The Tribune did a pretty good job explaining the kinda-complicated relation of four separate businesses in the building (or suburb) that is Hittsville.
Uprise Bakery + Ragtag Cinema + 9th Street Video + Hitt Records = Hittsville.
Here's a selection:
By Catherine Martin
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Using the name “Hittsville” to refer to the building at 10 Hitt St. started as an inside joke.
“Hitsville U.S.A.” is the nickname of Motown’s first headquarters in Detroit. But it also seemed to be a good fit for the businesses in the Hitt Street building, which houses Ragtag Cinema, Uprise Bakery, 9th Street Video and Hitt Records. The business is on Hitt Street, and “hit” can apply to movies and records.
“It’s catchy,” said Ron Rottinghaus, co-owner of Uprise Bakery.
The name first referred to the group of investors that purchased the building in 2008. It had previously been the site of Kelly Press and before that a Coca-Cola bottling plant. The businesses continued to use the phrase internally and now are pushing it out externally to give the building a “universal name,” Ragtag Executive Director Tracy Lane said.
“People can say, ‘Let’s go to Hittsville. Let’s get dinner, or let’s get a beer and watch a movie,’ ” she said.
Having a name for the building also reminds people that “Hittsville” does actually house four separate businesses, Rottinghaus said.
Sometimes, people think everything housed in Hittsville is one business. That means someone might call 9th Street Video to ask about a charge on a bar tab from Uprise Bakery, Rottinghaus said.
But even though Ragtag, Uprise, 9th Street and Hitt Records are separate businesses, there is a “synergy” among them all, Lane said.
There's our Jonny Pez, the face of Ragtag. Photo by Ryan Henriksen/Tribune
