Indigo's closing, but owner's not singing the blues

The Indigo Restaurant has closed after only a year, and owner Chris Bearss insists that it's not a bad thing.

It's a decision he's made, for a variety of reasons. He doesn't spend enough time with his 8-year-old son. He wants to go back to school and get his master's. And yes, the first year's performance hasn't been what he'd hoped.

"But I don't want people to remember Indigo as a failed business," he said before last Saturday night's farewell bash. "It's good for me and it's good for my son. I don't want the last chapter to be that it's closing."

Bearss, a single parent, said that the blues and jazz bar and restaurant was taking too much of his time.

"It was my first restaurant, and the restaurant business can take everything you can give it," he said. "It will work you nonstop. Even on Sundays, I was doing things for the business and my little boy wasn't getting enough attention from me."

But, he admits, there wasn't enough revenue coming in.

"Usually it takes a couple of years to get a restaurant moving, and we were moving in the right direction," he said. "But I wasn't ready to give the attention to the restaurant for another year and not my son. It's a poker game."

Bearss brought in talent from outside the area, including the Dempseys, Brown Sugar, Elvis (a dead-on impersonator) and Ryan Griggs.

"We had some fantastic times here," Bearss said. "I met some really great people. It was a great year."

Is there anything he would do differently?

"I don't know," he sighed. "In the restaurant business, no matter how much you think you've got it figured out, it's still a roll of the dice. It's the riskiest business out there. But I don't do what-ifs and should'ves."

Bearss doesn't rule out coming back into the business after his son gets a little older.

"As difficult and as challenging as it is, it's the most rewarding experience I've had," he said. "In a few years, I'll take another look at it. Right now, I've got to throw the football around with my son."

Coach's Sports Pub

I reported earlier this year that Coach's Sports Pub would be opening SOON in the old Rhodes 101 Stop on Sprigg next to the Show Me Center.

Well, it actually is getting closer to opening. I couldn't reach the good folks at Rhodes during the week of Christmas, but my friend in the city licensing office told me that Rhodes did apply for and receive a special-use permit to build a bigger parking lot. So look for that to be opening SOON!

Career resolutions

If you still make a list of yearly resolutions, finding a new job might rank up there with losing weight, drinking less and quitting smoking.

More than a third of 2,200 workers polled this month plan to hunt for a new job in the new year, and 32 percent said their prospects of finding one were strong.

What prompts the search for greener career pastures?

Most, 59 percent, said they want to leave because they were unhappy with promotion prospects in their current positions. And 58 percent said they didn't like the pay. Half the job hunters said they were under too much stress at work.

The happy news for employers: Half the people in the survey said they were satisfied with their work, and half said they felt their jobs were secure.

The survey was commissioned by Chicago-based CareerBuilder.com, a job search site.

Welcoming 2003

Do you have any clue about your New Year's Eve celebratory pursuits? No? Welcome to the club. Nearly half of us, 45 percent, don't know yet how we'll ring in the new year, according to a survey of 2,600 people.

For those who do, 41 percent will be couch potatoes, perched on the sofa in front of a television, watching other people party. Another 31 percent will go to a party. Only 1 percent said they'll traipse to a big public event, such as Times Square's annual festivities.

And when it comes to drunken warbling at midnight, only 12 percent of people claim to know all the words to "Auld Lang Syne." Another 12 percent couldn't say what that is. But most of us, 57 percent, at least know the chorus.

The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive for Hotwire, a San Francisco-based Web site.

Collegiate finances

College kids aren't big on budgeting, but 72 percent of those who do stick to it, according to a survey by a financial education group.

The survey, which polled 1,139 students from 28 schools in 20 states, found that only 38 percent prepare some sort of monthly budget.

Credit cards and balances were more likely to be part of students' financial lives. Seventy percent of the students surveyed said they have a credit card and nearly a third, 32 percent, carry a balance. Most of the debtors had under $2,000 to pay off, although 6 percent owed more than $10,000.

The information was collected by Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), a nonprofit group that promotes financial literacy among college students.

The survey also found that despite the headlines about Wall Street's ups and downs in recent years, 54 percent of students said they don't understand how the stock market works. Only 35 percent had any investments.

Scott Moyers is the business editor for the Southeast Missourian. Send your comments, business news, information or questions to Biz Buzz, 301 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699, e-mail smoyers@semissourian.com or call 335-6611, extension 137.