Harrisburg, you like new businesses but hate the spotted lanternfly.
Those are the chief takeaways as we do the math on our most popular stories of the past year.
We’re back with our annual, last-week-of-the-year tradition, totaling up your clicks and letting you know which stories scored the most hits since Jan. 1.
Interestingly, every one of these stories appeared only online, not in print, and not a single one involved government, politics or our editor thinking great thoughts.
But that’s fine with us, as we love covering stories about new businesses and the vibrant entrepreneurial spirit in this city.
So, without further delay, here are your top-10, most-read stories of 2021.
No. 10. Church Sells. Back in 2019, the Susquehanna United Methodist Conference put six of its churches on the market. Some sold quickly, others didn’t. At two-plus years, the historic Camp Curtin Memorial Mitchell UMC Church took the longest to find a new owner, but a Harrisburg couple finally bought the stately stone structure in June. The buyers haven’t yet announced a definite plan for the building, though I wouldn’t be surprised to find the project among next year’s list of most popular stories.
No. 9. Second Helping. Nyree’s scored two stories in TheBurg last year. First, we featured their west shore restaurant in our March magazine. Then, a few months later, we found out that owner Joe Hobbs planned a Harrisburg location, along with a nightclub, on 2nd Street. Since then, he has opened the doors of his downtown restaurant in the sprawling building that once housed Bridges Social Club and The Quarter.
No. 8. Soul Much More. In Harrisburg, 2021 was a big year for soul food. In Midtown, Isabelle’s Southern Cuisine debuted in March, the comfort-food project of owner Kim Ross. This was the first of three soul food/barbecue restaurants to open during the year. As mentioned above, Nyree’s also debuted, as did Zachary’s, a new eatery inside H*MAC that itself was among our most popular stories, sliding in at No. 23.
No. 7. Super Duper. For years, a new supermarket has been on the wish list of many Harrisburg residents, especially in neighborhoods deemed to be “food deserts.” In October, a local family—Ramon Contreras, Camila Contreras and Yamelyn Vargas—obliged, opening Market Fresh on the 2400-block of N. 6th Street. The community embraced the new market with open arms, eager to read our online story and to purchase fresh food previously hard to find in the Uptown neighborhood.
No. 6. Trading Up. In TheBurg, we rarely publish stories about chain stores, using our limited reporting resources to focus on independently owned businesses. In 2021, however, we made an exception after learning that a Trader Joe’s planned to open next year on the west shore. We thought that both our city and suburban readers would want to know what some considered to be the event of the year in the Harrisburg area—nay, the century. Turns out, we were right, as people clicked on the story with enthusiasm that rivaled filling a shopping cart high with vegan tzatziki, Taiwanese green onion pancakes and two-buck Chuck.
No. 5. Last Call. A few years back, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse tried to shut down a Midtown bar called the 3rd Street Café. He ultimately failed, but, as it turned out, the bar’s days (actually, years) were numbered anyway. In 2021, the owner sold the building, as well as the one next door, to two different buyers. The new owners both plan extensive renovations, with one building slated to become a restaurant/bar and the other an apartment building.
No. 4. Restaurant Redux? For those who remember Harry’s Tavern, this was welcome news indeed. A former co-owner planned to revive some aspects of that fondly remembered Allison Hill restaurant at a new location, an old-fashioned diner building on Herr Street near the Susquehanna Township line. Our January story received thousands of hits, though the restaurant itself didn’t make it through the year, shutting down a few months ago due to the recurring pandemic and the related problem of finding reliable help.
No. 3 & No. 2. Hit the Beach. So, this has never happened before. A single business took both second and third place for our most-read stories of the year. In May, we published an online story that two local businessmen planned to open the Harrisburg Beach Club on City Island, renovating the city’s century-old, long-shuttered bathhouse in the process. Then, five months later, we published another story stating that they were about to open. The owners admitted that early November was not the ideal time to open an outdoor venue in Harrisburg, Pa., but that various delays left them with no choice. We can’t speak to the popularity of hanging out on City Island in the cold, but we can say that, combined, these two stories were hot items on our website.
No. 1. Die Fly! Does bad news trump good? We could make a case for that, as, for the second year in a row, a bad-news story became our most-read of the year. In 2020, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic topped our annual list. This year, it was another type of plague—the spotted lanternfly. We were shocked that a relatively brief September story about this invasive pest quickly rocketed to the top of the news heap. However, we apparently underestimated how much people wanted to be rid of this fluttery menace. Thanks so much to the Harrisburg city forester for helping us out on this one, offering timely advice to some 26,000 inquiring minds. So, what’ll be tops for 2022? Frogs? Locusts?
For a different take on 2021, our editor will have his annual list of top local news stories in the January magazine, which drops on Dec. 29. Does his list differ from that of our readers, who voted with their clicks? Return on Wednesday to find out!
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