Ever opened up a RESTAURANT and was it successful?
 

I often see new, sometimes good restaurants around here where at like 5:30pm, nobody is in it and you have 2 or 3 waiters/manager standing there looking outside... while the restaurant in front, is packed.. And that, day after day... That's the kind of nightmare scenario that could keep me from opening one someday...

What was your experience and did you had trouble attracting clients..?

I have caffe bar before i enter again in porn biz.It was sucessful but i didint have will for managing it anymore so i decide to quit.But a lot of fanatics has left(people who liked my bar a lot beacuse i offer content which noone on world has)

At 5.30 pm here all the restaurants are closed.. who eats at 5.30 that's just past lunch time.

Here are restaraunts work all day

everyone with a coffeepot in hungary has a restaurant

Want to make money running a restaurant? Simple... come up with a good idea, get some hype going, get it brimming with customers... make sure you have plenty of atmosphere...

the sell the fucking thing before it turns into a worthless boat anchor.

Trendy stuff only has a certain shelf life. Get past that shelf life, and you are fucked.

Bars are worse. Open a bar, you should have the for sale sign up pretty much from opening night.

Alex

It's a really tough biz. A friend of mine's wife is a chef and has worked at some restaurants. There was one she worked at that was always packed at night and did good business during lunch but was still on the brink of going under because it was mismanaged and they had too much overhead and the lease on the space was too high. I think it is something like 95% of all restaurants fail in the first year.

As others have said you need something good, a good location, good word of mouth and enough money to stay afloat while that word of mouth spreads.

The restaurant biz has one of the highest failure rates. Everyone I've talked said don't, not worth it.

Crap.. there's a nice restaurant near where I live, good food, good name, decent prices... good location... but at any given time, there will be between 0 and 8 or 10 people in it... average 6... Can welcome 100+ people.. The restaurant is at least 3 years old... I cannot imagine the guy making any profit... But restaurants around are often packed... The Subway as exemple is making a killing...

I think some of those places like Subway and Quiznos and take and bake pizza places make a lot more money than normal restaurants do. They don't have to spend nearly as much for equiptment or help and everything is made fast. There is Chinese food place near my house that is always empty. I don't know how they stay in business. Maybe they make a lot off of take out.

I'll let you know in a year :)

what type of restaurant are you opening?

read this, then tell me if you want to start a quiznos. you better be fucking damn sure you are going to make a profit before you start, i.e. good good good location.

http://www.gfy.com/showthread.php?t=...hlight=quiznos

However hard it is to make a profit, even if you are profitable, you must appreciate how unforgiving a food business is to run day in day out. The daily routine is draining and void of any satisfaction if you are dealing with anything more complex than simply pouring coffee. It's hell to deal with low paid employees, food safety/cleanliness issues, the public's expectations... My franchises had lineups out the door, around a hundred employees, yet it was still hard to make a buck and worse to stick around and run it. Unless it's some hot night club or similar, there is no joy in running a food franchise.

Can never figure out why people dream of one day opening up a money losing Subway where they will work 75 hours per week because they can't afford employees and watch it fail within 18 months along with all their life savings.

I never said they were easy to open or run, nor did I say I wanted to own one. I just said that I think some of these things (IE good location and lots of foot traffic) probably make more money than a lot of regular restaraunts do.

Its tough, Ill give you that. I see new ones opening all the time and the same ones failing.

what to me is one thing many restaurants lack is smiles.

in france we go to a town with a few resturants in. they all do the same food and all same prices and similar styles of location.

however one is always full all year round and that is the one where the waiters and waitress's smile.

if you make your custumer happy, they come back $$$rebill$$$

I hear that. I know someone that for years was a manager of a big grocery store and worked a lot of hours in a thankless job. They dreamed of opening up a small mom and pop type of convience store that they could own. Eventually they saved up some money and with loans bought a country store that also had some gas pumps. It did okay for them, but in the end he and his wife basically worked 70+ hours a week at it because they didn't make enough money to be able to afford to hire many employees and when it was all said and done they worked more hours and made about the same money as they did when they worked at the store. Not for me.

Ouch.. very expensive to get those type of franchises... I prefer to start small, build from the ground.. and go from there..

not me, but my aunt did...
and, yes, it's very succesful. :)
she has chosen a very good location and offers very good stuff at reasonable prices so it kinda worked.

my resturant is the number one resturant in my town :) we have about 6 or 7 resturants in a town of about 2k population and theres 2 places that have a new owner and a different type of resturant at it every 6 months... luckly ours is number 1 and is always packed...

i think speciality spots are good..

like CHIPOTLE burittos

or FIVE GUYS burgers

1 good anchor product, low overhead, addicted custys.. high margins

Being Greek...every restaurant and bar has and is successful...lol

Very interesting business to venture in. gotta look out to keep the food and sorrounding clean.. not to mention that unforgetable taste..:) goodluck with your plans

Depends on location and niche. Many restaurants exist because the owner is independently wealthy and just wants to provide GOOD FOOD or a NEW DINING EXPERIENCE CONCEPT to the public (as long as it breaks even, he/she is not sweating it). Many of the BEST restaurants here in the Philippines are like that-high concept fine dining.

if someone is really successful in restaurants they arent in adult

elaborate ? Because they are spending all their time at their restaurante:1orglaugh

I bought a Quizznos franchise :(

Location is the key.

I worked for a guy for about four years that opened up places, ran them for a year, turned a profit, and then sold them. And in every case the location was the key.

have you been to Kai? or Peoples Palace? in gb3

I've managed one and worked in at least 5-6 while I was studying - long hours, the average restaurant wont make enough to make up for that, so basically if you don't have a passion for that business simply don't do it

Some people eat out for dinner

I owned a sea-side open air lounge club in Spain (Niki Beach style). Was VERY
successfull and fun to setup. Ran it for 2 years and sold it for big bucks :winkwink:

All the Money in Restaurants are in the Greasy Spoon Breakfast type places. their Food costs are always killer low and the food is stupid cheap to make.

If you want to open anything fine dining you need a ton of cash as it will take forever to gain clientel.