As someone who hangs out some in DoNa, I have spent some time consuming adult beverages at Moondog’s, nee The Mellow Mushroom. To put it bluntly, the place has always been considered something of a waste by locals. Great potential, poor results. Great location, very poorly designed building that took forever to complete. Closing at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays also does not seem an optimum business plan for an establishment offering a huge selection on beers on draft in a bar district.
So I was excited to see the Charlotte Observer do a story on The Mellow Mushroom/Moondog’s, thinking it might offer additional insights. Bzzzt. Wrong. What a waste. Writing a quality business news story really isn’t that hard. Of course, you might think otherwise from reading some of the Observer‘s pieces, which seem to treat commerce as just another field for human interest stories that don’t bother to get at the rather obvious, business-related underlying issues.
In this case, we’re treated to the following insights:
Although he’s still running Moondog’s restaurants here, Lockhart’s fate is a reminder that even in a boomtown like Charlotte, not every business venture is a guaranteed winner. And it’s a cautionary tale to choose business partners wisely.
Imagine that. Deep. Not sure I could have possibly have ever guessed at either of those concepts. As for what went wrong, forcing local franchisee/owner Tom Lockhart to close three of five locations and go out on his own, there’s probably more actual information in the first paragraph of this blog post than in the entire 1,350 word plus newspaper story.
