Many people ask me when I am going to be opening a restaurant. I look at them and laugh.
To have a restaurant is the business equivalent of having a boat – a hole to throw money into. Most restaurants owned by the Chef do not do well. I do not know the percentages, but most that I know fail within about a year, sometimes less. Restaurants are a loss. You run a food establishment expecting to be running in the red and cleaning up messes, both real and financial, as often as you make a perfect plate.
I and my partner have many ideas for restaurants. They come out as easily as talking about the weather. I have the projections and plans for several, and the main thing about starting food service is the cost. A place to have it. Legal hurdles including licenses. Outfitting the kitchen and bar. Choosing the PoS system. Hiring and training at least two teams for front and back of house. Attending to finding your food merchants. And then there is the advertizing and merchandizing.
It is tiring just thinking about it.
I have been told that having a coffee shop would be the easiest. I raise my eyebrow to them and just smile. They don’t realize that a ‘simple’ coffee shop means much more of an investment than many other ‘simple’ food places. The big investment is the time. People who frequent coffee shops expect them to be open at un-godly hours, both early and late. That would mean three shifts of people, and only one of them would be the big rush in the morning. Coffee shops are places for people to get a little sustenance and then sit around for hours nursing the coffee they got so that they will not be kicked out. That is not profit. That is being a library with coffee.
Evening establishments are just as hard as daytime ones. The patrons see the place when they are seated. They do not see the people who have been there for six to twelve hours preparing what is to be served. And they usually are open later, making it hard to be able to do anything but work, go home to sleep and wake late to go to work the next day. It is stress in the restaurant and on the person. And, yet, many of us still love to go to work after not getting enough sleep.
Did you know that there are some states in the US that have restrictions as to what kind of alcohol you can serve when? As well as to whom? Knowing your local and regional laws can drive a restaurateur to distraction. Too many start out without knowing enough about the paperwork. Being about to make a meal is great, but if you are legally restricted from serving it, that could be a problem.
The business of a restaurant is complicated. Perhaps one day, when I win the lottery, I will have one. Until then, I will cater and work for other people in their kitchens
. Safer that way.
Chef Rena