Why Even Great Restaurants Go Out of Business

[Pink Freud]

A thousand years ago when I waited tables in St. Louis, my beleaguered restaurant owner, in a fit of gallows humor, asked me if I'd like to have one million dollars. Of course, I said "YES! HOW?". He said "Start with ten million, then open a restaurant."

Keep that in mind as you read this heartbreaking personal account of why a top-ranked restaurateur had to finally pull the plug: (If you need a text-only version, let me know):

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/28/opin ... risis.html

[Nickyboy]

I've known several good Italian eateries that were great restaurants run by families. And in more than a couple of instances when the family got too old, tired, or rich to care anymore, NOBODY could continue running the restaurant as well as the family members. So they either sold the place or totally closed down. Making a good restaurant isn't always as easy as some places make it look. It requires a lot of hard work, great management, and consistent quality control skills in order to produce stellar food!

[Cajanek-Spielmacher]

RENT

[Pink Freud]

Making a good restaurant isn't always as easy as some places make it look. It requires a lot of hard work, great management, and consistent quality control skills in order to produce stellar food!

And that is key: Making it look effortless, when in fact it's one of the most exhausting and maddening jobs anywhere, whether you're in the front or the back of the house. You just can't let your customers know that you're dying inside while smiling outside. There were thousands of nights when, the moment the last customer left and we locked the door, we looked at each other and our eyes said, "My god, we got through it again." And then it takes several hours to wind down at home...or in bars.

And THAT "effortless" fantasy, perhaps more than anything, is what sometimes draws the most naive and gullible people into buying a restaurant they've enjoyed visiting. Because they're so comfortable being catered to while they're dining, they think it might be fun and profitable on the other side. Boy, do they have a rude awakening coming.

And then, when they've finally tired of the 8 days a week grind, their kids see a choice: Either pass it along to them to work and worry their butts off every day, or sell the place and make the kids rich. Guess which one the kids almost always prefer.

[George Zipp]

RENT

For sure. Quality, as in food/service quality going downhill, pricing that doesn't fit location, word of mouth and now (bleep) places like yelp that amazingly people rely on.

I get that maybe all of that doesn't fit the "great restaurant" narrative but your answer and mine seem to be most of it.

I live in Creve Couer. The area around the AMC12 movies, that strip, has had restaurants come and go for 25 yrs. Right now the Panera, Freddys and Panda are the only things there. Might be a bar next to Freddys but I imagine it won't be there long. Those places are low to mid price (bleep) for the most part. The places that are just a step up didn't make it. CA Pizza Kitchen, which is a franchise I can't stand, was there for a while. Every once in a blue moon we would pick something up for lack of anything else in the moment. The last time we went, a basic couple of pizzas and salads, over 80 bucks. Just insane. Especially for garbage. Katie's and Pastaria charge that but the product is solid. I'll stop babbling now.

[Pink Freud]

The ownership advantages of corporate chains over family joints are too numerous to mention here, starting with the fact that one or two struggling chain locations can be sustained for awhile, until they make money again by the profits generated from high-performing sister stores within the chain. A handful of bad online reviews can sink a family-owned store, while the chain can withstand thousands of them, and just advertise more to replace those who say they won't return. And chains never have to wonder if they kids will want to run the joint once Mom and Dad want to retire.

There actually is a nice close to this post, though : The Dutch Bros. drive-through coffeeshop chain was featured on an episode of CBS's "Undercover Boss" several years ago. The CEO was so impressed by one worker, Jazmin Evenson, at the store where they were filming that he awarded her her own Dutch Bros. franchise in Prescott AZ, where she can pretty well print money, judging by the nonstop lines around the drive-thru. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1071305829615036