What do you like about restaurants?

[eugenep]

I like the courage the guys have for opening a restaurant since over 60% (maybe more) of new restaurants fail within the first 2 years or so. 

 

The highest business failure rates are in restaurant and retail. 

 

The turnover of staff employees are the highest etc. 

 

The profits are very low (if you aren't losing money) 

 

So that's why I feel sorry for the majority of guys that don't make it and try to be polite to the front end staff etc. 

 

I think the service determines a lot about the experience. Most of us on Egullet most likely could dish out something better (owing to higher cost ingredients and freshness that we pay more for) so I judge on service because I've had pretty bad experiences (owing to service). 

 

I've had great nights in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with great service but moderate food but beautiful dining and place and a great crowd 

 

[pastrygirl]

I like an open kitchen or sushi bar and watching some other sucker sweat it out on the line.

[heidih]

One of my favorite bits is walking down long corridors to restrooms and passing the kitchen and seeing the intensity. Talking smaller local places. I don't think we appreciate the team work and difficulty of restos. I really feel a heart tug in family places when you see their kids tucked in a back booth doing their homework.

[chromedome]

26 minutes ago, heidih said:

 I don't think we appreciate the team work and difficulty of restos. I really feel a heart tug in family places when you see their kids tucked in a back booth doing their homework.

That's the little Chinese buffet place a couple of blocks away from me. When I started going there a decade or so ago, the kids were preschoolers. They proudly helped clear the dirty dishes, and galloped messages from the buffet to the kitchen to let them know what was getting low. A couple of years later they would sit in a back corner with others of the extended family, painstakingly assembling wontons.

Now they're in middle school and I seldom see them actually in the restaurant, but feel a twinge when I occasionally pass the whole family in a supermarket. It's almost like watching one's own kids/grandkids grow up.

[chromedome]

My daughter sent me this, and it seemed apropos for this thread:

 

https://notalwaysright.com/theyve-scrambled-a-few-too-many-eggs/139998/