"It's Friday night, and it's nearly impossible to find parking around Overton Square. Drivers cruise down Madison, hoping to be lucky enough to spot someone pulling out of a precious on-street spot in the shadow of the still-under-construction parking garage.
Patrons of the newly opened martini lounge Bar Louie sip cocktails on the swanky patio. Others linger on the front steps of a vacant space next door, talking and texting on their phones. A couple holding hands crosses Madison and ducks into Local Gastropub. The windows of Boscos Squared offer a peek at diners eating and laughing.
Three men, who look to be in their mid-to-late 50s, walk past Bar Louie, and one points in the direction of a parking lot beside the Bayou Bar & Grill across the street: "That's where the old Silky's used to be," he says. The men exchange a nostalgic "uh-huh" and "that's right."
Although vacant spaces remain in the previously left-for-dead Overton Square, a handful of new businesses and the promise of more have begun to resuscitate the iconic Midtown corner at Cooper and Madison."