Area restaurants are pulling out all the stops to attract customers, who have more to choose from as new places to eat continue to spring up.

Wednesday night was the grand opening of the Ginger House, a Chinese-Japanese restaurant, bar and takeout place on Main Street in Antrim. The owners Dayuan Lin, who is head chef, and his wife, Airong Wang, and their restaurant manager, Steven Zheng, recently moved from the Boston area to Antrim to get the business started, Zheng said Thursday.

Lin and Wang have owned and run a takeout Chinese place in Amesbury, Mass., for the last 10 years, Zheng said. They also owned a Chinese buffet in Barre, Vt., until the economy went south and they sold the business. Since then, they’ve been looking for a place in need of a Chinese restaurant, Zheng said, and Antrim seemed like the right town. They’ve added Japanese food to their usual repertoire to attract more customers.

“There’s no room, no space for a sushi bar, so we’re just going to do it in the kitchen,” Zheng said. “If people like the Japanese, we may make room for a sushi bar.”

The grand opening was a good start in terms of turnout.

“People—they give me good feedback,” he said.

The Ginger House’s landlord, Juliet Ermitano, is the owner of The Maplehurst Inn and the Maplehurst Restaurant and Tavern, across the street from the new restaurant. She said Thursday that traffic at her restaurant is down 50 percent, because of the economy and because of new competition in town. In addition to the Ginger House, A-N-A’z Café and Catering opened in July. Since then, Ermitano said, people have had more places to choose from for breakfast and lunch and now the café is open for dinner too.

“Overall, the economy is not helping,” Ermitano said. “People are more frugal. I think because of the uncertainty of the economy, people are holding onto their cash and eating at home. If they go shopping, it’s just the necessities.”

Leaf peeping season was good this year, Ermitano said, although last year’s was better. There weren’t as many visitors from New York and Connecticut this year, but she saw a lot of people from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. She also saw some people from Texas, Georgia and Florida, people she’d never seen before.

“I’m just trying to ride it until I can ride it no more because I feel bad for my employees,” Ermitano said.

The tavern employs five people. Now that the leaf peeping season is over, Ermitano’s cut back on hours of operation a little to save on payroll and utility costs.

“Every little thing helps at the end,” she said.

Since the summer, the tavern has been offering special deals on Wednesday and Thursday nights in an attempt to draw in more people, she said.

“We are trying to reinvent ourselves. Tried everything, believe me,” she said. “I think it’s just a slow process because the confidence is not there yet on the spending side.”

In Peterborough, the restaurant space at 6 School Street — the former location of Intermezzo, a restaurant that closed in April — is still empty. The economy was a factor in Intermezzo’s closing, according to the owner of the building, Bruce Hunter.

“But the restaurant’s there ready to go. It’s a turnkey operation, as they say in the trade,” he said Thursday. “It’s probably the best location in town — the outside dining, the inside dining. It’s a world-class restaurant.”

But when asked if there were any potential restaurant owners for the space, Hunter said, “At this point, no. We’ve talked to a lot of people, but no one ready to step up to the plate.”

One issue may be the ability to obtain financing. Hunter said banks have always been a little suspect of restaurants, and in this economy it may be even more of a challenge. “But there are a lot of restaurants that are successful,” he said. “I don’t think the economy is killing restaurants, but it’s certainly slowing them down.”

The Cantine Mexican Kitchen is one example of a successful restaurant business, Hunter said.

The Cantine — located in the Monadnock Community Plaza on Route 202 in Peterborough where Fishtales Market used to be — opened at the end of July. Owner Dave Chicane said Thursday that the restaurant is meeting projected numbers for sales and traffic, despite a bad economy.

“The economy is irrelevant to my business plan,” said Chicane.

The business plan for the Cantine is based on the number of seats and the menu’s price point, he said.

“The Cantine is doing so well because we’ve had a lot of families and it’s inexpensive,” he said.

The lunch business, though, isn’t what Chicane had hoped for. In general, he said, people aren’t eating out for lunch as much as they used to.

Chicane, who owned Fishtales Market, said it closed three weeks before the big downturn in the economy in September 2008.

“I think it closed because there wasn’t enough people that got what we were doing,” he said.

Chicane didn’t want to walk away from his investment in the space he leased, so he decided to open a Mexican place.

“The goal is always to add to the area, rather than compete with it,” he said. “Although we are price sensitive especially in a down economy, I think my goal is to provide a whole package, a whole environment.”

Chicane said Pearl Restaurant and Oyster Bar, another business he owns in Monadnock Community Plaza, hasn’t been affected by the economy at all. For 2009, traffic and sales are up roughly one percent, even though the restaurant business as a whole in New Hampshire is down 15 percent. He said the numbers for Pearl have grown ever since it opened five years ago.

The state of the economy has Chicane paying close attention to staffing levels and every bill that comes in.

“We have to be super lean in a down economy.”

Chicane employs 45 people in his two restaurants. He said he feels a responsibility to his workers and their families. “If everyone tightens the belt a little bit, we can save the whole.”

Sometimes, that means cleaning up a little faster at closing, so the businesses save on payroll expenditures, he said. But the economy isn’t driving everything and isn’t stopping people from spending money on a night out.

“We still have to live our lives and, for me, I have to reach my goals.”

At Aylmer’s Grille at the Woodbound Inn on Woodbound Road in Rindge, proprietor and chef Aylmer Given said the frequency of visits to the restaurant on the part of his customers is down.

“I think people have discretionary income and they’re being a little more choosier,” he said Thursday. “I think you’re sort of forced to offer more to people because they have options.”

Aylmer’s Grille moved from downtown Jaffrey to the Woodbound in July of 2008. Given said he has been holding events to draw in more people. An Oktoberfest at the end of September was very successful, he said. On Nov. 21, Given will hold what he hopes is the first of three murder mystery dinners planned for the winter. He is also planning a winter carnival for January.

“You have to give them a reason to come out,” he said. “The biggest thing we’ve been doing is the Aylmer’s stimulus package.”

It’s a different entree at a special price every night of the week Tuesday through Saturday and at Sunday brunch.

“It’s been very popular,” Given said.

Given noted the leaf peeping season was a little off this year. “It was OK, it wasn’t great. ... The bus tours were down a little.”

“It’s not an easy market right now,” he said. “But I also think it’s starting to loosen up and we’re hoping we don’t have an ice storm again. I think people are starting to feel they can spend again.”