Sweating out the summer months

Incorporated in 1893, this year marks the 125th anniversary of the Town of Elon. Located in Alamance county in the heart of North Carolina, businesses, along with an evolving university, have been the cornerstones keeping this town moving.

Elon all started with a train depot in 1881. Built on the corner of a railroad track, running from Goldsboro to Charlotte, and a dirt road, moving people around Gibsonville and Burlington. The apartment complex just south of the town center bares the name “Mill Point,” named after the original train station with the same name, and named because of its prominence as a shipping point for all of the cotton mills in the surrounding area.

A post office followed in 1888 as the town, and number of people in it, kept growing. The following year, the local Christian assembly built an institution for higher learning. Originally called Graham Normal College, the name of the school was later changed to reflect the trees in the place it was built. With one brick building and 76 students, the college opened in 1890.

Like now-named Elon University, the town has expanded to include different types of businesses.

Downtown Elon is defined as the space West to East from Manning Avenue to North Williamson Avenue and North to South from West Haggard Avenue to West Lebanon Avenue. This space includes a variety of different businesses, including multiple restaurants, clothing stores and university-owned property. Each has its own story.

All That Jas is a greek apparel company located in the middle of the town center and has been in the town since 2005 after moving from Burlington.

“At the time, the business was one third girls sports, because I sold girls cheerleading uniforms for years,” said owner Michaelle Graybeal. “As we progressed, it became … gifts and greek, so we needed to be where the people are.”

Graybeal moved her store closer to the Greek-affiliated students who come and shop her store. But as the students go home for the summer, influx to her shop changes depending on the season.

“This time of year we’re really busy. We probably have 40 or 50 a day. Summertime, we might get two a week, which doesn’t help business very much,” Grabeal said. “It’s so weird – for years we thought that we would get business and then we found that they just don’t come. We’re online, we have an Etsy store, so it’s not that we’re not selling things during the summer, but it doesn’t warrant having four or five people in the store. We break it down to just sometimes one person in here during the summer.”

Although Graybeal has taken her sales to Etsy, an e-commerce website focused on handmade items, she still feels there is one place driving business away.

“It’s the internet. We’re here, we’re local, but people walk in every day and go ‘I just ordered that online,’” Graybeal said. “It’s a struggle as a retail business to stay in business if you don’t have the support of local people. It’s not that they don’t support us, but it’s just a stab in the heart when I know they could’ve bought something from me and not paid shipping.”

Like the uncertainty of in-person shoppers, the meaning of the name is also unknown. Standing for Jump and Shout originally, Jas has come to mean a variety of different things.

“We went that it could mean jewelry, accessories, shirts,” Graybeal said. “It could mean join a sorority, it could mean jump and shout – it’s all that.”

The newest businesses in the Town of Elon, Mediterranean Deli, Baking and Catering opened on Feb. 28 under the Park Place apartment complex.

Jamil Kadoura, owner of the restaurant, opened the second location on a whim. After having the original location in Chapel Hill for the past 27 years, Kadoura saw the opportunity when it presented itself after meeting the landlord.

“We started talking and as soon as we started talking – we talked for six months and went nowhere,” Kadoura said. “Then the university called and wanted to see the Chapel Hill location. I said, ‘Fine. How many people?’ They said 14 people so all kind of the big cheeses came from Elon. I met some of them – very nice people. The president, Leo, wanted us here. He’s partly Greek and that’s partly why we are here.”

Despite some influential university figures wanting the restaurant in Elon, there was a lot of work to be done.

“We negotiated with [the landlord] on if he can provide some of the upfit,” Kadoura said. “I mean his building was completely empty – the floor was like dirt. There was no concrete or nothing. He worked with us on certain things and we decided to sign the lease after that.”

Now open, the deli provides diners with the food of Kadoura’s childhood, growing up as a Palestinian refugee. Featuring fresh fruits, vegetables, dried fruit, seafood and certain kinds of meat, the food is broadly Mediterranean, not just Middle Eastern

“The Mediterranean part of the Middle East is a lot more healthier than the Arabian part. The reason is that we don’t use and fats or butters in our food – we use olive oils,” Kadoura said. “This is what we grew up eating, what we’re offering here, and only offering what we grew up with.”

Kadoura says he believes that being a “healthier alternative” is what the people of Elon will want in a new restaurant like his and, in turn, will lead to their success.

“This diet is taking off in this country … it’s becoming very trendy and very popular,” Kadoura said. “When I came to Elon, I noticed by accident so many license plates from up North – that also encouraged me more. There’s lots ladies that are more particular with what they eat than men, in general … We think that the diet we bring here fits Elon perfectly.”

At the grand opening, lines stretched around the inside of the store. With a constant influx of people, it looks like the Elon population responded to the food the way Kadoura thought they would.

As an Elon alumna, Melissa Troutman ‘13 opened Simply Oak Boutique to combat a need that she saw in her time as a student – the lack of clothing stores in area.

Like the other business owners in the area, Troutman relies on the students to come in and support the local businesses.

“I think that when we first opened it was definitely students, students students,” she said. “I think they were super excited that we were here, they wanted to check us out. Summers are usually pretty slow once students leave.”

Like other establishments in college towns like Elon, if there are no shoppers it’s hard to stay afloat, especially with a brand new store.

Troutman says that family and admissions weekends are the busiest times for her store as parents and students explore the downtown area. After spending an hour in the store on multiple occasions, the majority of people seem to be window shoppers.

Opening in Summer 2011, The Root is a favorite among Elon students.

The owner, Chris Brumbaugh, was living in Denver, Colorado, prior to then and thought that opening a restaurant would be a good idea.

“We heard the space was available from a former mentor and owner of the restaurant that was in the same spot years earlier,” he said. “Having a young family, we saw it as an opportunity to move back closer to family and hopefully have greater control of our own future.”

After the opening, Brumbaugh realized that they had to tailor the menu.

“We used to expend great amounts of energy and resources towards creating interesting and ever-changing dinner specials that relied on finesse and taste, but quickly realized our clientele was overwhelmingly interested in a few of our core stock menu items,” he said.

With a location right in downtown, Brumbaugh says there are other challenges despite having a “great location.”

“Seemingly, a large number of locals generally avoid Elon altogether due to infrastructure constraints, and possible perceived cultural differences with students,” he said. “We hope to continue to become a place that helps bridge those divides.”

Brumbaugh also owns Tangent Eat+Bar, a fast Mexican restaurant aimed to “largely be a simplified version of The Root.” That restaurant opened in the Summer 2016.

According to town officials, there are currently around 4,500 residents in the Town of Elon, compared to the far larger 6,700 undergraduate and graduate students that make up the university. From restaurants to clothing stores, each business is supported by the students, and losing such a large portion of the clientele in the summer can be a struggle.

All stores in a college town, especially one where there is about 60 percent students, means that there is a very large reliance on the student who live here to support the businesses.

Brumbaugh says that he has to adapt in the summer months.

“Seasonality certainly plays a significant part in overall profitability for any such business,” he said. “Savvy locals come out more often during those times because they know that we’re able to produce more intricate dishes like catfish, ribs, and squash fritters… in a much more relaxed atmosphere without the students.”

The lack of students in the summer months extends to the other side of the businesses as many of them employ Elon students as well.

When shoppers come into All That Jas, they are often greeted by a student. Along with her “adults,” Graybeal has six students on her payroll.

“They do our social media, website stuff, our artwork for our designs. They pretty much have specific jobs,” she said.

Though they are usually only here for four years, Graybeal says it hasn’t been an issue finding students to employ.

“Actually, it’s been fun because we’ve gotten to know a bunch of people,” she said. “Because we’ve gotten more specific with the jobs, they often times will find their replacements and will train them before they leave. We love having the students in here. It’s very important to us to keep that younger perspective of what’s going on because I’m certainly not the one to do that.”

Like All That Jas, the Mediterranean Deli employs Elon students who have trained, alongside their non-student coworkers, at the Chapel Hill location.

“We’ve actually had six or seven Elon students already. I feel like when we open the door, more will come,” Kadoura said. “We want to hire students as much as we can. It’s vital to be part of the community. It’s not just a business. We are not like that, we’re not corporate. It’s just a family business that has expanded.”

A tiny boutique means a tiny staff. But all those helping Troutman are younger than she is.

Despite the absence of Elon students in the summer months, Kathleen Patterson, the downtown development administrator for the Town of Elon, says the businesses do not roll over like other cities around this area.

“If you look at the length of tenure, they aren’t rolling over like some of the downtowns like Greensboro,” Patterson said. “You can have a restaurant that’s there for six months and then it’s gone. It’s a much different environment. We have great business owners – they really know their businesses and they can work around the comings and goings.”

Those ebbs and flows can be difficult for the local businesses.

“Part of that is trying to get the residents to realize that they’re still open,” Patterson said. “That was one of the first things that I heard here is that they’re closed, and I was like, ‘No, they’re not.’ So, kind of reminding the residents that they’re still open and can come over.”

When the students are here, sometimes the residents of the town are hesitant to come because of how challenging it can be to get a table at The Root or another downtown restaurant. Patterson says she hopes this dynamic will change.

“One of the things I’d love to see is the residents and the students interacting because that would expel a lot of myths,” she said. “Having them start coming in the fall and come through the fall would be great.”

With residents coming more frequently, especially when the students leave, a rhythm could develop that will help the businesses be more successful year round.

Some businesses in the downtown area do better than others. According to tax data, this is how well businesses did in downtown Elon based on sales volume.

For the local businesses, the summer offers the opportunity to specialize and adapt when a majority of their regualar patronage leaves.

"If you plan for it – that’s just a business mindset," Patterson said. "They all worth together to make sure they succeed."

Owners rely on students as both workers and patrons, and with the slower months it can be harder to survive. The goal of the town is to change the relationship between the students and the residents, as many of the locals avoid the area when school is in session.

"Elon is a popular place," Patterson said. "People want to be here, so how do we get them here?"