Restaurants Renew State Street

[MarketStEl]

I can offer some firsthand observations to back up this story in today's Delaware County Daily Times touting a "delicious golden age for Media restaurants," having stumbled out of a University Advancement Division happy hour at Brodeur's on State Street recently to catch the 101 back into town.

Even though the headline refers to how the restaurants are doing as businesses, maybe what's equally noteworthy is what the restaurants are doing for "America's Hometown":

Media has had a lot of distinctions in its 157-year history.

It is the county seat, the only community nationwide to have a trolley on the main street and the first designated Fair Trade Town in America. For many county residents, the only reason for coming to Media is to conduct legal or governmental business, perhaps having been called for jury duty. It used to be said the town rolled up after 5 p.m. and returned to the population of about 5,500 after having nearly quadrupled during the day.

Those days are over.

Realtor Tim Brooke speculated part of the change seemed to take place about a decade ago when the borough passed the legislation not to permit office space on the first floors of State Street buildings.

“It wasn’t going to happen overnight, but the increase in restaurants is indicative of what’s happening everywhere. Look at the suburban strip shopping centers that used to be all retail. There are more restaurants going into vacancies now,” said Brooke who manages and leases many State Street properties including restaurants.

Put another way, a sleepy suburban downtown has become an evening destination thanks to enterprising restaurateurs.

I can tell you that State Street today is vastly improved over the State Street I saw when I took the 101 out to Media for the first time shortly after moving here in 1983. This is a big reason why, though judging from the article, a wise move on the part of Media Borough Council helped too.

It probably doesn't hurt that the restaurants serve good food too -- though frankly, Iron Hill is worth visiting mainly for the beer; its food, while it doesn't suck, is nothing to write home about either.