What is the Worst (hardest?/most unpleasant?) part of Opening a Restaurant?

@OmSigDAVID,

haha..

Yes, there you have it, my other half's name, is David and he's a Chef.... so it's a bit different around my house, therefore different when we go out and dine...

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What I remember about restaurant management from my days when I thought I wanted to be a sous chef:

Toughest stuff at top going to more common sense:

The hours - very long (as true of all self-employed business people)
Food freshness and rotation - you have a product that goes bad if you do not sell it quickly. Use it, move it or throw it out.
The Health Dept. - just do whatever they tell you and make sure your employees understand what the rules are. Violations are now very public.
The customer must be made happy- even when they have the taste buds of an earthworm.
Consistency - one bad meal and people do not come back
Keep the dining area clean and beautiful. Keep the bathrooms clean and beautiful. Keep the kitchen clean and well organized.
Don't hire staff with face piercings. It grosses many people out.
Pick a food identity you understand and stick to it. Don't try things like Japanese Mexican unless you are a Japanese Mexican and/or one who knows how to really cook both cuisines extremely well.
Stay away from debt whenever possible and make sure your cash flow can go at least a year from your starting date. Preferably two years.

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@FOUND SOUL,

FOUND SOUL wrote:

haha..

Yes, there you have it, my other half's name, is David and he's a Chef.... so it's a bit different around my house,
therefore different when we go out and dine...

I am the founder of the New York Mensa Special Interest Group for fine dining, the Opulent Mensan SIG.

American Mensa has a SIG only for members named David.
It remains unique, as the only name-based SIG.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, to u and to Chef David.

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

Congratulations such a clever idea and what better thing to use it for than to eat quality and interesting dishes:)

Now that explains your name:)

Thank you David, HAPPY NEW YEAR TOO, to you and your family .....

I'd love to hear of some of the dishes you have tried, maybe an OmSigDavid thread? Smile

Must work out how to post pictures here, to show you if you do, some things we have cooked, I've photographed, or display of food which is more my fortei...

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@FOUND SOUL,

Easy, once you get it. If you want to post one of your own photos, you need to get it into a jpg or gif format, and you do that by signing up to a place like photobucket or imageshack or many other similar sites. Do a little research since I'm not the one to name the best sites.

Whatever, that site will take your photo from your computer and process it, and you can then transfer it to here or other websites, since you'll have a jpg.

in any case, the final thing should have an url that ends with jpg or gif, and often has [img] and [/img] surrounding it. If it doesn't, just cursor over it and click on the Img button on the posting screen.

If you want to post other sites' photos, easy, but it differs if you have a mac or a pc.

Me, I try to attribute photos I grab from sites. Some are clear if you click on a photo url, but not all are, and I try to give info if possible if the url doesn't show it. I come from experience of showing photographers in our gallery, and some of them would be quite testy about anyone not giving them credit.

Adds, if you have a website, put it in the profile, not in a post.

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@ossobuco,

I declare myself a typist, that's it 90 words a minute:)

I do have photobucket, up-loaded a few files, tried it here on this posts haha all I got was words, tried URL and Img but words well the link but it didn't work..

I'll get my step-daugther to show me next week hopefully...

Thanks for the lengthy explanation appreciated Smile

Sorry for the hi-jack there too Hawkeye...

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@FOUND SOUL,

....

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/CHANDLERSWISH/CHANDLERS/tarzanfail_resize.jpg

I beat it with a stick:) phew k got it:)

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I agree - Food "identiry" - very important.

Around here, one fella just makes pasties. That's ALL he does. Everyday he put on his sign what kind he's baking for that day. "I'm making beef pasties today."
He does sweet and savory.

He's very busy. Take out only.

He has a street front store. Low overhead.

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@FOUND SOUL,

Open the photo in a new window, and copy that url. Easy to do on a mac, a few more steps on a pc. I think on a pc you click on it, choose (I forget what, preferences?). I haven't used a pc much in several years.

1 Reply

@FOUND SOUL,

FOUND SOUL wrote:

Mind you when a Chef blows my mind and David's usually in Melbourne we want to meet him:)

Finding great chefs is uncommon.
Mediocrity is more prevalent than hedonic euphoria.
I'm reminded of Christmas Week of 2000 in Florida.
My SIG went to DisneyWorld to welcome in 2001 with FIREWORKS!
At one place on the Disney property, the pastry chef blew my mind,
"Chocolate Volcano with Extra ` Pistachio Ice Cream" was it???

I was frustrated by the limit of my stomach to ingest more desserts.
Our waitress, Tommy, was outstanding.
I induced our group to pay her extraordinary tips on the checks.
We ordered more n got additional checks.
(At one point, thay rose in mutiny, in this regard; some nerve!)

In my culinary ecstacy, I began gratuitously tipping her with $1OO bills.
I was unable to restrain the impetus to present her with a series of $1OO bills
(to show the sincerity of my sentiments). I ordered more dessert,
praazing the talents of the pastry chef. Tommy asked for my card
and she began kissing me on the lips. She brawt out the pastry chef
and introduced her to me. (She was another pretty, sweet, young girl.)
Thay were friends.

I remember Tommy subsequently writing to me from Florida.
Sadly, she left that restaurant.

Parafrasing Humphrey Bogart: "We'll always have Disneyworld."

Our mission on Earth is to MAKE MEMORIES.

David

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@ossobuco,

You know Osso, I am going to do a course, yessum I am, cause there is so much I don't know about computers but over the last few years, I have sure learnt alot as I am not one to give up, in-fact I refuse to do so:) Thank you, appreciated...

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@OmSigDAVID,

I agree OmSigDAVID...

Alot pull it from others and can't get it right:)

The Hardest thing Hawkeye...The Most Unpleasant....

The hardest thing I think, is getting the recognition and the most unpleasant is working your butt of 24/7 until that time comes, waiting for that traffic to become regulars ...

The other hardest thing? Is to not use up all the liquor supplies in the process:)

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You asked what is the worst part of opening a restaurant?

It's finding out (too late) that you really don't like people, or feeding them.

If a large part of your personality isn't engaged in nurturing, you should probably find something else to do.

That's the difficult part of the convergence, you have to be on top of your numbers, a great leader of your team and, still, find contentment from seeing happy people heading back out to their cars after eating your food.

Joe(good luck)Nation

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@Joe Nation,

This is an excellent point. While we make jokes about Soup Nazis' and egotistical chefs the reality is the most successful restaurant owners are those who love food and want to share that love with others. When I think about the restaurants I return to over and over it has a lot to do with the owner and his/her passion for what they serve and their respect for their customers.

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When I worked at an Italian restaurant, we would put a white apron on the Italian grandmother and let her walk around the dining room. She spoke no English. People loved it. We sang Happy Birthday in Italian to customers.

Behind the scenes? Good food and good management.

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It's also good to avoid your blind-spot.
A friend of mine was a micro-brewer (good beer, interesting flavors). Opened a bistro to serve .....beer...
and
(when it first opened)
the most god-awful selection uninspired sandwiches (?for dinner?)
and salads.

But the beer(s) was/were good.

And he was happy with that, but confused about why the place wasn't doing better.

I asked him what he thought people did when they drank beer.
By that, I said, what do they eat?

>>>>The blank stare told me everything<<<<<<

In the next weeks they added pizza and sticky-like-you-make-in-your-backyard-chicken and big bowls of nacho chips and cheesy/peppery stuff.

But he was unhappy because now people said his beer(s) tasted odd with some of the stuff.

He really wanted people just to sit there and sip and enjoy his beers.

Well.
I'm sure that there are a couple hundred people in the world who would do that.

Joe(The other six billion or so of us are chowing down someplace else.)Nation

1 Reply

@Joe Nation,

Quote:

It's also good to avoid your blind-spot

What you are really talking about is not looking at owning a restaurant as running a business. I think that this happens quite a lot actually, from the woman who opens a place because she wants to have a place to drink and socialize to the guy who opens a place because he wants to prove that is greener political views are correct. Restaurants are not just a business, they are a tough business to be successful in if success is measured by making money. Those which do not make money dont last long though unless they are a vanity project for someone who already has money, or for one of their kids.

Quote:

He really wanted people just to sit there and sip and enjoy his beers.

What he wanted I am 99% sure is for people to stroke is ego about how great his beer is. Getting that stroke by getting a bimbette is going to turn out a hell of a lot cheaper of an option most of the time.

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@Green Witch,

Quote:

When I think about the restaurants I return to over and over it has a lot to do with the owner and his/her passion for what they serve and their respect for their customers.

The word the best suits the successful people that I have known in this business is "uncompromising". This a lot of the time has them coming off as ass-holes. These people have a passion and a vision, anyone who gets in their way gets chopped off at the knees.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

When I think about the restaurants I return to over and over it has a lot to do with the owner and his/her passion for what they serve and their respect for their customers.

hawkeye10 wrote:

The word the best suits the successful people that I have known in this business is "uncompromising". This a lot of the time has them coming off as ass-holes. These people have a passion and a vision, anyone who gets in their way gets chopped off at the knees.

I hope that your food will be cleaner than your language.

David

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

When I think about the restaurants I return to over and over it has a lot to do with the owner and his/her passion for what they serve and their respect for their customers.

hawkeye10 wrote:

The word the best suits the successful people that I have known in this business is "uncompromising". This a lot of the time has them coming off as ass-holes. These people have a passion and a vision, anyone who gets in their way gets chopped off at the knees.

I hope that your food will be cleaner than your language.

David

0 Replies

What is the Worst (hardest?/most unpleasant?) part of Opening a Restaurant?

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