There certainly has been a lot of Victory-related activity recently, particularly on the restaurant front. It seems like a new restaurant opens up in Victory each week, with a ton more on the way. I have to wonder though how many of these restaurants will survive. The whole thing strikes me as overly ambitious and a tad misguided.

The problem, as I see it, is that too many of the new Victory restaurants are high, high end. Craft. N9NE. Nove Italiano. Kenichi. Etc. And that's not counting the soon-to-open Dean Fearing restaurant nearby, nor all the other pricey restaurants within a short distance of Victory, such as Nobu, Stephen Pyles, The Mansion, and Bice, just to name a few. Can Dallas really support so many of these ultra high-dollar places? Ill Mulino didn't last long, and there have been rumors about Nobu, Craft and Bice already.

Craft and N9NE are great examples of restaurants trying to attract a certain type of crowd that may not exist in the critical mass needed. I ate at Craft a few weeks ago, and the food was very good, but not exceptional. The price tag however was astronomical and portion sizes were average at best. The whole experience rang a little hollow, and for that amount of money, there are other restaurants in the city where I'd rather eat. Although I haven't been, N9NE appears to be cut from the same cloth, only with loud, pounding music.

No doubt influenced by Hillwood's marketing arm, Craft, N9NE and many of the other Victory restaurants appear to be targeting the same demographic: young, wealthy, trendy urbanites. Basically, the type of person who frequents the Ghost Bar and actually enjoys it. But how many of these people are there? And aren't their tastes too fickle to be counted on for steady traffic? The older generation is not going to stop going to Bob's or Al Biernat's for a steak, and quite frankly, I'd rather go to those places too and not have to deal with the oppressive trendiness and parking difficulties at Victory.

As for the cheaper Victory restaurants, none appear to be remarkable enough to qualify as destination restaurants, although these types of places may draw well on AAC game/concert nights. It's tougher to get a grasp on how these more reasonably priced restaurants will fare, but if I was them I would keep my fingers crossed about the parking situation. I would also hope that the public's perception of Victory isn't tainted by the preponderance of snotty places down there.

Anyone want to bet on how many of the Victory restaurants are gone within 18 months?