Opening a restaurant...

[Verjuice]

I am wondering what the best literature is on opening and running a restaurant. There's a lot of it out there.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

[Kiwi-Chef]

I am wondering what the best literature is on opening and running a restaurant. There's a lot of it out there.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

There is no easy option here, we {partner and I} have been working on a concept now for 18months and it's still seeming like miles off from completion.

Get a few books and do a few courses

[stovetop]

I am wondering what the best literature is on opening and running a restaurant. There's a lot of it out there.

For theory American hotel motel association text book Planning and control for food and beverage operations

It has some great resources

1/Know your market

2/Avoid high rent, get a good lease

3/start with enough capital

4/recognize good kitchen design and importance of menu engineering design kitchen first

5/establish control procedures from day one for cash and food

6/monitor cost daily

7/work on giving consistent service and food

8/good management

9/watch opening labor cost, keep all opening cost down as much as you can

more

Developed a solid concept

Build a solid menu

Get a good lease---location- location -location

Budget

Design kitchen

Design front of house

Developed all procedures

Buy equipment for kitchen

Get house wares and front of house stuff

Find a good contractor

Build

Stick to budget

Make employee hand book- know rules from day one communicate those rules

Be consistent with your staff and customers

Know what and who you are and never vary from that ideal, changing in mid stream is a death sentence

systems-systems-systems

Labor -food-liquor cost- first year will break you- do not take money from business for the whole first year- that has to be in the budget

If you live high life style- lower your expectations or be a millionaire

Good luck

Steve

[Verjuice]

Thanks for the info.

[aliwaks]

Definately get a good lease, I didn't have one and it killed me.

[clothier]

you want good advice on opening a new place?

Don't.

You will most likely fail.

There, that said, it's supposed to be fun. Hard work, but fun.

and get a good attorney. pay him in food, if you can. you'll need him/her.

[stovetop]

and get a good attorney. pay him in food, if you can. you'll need him/her.

good advice, pay them all in food!

When the tax collecter comes pay them in food.

stovetop

[theprophe]

A tax collector coming by would be good, means you are actually making, and the mafia,i mean government wants their share

[lleechef]

I agree with my friend clothier: the best advice is

DON'T DO IT!!

The help will drive you crazy, the customers will drive you crazy, you work 120 hours a week.........and those are the good things!

Good luck to you!

[jackal10]

I agree DON'T.

You will lose your money, and your friends (who won't understand why you now start charging them).

If you must, go work in a restaurant for a year, doing stages for nothing even. What you learn will more than pay for itself, even if it is negative...

[Verjuice]

Wow! I hear you guys loud and clear.

I was asking for my mother, who lives in the Middle East, and is considering opening a health food/breakfast joint; a couple million people where she lives and nowhere to get breakfast outside of a couple of lousy French pastry shops and a few traditional Lebanese bakeries for warm zaatar or cheese manaeesh.

I think it's a great idea, actually. It's not a ratrace there like it is here. I have been discouraging her but secretly I hope she goes through with it regardless .

Or maybe I just want a place to have a latte and some granola or a breakfast burrito when I'm visiting...

Edited April 15, 2004 by Verjuice (log)

[paul o' vendange]

I will go against the grain and say, if you've researched it, and want to do it, do it and don't look back. I am going to presume you're your own person, and you asked for some good literature on how to do it (can't help there), not the folksy-streetwise party line of how tough it is. It is tough, but if you want it, get it and make it your own.

Paul

[Bicycle Lee]

Wow! I hear you guys loud and clear.

I was asking for my mother, who lives in the Middle East, and is considering opening a health food/breakfast joint; a couple million people where she lives and nowhere to get breakfast outside of a couple of lousy French pastry shops and a few traditional Lebanese bakeries for warm zaatar or cheese manaeesh.

I think it's a great idea, actually. It's not a ratrace there like it is here. I have been discouraging her but secretly I hope she goes through with it regardless .

Or maybe I just want a place to have a latte and some granola or a breakfast burrito when I'm visiting...

I will have to say DO IT as well...especially given the circumstances. I think a restaurant can work if given the right ground to root in...meaning: if an area doesn't have an establishment and you make a quality product, people will come and you will at least break even. That IS an assumption, but I think it is a fair one. My brother and his buddy were interested in opening a small lunch joint and asked me what I thought. I said stay away from the saturated areas and you'll probably do fine...I stick by this

[herbacidal]

I'd say do it. It has to be a lot easier to open a restaurant in Lebanon than in the US, so many of our fears wouldn't be as applicable.

Just not dealing with health inspectors, competing with everyone else who would be around you, that all has to be easier in Lebanon.

[Holly Moore]

Having walked in them restaurant owning shoes - a few comments on some of the assumptions in this thread.

Attorney: I only used an attorney twice: once to incorporate me when I opened and once to prepare the articles of sale when I sold.

Taxes: In Philadelphia, at least, paying taxes doesn't mean you're making money. In a mockery of the language Philadelphia has a two pronged "Business Privledge" tax. Both gross sales and net profits are taxed. That way if you're not making a profit, Philadelphia can still get its share, no matter how much it hurts the small business.

Friends: Never had friends get pissed off because I charged them (they knew me pretty well ), but the demands of the business did keep me away from them. One of the plus points to selling the restaurant was getting to spend time with friends other than employees and customers.

Losing Money: Knee jerk common wisdom - "restaurants mostly fail." Yet look at all the restaurants out there. Someone's making a living. The odds of a new restaurant making it are against you. But most that fail are probably opened by those who 1) don't really understand the nuts, bolts and dollars aspects of the business and 2) those who go in undercapitalized and 3) those who do both. Learn on someone else's buck and make sure you have enough money in the bank to live on for a couple of years even if you aren't pulling anything out of your business. Also enough money to pay all expenses for 6 months.

"Don't Do It:" Fortunately, if you truly have the passion, you'll ignore this advice. And if you don't have the passion, you'll hear it loud and clear.

[flapjack willy]

here is my simple advice based on first hand experience. do not do it unless you fully understand that you must be there all the time the store is open. think about it this way; it's a big stew pot with the following ingredients: late night hours, liquor, food, cash money and attractive members of the opposite sex. when one stirs all of this together there is a good chance that something or someone is going to something they should'nt with your resources.

[JosephB]

think about it this way; it's a big stew pot with the following ingredients: late night hours, liquor, food, cash money and attractive members of the opposite sex. when one stirs all of this together there is a good chance that something or someone is going to something they should'nt with your resources.

In a "healthfood/breakfast joint" ?

[paul o' vendange]

think about it this way; it's a big stew pot with the following ingredients:  late night hours, liquor, food, cash money and attractive members of the opposite sex.  when one stirs all of this together there is a good chance that something or someone is going to something they should'nt with your resources.

In a "healthfood/breakfast joint" ?

Ditto.

As an entrepreneur, I have a problem with "standard wisdom says..." anything. If you want something, you do it. If there's a roadblock, find a way around it. If you listened to the standard advice from anyone, you would likely not even start, much less succeed. Go in eyes open, but not so equivocating that the angst and decision making stymies action. At some point, simply take action and don't look back. Plenty of voices out there to say, "no, don't do it"; especially as regards the hackneyed wisdom contained in "don't - it WILL FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!," I find absolutely useless. And in light of this person's intended operation, let's get real and allow that it may succeed, despite the firestorm of negativity.

However, trysts over tea may indeed pose an irreparable threat. Be afraid. be very afraid.

Paul

[Verjuice]

So grateful for the input.

Good stuff. Also, we're going to start planning more seriously now that we've decided to do it .

[jackal10]

The key is what is the market.

a. Location

b. Location

c. Location

The location must be such that there is enough traffic and people who will want breakfast. If it is out of the way you won't get the casual traffic, and no matter how good it is reputation takes time to spread.

Do the sums. In the West it goes roughly

30% cost of food

30% overheads (rent, taxes, power, water, insurance, capital etc etc)

30% staff costs

10% everything else

Can you make enough money just on breakfast? How many do you need to sell to break even? Will you have take-away trade?

Besides location and word of mouth, how will you advertise, especially in the early days?

[Holly Moore]

The key is what is the market.

a. Location

b. Location

c. Location

A bit of trivia. Elsworth Milton Statler of the long gone Statler Hotel Chain was the first to coin the phrase.

[clothier]

I don't know anything about restuarants in Beruit. Nothing. Zip. Nada.

I withdraw from the discussion with this:

Good Luck. I hope it works.

[stovetop]

The basic four things are the same no matter where you are in the world you buy the food, make the food, sell the food, collect the money, then buy more food.

The menu is very important, the atmospher is key, who do you want to sell too, who are you??; what kind of place do you want to spend all your time at, so you better open something that you will enjoy, Mornings and lunch are very important to peoples day, they are usualy in a hury, going to something, coming from something, they are hungry, want it now, it is a meal that you can get someone every day, so you will have very regular customers; thus you got to like these people, in the end it make life so much better.

Keep the cost down, especialy opening cost, your debt load has to be low, just like the lease, watch your labour, keep it simple, less staff the more money in your pocket, instead of theirs.

count the pennies

stovetop

cafe's have a way better average then high end restaurants

low cost better returns

[herbacidal]

I should supplement what I said before when I was more strapped for time.

I'm not sure about alcohol licensing in Lebanon, and the intracies involved.

Location: like any retail business, it's always vital, and cannot be stressed enough.

It determines what kind of people you'll get, how many of them, at what times, etc.

I don't know that a cafe/breakfast joint would generate enough money, but Lebanon may be different.

Other than that, plan, plan plan.

Stop planning, and then plan some more.

[whippy]

if i were your mom i would seriously ask myself this question: why aren't there any breakfast spots around her? has nobody honestly ever noticed this? is the only reason there aren't any--other entrepeneurs' blindness?

i think it's easy to have that aha! sort of feeling at first, and convince yourself that there is an unexploited market. but step back from that and try to be as rational as possible. picture a breakfast spot there owned by somebody else, maybe one serving only so-so food; is it successful?

i'd also advise her to be honest with herself up front. spend sometime recognizing her weaknesses, and be ready to deal with them.

not to be discouraging, but the dream of running a joint can turn very sour indeed without A LOT of thinking. i've experienced both success and failure as a restaurateur. since the success of a joint can so often be totally random, you can't rule out the downside.