I always enjoy finding surprises (the good kind) when I’m out riding.
Last week, my wife and I decided to ride over to Rocco’s Little Chicago on Broadway for dinner. Our surprise came when we arrived and the bike racks were completely full. That may not be so unusual for many restaurants outside of the UA/Downtown core that have only one rack (if any), but Rocco’s is really bike-friendly with space for 14 bikes – we ultimately locked up to the gas meter.
Turns out it was “Wings Wednesday” and most everyone in the place was chowing on piles of those meaty morsels – who knew cyclist liked wings so much?
I caught up later with the owner, Rocco DiGrazia, and asked about all the bikes– was it really the wings that brought them all in? He said that Wednesday is his peak bike day, but about half of his staff regularly rides to work and many customers from the adjacent neighborhoods ride in as well.
I typically think of places on University, 4th Avenue, or downtown as prime locations for bike corrals, but it’s seems there may be some bike hot spots beyond these areas that already attract enough bike traffic to warrant corrals.
Where have you been surprised to see overflowing bike racks?
Sounds like a great excuse to go try me some wings! I like bike parking… 😀
My wife and I ride over to Rocco’s as well and often see other rolling customers there. Nice place to gather. Good to see that Rocco’s staff rides to work as well!
Mark Homan
I made those racks, they traded Bicas pizza for them!
Thanks for taking this photo, Colby. I’m glad to see the action at Rocco’s, and I would love it if folks would take lots of pictures of well-used– CROWDED– bike parking at local businesses and in public areas. It’s like the seeing empty buses makes some people think no one rides the bus: empty bike racks, or no bikes around makes people think more bike parking isn’t needed. My experience is that every business or public space that makes decent bike parking available sees it fill up quickly. There’s a yoga place on the west side of Campbell, just north of Grant. It’s the ONLY business on that strip that has decent bike parking, and it’s always full. Oh, so only yoga practitioners ride bikes?? NO, only yoga purveyors provide us with a place to park! Seriously, I think a part of the campaign needs to be lots of photos just like this one, from all over. I’m not toting a camera, phone or otherwise, so please help out!