Hipsters and CWS: A good mix?

There wasn't a paying customer in sight, so Jason Kulbel had time on a recent weekday afternoon to sit at a corner table inside the Slowdown and think unthinkable thoughts.

Next year at this time, his hipper-than-hip north downtown rock club won't be hosting a band like Mates of State, a beloved but boutique duo who played there Friday night.

Next year at this time, Kulbel says, the Slowdown may well be hosting — big gulp — a cover band. And the bar will likely be packed with grown men wearing college baseball jerseys and singing along.

This may or may not be a sign of the coming hipster apocalypse.

It is definitely a sign that next June's College World Series will change the businesses, many of them new, that sit just a pop fly away from TD Ameritrade Park.

“It's almost like us pushing the pause button on what we normally do for two weeks,” Kulbel said of next year's CWS. Not doing so “would be like us standing outside and yelling, ‘We don't like the College World Series!' And we do like it, we really do.”

Kulbel and other north downtown leaders are excited about the CWS's move north on 13th Street next year. It isn't hard to figure out why — tens of thousands of baseball fans will stream into their newly redeveloped neighborhood next year, bringing their credit cards and laying eyes on the area's restaurants, bars and shops for the first time.

But north downtown's business owners and developers are a little nervous, too. Will the traffic get too crazy? How will fans unhappy with the end of the Rosenblatt era react to north downtown's shiny new storefronts?

And their biggest fear of all: Will this work, both for the CWS and its new, trendy 'hood?

“This definitely is not the typical CWS neighborhood that you are used to,” said Jenny Zimmer, an architect and president of the North Downtown Alliance. “All of the businesses here are going to have to adjust what they do during those two weeks. They have to figure out what those people are looking for.”

At 3 p.m. on a recent weekday, the College World Series' neighborhood for the past six decades is brimming with the sort of life and commerce that north downtown boosters can currently only daydream about.

Nearly 300 people cram into the bar and back patio at Starsky's, the neighborhood watering hole nearest to Rosenblatt. A pack of Arizona State fans guzzle Bud Light tall boys. A purple-clad TCU fan sees another purple-clad TCU fan and gives the proper two-fingered salute — “The Hand of the Frog,” which involves curling the index and middle fingers to look like frog's horns.

“Go Frogs!” he yells. “Go Frogs!” she yells back.

Outside, a mass of humanity wanders up and down 13th Street, buying everything. T-shirts. Hats. Sunglasses. Zesto's ice cream. Nike gear. Famous Dave's BBQ. Much of the goods are sold out of temporary tents. Others come from storefronts that bustle during the CWS and then mostly sit empty the rest of the year.

North downtown leaders say the buying and selling will be a bit different next year.

Much of the commerce will happen inside actual buildings that stay open year-round, a permanence that largely doesn't exist around Rosenblatt.

And, for better or worse, north downtown is newer, cleaner and younger than the current 13th Street home of the CWS. The trick, north downtown business owners say, is catering to the baseball-crazy crowds while continuing to build an identity that doesn't have much to do with baseball.

“What matters to us, especially to us, is those other 350 days,” said Rachel Jacobson, director of the independent Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater, one of the first new businesses to open in north downtown in 2007. “But we're definitely going to try some things next year. I'm sure everyone will.”

Film Streams will likely run a series of baseball movies during next year's CWS, Jacobson said, in addition to its usual fare of independent, foreign and documentary films.

The spacious lobby and two theaters will also host private events, she said, for businesses or families throwing soirees in conjunction with the College World Series.

The Old Mattress Factory, one block south of the new baseball stadium, knows how to handle large crowds because it has faced plenty of rushes after Creighton basketball games and Qwest Center concerts, said Cyndi Murphy, the bar and grill's manager. The restaurant's employees also are getting their CWS education early, she said, because the Mattress Factory has a food stand near Rosenblatt.

During next year's CWS, the restaurant will somehow attempt to connect itself to the CWS's history, Murphy said, letting the crowd know it loved Rosenblatt, too.

“I hope we don't lose the tradition it currently has,” Murphy said. “We want to help preserve as much of that tradition as we can.”

There is at least one business near the new TD Ameritrade Park that already has plenty of its own tradition. Pettit's Pastry, at 16th and Cass Streets, has been in the same location for 56 years, said co-owner Mark Pettit, so long that it's seen north downtown prosper, die and then be reborn.

Walking into the pastry shop is a step back in time: Employees in starched white uniforms, packaging cake doughnuts, almond biscotti cookies, apple fritters and other temptations that beckon from behind glass cases.

Mark Pettit's business plan is simple: He hopes baseball fans taste a Pettit's doughnut just once.

To make that more likely, he's planning to deliver some free to the TV play-by-play announcers and talk radio personalities who will cluster around the new ballpark next year. He's praying for a Pettit's mention between pitches.

“Once anybody tries our pastries, then we know they will be back,” he said.

Contact the writer: 444-1064, matthew.hansen@owh.com

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