Economic hardships fatal to Bad Habit

The restaurant opened last November and developed during six hard months of economic turmoil. These economic pressures in conjunction with some external influences caused owner Sean Zaloumes to close the business.

Bad Habit tried to separate itself from bars in the downtown scene and host many events to drum up business. It offered late-night food and a Wii system and regularly had Rock Band competitions. Also, the bar did not allow smoking, and employees prided themselves on the bar’s overall cleanliness.

“My personal income stopped,” Zaloumes said. “We’ve been open since November, and I just don’t have any more money to put into it.”

He lost much of his capital intended to go towards the bar in a house fire last year. The fire happened only a month after he signed the lease for the property.

“I lost everything,” he said. “I had all the money I needed before, but the fire just soaked up so much of it.”

Zaloumes explained that in many cases, it takes restaurants about a year to begin making a profit. Milledgeville’s firmly established downtown nightlife did not make running his bar any easier.

“People are creatures of habit,” he said. “If you go downtown, you end up going to the same places. We started having a lot of business on Thursdays for ‘Drink or Drown,’ but they would only stay a few hours before going to another bar.”

Bad Habit promoted many of its events with an active Facebook profile which still has over 600 friends.

“Its really a shame that Bad Habit is closing,” said junior business major and bar patron Landon Toney. “It was really the only place to get food after 10 (p.m.). Not to mention it’s always sad to see a small business go under.”

Delta Sigma Phi hosted their event, Shamrock Shakedown, at Bad Habit in March. The event coordinator, sophomore athletic training major Blake Burrell, was happy with the way that the night turned out.

“Bad Habit let us host a function on St. Patrick’s day to promote the bar and get our name out there,” Burrell said. “By midnight the bar was packed and everyone was having a great time. There were a ton of food and drinks purchased. I would say it definitely went well for everyone.”

Zaloumes appreciates the efforts of Delta Sigma Phi and other Greek organizations in supporting Bad Habit.

“All of the fraternities and sororities tried very hard to help us out,” Zaloumes said. “I can’t thank them enough.”

When asked about his future plans, Zaloumes said that he plans to go back into his previous profession in government contracting. However, he is walking away with no regrets.

“If I could have done anything differently,” he said. “I would have had a little bit more money.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 24 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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