is that guy talking about? Oh that's right he's a realtor so it's the 100 imaginary kids that walk 3 miles around trip to eat at a restaurant next to a muffler shop.
Topher
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 : 12:49 a.m.
I thought their food was mediocre - very dough heavy unlike east coast empanadas. They were really slow too and didn't get orders quite right. If a place with a high quality product and/or ambiance moves in, people will come. Morgan & York and Fraser's are great examples.
A2K
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 10:45 p.m.
We loved their food, but terrible location...new location and you'll do gangbusters :O)
Sallyxyz
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 9:42 p.m.
Marcano's closes in less than a year because of not enough foot traffic, BTB closed because the location wasn't profitable, yet Jim Chaconas, the realtor, says there is a lease in the works and that it's a good spot. "It gets a lot of high schools kids in there during lunch breaks. There is also outdoor seating and 10 parking spots or so." What's wrong with this picture? Is this going to be yet a 3rd tenant after Cottage Inn left that finds out the location is bad after being sold down the river by the realtor who continues to say, "it's a good spot." Maybe some honesty on the part off the realtor and an honest assessment and acknowledgement of why the two previous tenants left that space would help future tenants plan accordingly and know up front what they are getting into, rather than being sold down the river by some realtor interested in making a buck off of other's business investments and subsequent losses.
Ross
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 9:58 p.m.
So true. At least if the new potential tenant has any sense, they will google marcanos and find this article (and it's comments).
Foodie01
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 9:21 p.m.
That's a difficult location for downtown lunchers or people on their way out of town. I hope Marcano-Kennedy considers a cart somewhere -- Mark's Carts, maybe, or the Saturday farmers market? And maybe adjust the pricing.
Ross
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 7:46 p.m.
I can immediately identify a few OBVIOUS problems that existed with this business. 1) The sign on the building was impossible to read. So no one driving by knew what the heck was in there 2) Never saw any advertising for this place whatsoever. (clipper coupons, ann arbor observer, this website, all good ideas) 3) Few people walk on foot in this area, so "foot-traffic" will never sustain you here. 4) To get full you had to spend $10 or more for multiple items. Kind of pricey for take-out. Too bad though! It was yummy. However I do still mourn the loss of BTB beforehand. So convenient and tasty when it was there.
laura wolf
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 : 3:04 a.m.
maybe you don't live in the area, plenty of people walk and ride by. for whatever reason just not enough of us stopped in to buy stuff.
Atticus F.
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 7:32 p.m.
The food was excelent. But the service was so slow. If there were more than 3 people standing in line, I would simply walk out since it usually took about 10-12 minutes to deal with each individual customer. 2 customers standing in front of you would equate to a 20-24 minute wait. 3 customers standing in front of you, and you would certainly be late for work.
Hmm
Wed, Sep 7, 2011 : 12:34 p.m.
That definitely sounds like a problem.
Matt Darby
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 7:05 p.m.
I live near it, had seen it many times, but never went because I didn't know what to expect. So, it seems like a marketing problem, at least.
smokeblwr
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 6:32 p.m.
Like the old joke says: Realtor's are like politicians. How do you know they are lying? They're lips are moving. I find this quote hilarious after the article goes over the facts that three fast-food eateries bombed in this site in the last five years: "We have a new tenant," Chaconas said. "That's a good spot. It gets a lot of high schools kids in there during lunch breaks. There is also outdoor seating and 10 parking spots or so."
Ben Connor Barrie
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 6:21 p.m.
The location stinks and that seems like a pretty high rent. Maybe Marcano's will be reborn as a food cart. I did like their food.
Wolf's Bane
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 6 p.m.
The location and the $2,700 a month rent are a combination for disaster. I had no idea they even existed!
MyOpinion
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 5:58 p.m.
Need an editor at AnnArbor.com. The link to this article from the main page has a curly quote so the title looks like this: Marcano’s South American takeout closes on Packard after less than a year This happens all the time here.
seldon
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 4:55 p.m.
I'm very sad to see Marcano's go, as they were great people serving excellent food. I hope the rumors that another food business is moving in are wrong, though, because I think it's a very high risk place to try to operate one. It's not in a great location, and more importantly it has almost no seating which makes it hard to get enough revenue.
notnecessary
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 4:48 p.m.
That used to be a pizza hut before it was the BTB....there might have been a Cottage Inn there at one point too (I don't know) but that would have been longer ago.
Roadman
Tue, Sep 6, 2011 : 4:39 p.m.
It is simply a bad location for an eatery. Perhaps another type of business would thrive.