Walking past the lovely houses in the residential section of Tate Street, you’d never expect to find restaurants, stores and a constant nightlife.
Tate is also “a place for local starving musicians to play at venues,” said Tate resident Kyle Dunn. Gate City Noise (a CD and skateboard shop), New York Pizza and the Exchange are a few of the places that put on concerts.
Andrew K. Dudek, owner of Gate City Noise, offers his venue for different types of bands. “I prefer to bring in out of town touring acts, and use local bands as opening acts,” said Dudek. “I feel there are lots of places for local bands to play.”
In addition to the music, there are several stores and a variety of restaurants just a ten-minute drive from the Guilford campus.
For the deli fare of pizza and sandwiches, there are plenty of places to choose from. If you want to avoid the generic Subway, there are also local options like Cup-a-Joe, Coo-Coo’s Nest, Manhattan Subs and Pizza, and New York Pizza. At New York Pizza, a slice of pizza is $1.45-1.75, depending on toppings, and sandwiches cost around five dollars.
Tate Street is also home to El Carreton, China Wok, Thai Garden, and Indian Palace. The Indian Palace offers a $5.95 lunch buffet with vegetarian options. For dessert, there’s the option of Side Street Smoothies, located just off of Tate.
Tanning and nail salons also reside on Tate Street, as well as the Clothesline Express and Wear Yours – a customized clothing store. For more practical needs, there’s a Kinkos and two convenience stores, as well as a college bookstore.
If you’re looking for tasty coffee drinks with a nice atmosphere, Tate has the Exchange and Tate Street Coffee, which are both highly praised by all inhabitants of Tate. “Tate Street Coffee is great. There’s lots of good stuff to drink if you have money,” said Zach Melton, resident and regular at Tate.
Drake Aldrich has been working at Tate Street Coffee for over a year and loves it: “You get to meet so many different kinds of people. It makes life more colorful.”
Guilford junior Stephanie Nalbantyan comes to Tate Street Coffee often because it’s near campus and she enjoys the environment. “I love it here. I like the drinks here better than Starbucks. It’s a great place to study,” said Nalbantyan. “Atmosphere, drinks, people; that’s mostly the gist of it.”
Tate Street Coffee utilizes the variety of college students in the area to create a wonderful ambience. “I like how it mixes students from different schools which I think Greensboro should embrace more,” junior Julie Balasalle said.
Dudek thinks highly of Tate Street, but sees possible improvements in unifying the shop owners and the loiterers. “I think it can be a very cool place. Currently it has a lot of problems. If we could get some solidarity between Tate and merchants, it could shape the street in a positive way,” Dudek said.
Aldrich thinks the street as a whole is a great place to be. “All in all it’s definitely a nice neighborhood,” said Aldrich.