CFO999

Given the cuurent state of affairs and all the proposed labor regs...........all of the following will need to be given some new thought 1. NO TIPPING/SERVICE INCLUDED 2. NO HOURLY EMPLOYEES 3. REVENUE SHARING 4. FULL HEALTHCARE BENEFITS 5. AUTOMATION 6. NEW FINANCIAL MODEL 7. STANDARDIZED LABOR STRUCTURES

Bottom line here is the industry will need to rethink the old financial models they are using and start to think out of the traditional box Analyst predict a 20-25% reduction of all restaurant units over the next 18 months..........if you have not redone your financial model, you may become a statistic

Glad to see it only took abusive goverment regulations and 20 yrs for the industry to use my financial model developed in 1997,....... but never accepted

Annie costs less.............bottom line

He says he spent several years luring them here, so that doesn't seem quite fair. ← What would you like him to say? He has been paying rent on the space for over a year and I needed an out ← The failure of 66 doesn't make his other statement false. Anyhow, the plan for this space was well known a long time ago, so it's not as if it was a quick bail-out. ← Let's not forget they backed out once before. Finding someone to take over a lease of a failed restaurant concept is hard enough. Finding someone to take that lease on with this poor location is even harder. (lanlord appovals) Most people wait years to find a replacement. As I said, Good business move...................but don't let the smoke and mirrors fool you. Have you ever heard a great chef call himself "useless"

It's not the restaurant's fault that so many people want to dine there.True, they don't give you someone to talk to. But you also never get a busy signal or wait on hold, as you do at any other comparably busy place—the early days of Per Se come to mind, and that's but one example. ← Supply and demand comes to mind. If you stop calling................they will change their reservation process to something less frustrating How about extending the length window to make a resy

He says he spent several years luring them here, so that doesn't seem quite fair. ← What would you like him to say? He has been paying rent on the space for over a year and I needed an out

Is any restaurant worth all this trouble? What ever happened to hospitality

This is strictly a Matsu brothers venue. http://newyork.metromix.com/restaurants/ar.../463378/content JGV just dumped the lease and provides the press. Good business move, but I don't think he had a choice

Given that it's Josh Eden, (ex JG) you may have no choice

What should it be Tell me the restaurant type and ratio you have in your workplace How much for the FOH........BOH?

Hey Spike It doesn't matter what side of the pond you are on. I have walked into a dining room with 300 strong, giving the impression that all is well...........until you look at the books and find out the real story. (London) By nature, the restaurant industry is a labor intensive,operations centric machine. Most management teams when asked will constantly talk about a lack of skilled workers, long hours, and rising costs. Add to that one very important fact........Most restaurantuers are not trained. Revenue alone does not equal success.

Well said Townsend The real question here should be, WHY? Is it time to change the traditional restaurant model. By the way! The real reason there are no 4-star public restaurants is that the present management at these culinary temples are not structured to answer to shareholder pressure or be proactive to revenue shifts and changes in the public eye. You are correct.......first the service goes, then the product, then the management.

The amazing mis-management outways most rates of return expected on a typical restaurant model. If you were given the opportunity to see the lack of controls and lack of depth in most managemnt teams, you would clearly understand why Wall Street has traditionally converted restaurant investment into a real estate model. Ask yourself a question. Why is there no 4-star public restaurant companies? The delicate balance may be best described as "How much do they leave on the table"........In most of my experience as much as 10% is wasted or ignored though lack of knowledge or resources.

Gentlemen, All of the above named establishment are making their fare share of profitabilty. Some better than others......if you call 7% a return

The never ending swampland of brokers,agents, and lawyers. Seems a little harsh just to lease a space. Forget the key money, fixture fees and other strange goings on. Find youself a rep broker......and good attorney

Starting a venure without the financial knowledge or proper capitalization is destined for failure. Placing debet service on a new business is very risky. The amount of control you get is directly related to your investment, so if you want control you must consider putting your money where your mouth is.

Hey Bond Girl, Your prayers may have been answered. There is a new private equity firm in New York, run by real restaurant guys looking for new concepts to develop. Contact me if you are interested.

Great Chef does not always equal good business judgement. The present management team has gone through an extensive expansion in the last year. Going from a stand alone management style to a corporate group has a large learning curve. Any failure would be considered unaacceptable to this perfectionist chef. So disclosure of any weakness would not be tolerated.

10 Months after my last post should indicate that the writting on the wall was very plain to see. The issue of high rent at this location was a secondary issue (yes it was high)...since the real estate partner deffered payment in order to give the restaurant a chance to gain momentum. And in all fairness, no one could meet those numbers, regardless of who ran that location. And it is not surprising that JG will attempt to open a steakhouse in NYC to prove to the culinary world that this failure was not his doing, but really due to the greed of his real estate partners financial model. But the facts are the facts...JGV's empire has other failures the public knows nothing about....since as a group one profitable location will cover the sins of the other failing locations. This is not uncommon for an MCO. As I have stated before...this was the first steakhouse concept his management team was to control directly....all the other locations were management deals Bottom line......JG's still my favorite chef......and I am sure he has learned from this experience what needs to be done to complete a successful steakhouse model. I wish him all the best

The writing is on the wall Remember the comments from JG saying V was highest grossing restaurant in AOL(not profitable) Revenue alone does not equal success, and if you fall short of those expectations you better have a plan to adjust your model I created the business model for V Steakhouse, and all of management knew the slim chances of being successful at that location. The management team currently in place is historically never had to deal with a failure and is unprepared to quickly adjust to the public's change of heart regarding any of the restauarnts in the JGV empire. All the other steakhouse concepts presently under the JGV brand are all management deals being run by partnering management companies. V is the only steakhouse he actually manages. The AOL food court concept is hard enough as it is, now add high overhead cost related to a real estate deveopment model, never directly manageing a steakhouse concept, and the lack of flexability in a strained management team and you begin to see the problems that you may encounter.

Chef Keller's presence is now at the top of the food chain The French Laundry was chosen the number one restaurant in the world's top 50 by Epicurus.com new digital magazine. Have any you guys seen this list...wow

Hey Jaun Nice misdirection. Fact is I too was a vendor for 11 years and the customer as well for over 15 years. You are absolutley correct about the non adversary relationship, but New York is a terminal market and the vendor doesn't buy daily..The USDA market prices are posted daily..but the vendors inventory cost doesn't change daily...does it. You are right about too many deliveries per week.....but how many times have you dropped your price for a renegotiated delivery schedule? If you have, then you would be inventoring for your customers. By the way PRODUCE is the perfect example of this exersice Since the vendor is reduced to a delivery/quality service, the question is how come you won't hold your price on a weekly basis. ATTENION ALL CHEFS....COMPARE YOUR CURRENT COST AGAINST THE USDA MARKET If you are getting charged $4-7 over market price, you may have a problem. This approach is the same as weighing and counting.....check your price against market.....not against another vendor.

V would be the highest revenue grossing restaurant at this present time....but given the problems are they profitable? Revenue alone does not make it successful They are not serving lunch yet And the scene at Stone Rose seems to be getting all the beverage sales

Time Warner has struck management deals with each chef to enter this Vegas like experiment. They foot the bill for the development and building of each concept. Problem is their business model is flawed. The rents are insainely high and the operators have no incentive to perform.(other than their reps) Add to that this mall aversion issue and the profitability of these venues, are at least in the begining stages, questionable. Problem is They may be in denial about the eventual turnaround of these venues. Cost control of these venues are left to the operators who get paid no matter what the bottom line says. So, if we loose 2 million we will make it up later? This kind of thinking is definitely flawed. Is there a law that says we have to front load costs and create this massive overhead that doesn't match your revenue...especially in the early stages of a restaurant. It's not what you make....its what you leave on the table