I have always thought it would be cool & often day dream about owning a restaurant. I would love to retire at 40 & open a restaurant. 
does anyone else want to be a restaurateur?
- Thread starter TN
- Start date
For the past couple of years I've wanted to open a place like the Mud Dock and actually spent quite a bit of money on market research only to find it wouldn't work in the area I was looking at.TN said:I have always thought it would be cool & often day dream about owning a restaurant. I would love to retire at 40 & open a restaurant.
Me Me Me!!!
For two reasons - 1 I want a place where I can make pies and pastries for people all the time. My coworkers have started asking me to make them pie for special occasions and they pay for the ingredients - most of them wonder why I don't do it as a side job...
2 - I want a place that's fancy and nice, with a cafe downstairs, that people with special dietary needs can go to and feel welcome. My parents can't really eat out because of all their special crap they have to consider to prevent anyone from getting sick...i'm becoming very skilled at meeting a lot of different dietary needs and still cooking really tasty delicious foods...and I want to do it for others!
For two reasons - 1 I want a place where I can make pies and pastries for people all the time. My coworkers have started asking me to make them pie for special occasions and they pay for the ingredients - most of them wonder why I don't do it as a side job...
2 - I want a place that's fancy and nice, with a cafe downstairs, that people with special dietary needs can go to and feel welcome. My parents can't really eat out because of all their special crap they have to consider to prevent anyone from getting sick...i'm becoming very skilled at meeting a lot of different dietary needs and still cooking really tasty delicious foods...and I want to do it for others!
Owning a restaurant might be nice, but I'm averse to that much work....... 
I'll stick to cooking in my kitchen for my family & friends.
-S.S.-
I'll stick to cooking in my kitchen for my family & friends.
-S.S.-
I haven't been there, I just love the concept. Bike shop downstairs, pub upstairs. Two bike shops have gone belly up in the last 2 years in the area I was looking at.TN said:
Of course, the SSWC is in town this year, I'm sure that would have been great for business.
I've often thought about a bike shop with a bar in the evening and a coffee shop with bagels and the such in the morning.
It's got to have outdoor seating too, so I can hang out there with my bike during/after urban rides in the city or grab a bagel after a morning road ride.
It's got to have outdoor seating too, so I can hang out there with my bike during/after urban rides in the city or grab a bagel after a morning road ride.
Ever been to Coppi's on U St. in DC? The whole restaurant is decorated in bicycling memorabelia and is a virtual shrine to the Italian racing legend Fausto Coppi. Their Italian menu uses mostly if not all organic ingredients. This is the restaurant I would have liked to have opened. Oh, and they serve a nutella calzone for dessert 
This is a conclusion many people reach only after sinking hard-earned savings into a joint that was doomed from the start. Read Chef Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confessions". . . there is some extremely wise insight into why restaurants either succeed or fail. Like many pleasures in life (brewing, music, fishing, humping), turning your love of cooking into a business is a great way to lose that love.SkaredShtles said:Owning a restaurant might be nice, but I'm averse to that much work.......
I'll stick to cooking in my kitchen for my family & friends.
-S.S.-
#1: Do you love cooking? Do it for your friends and family.
#2: Do you love brewing beer? See #1 above.
#3: Love having people over to enjoy food and drinks? See #1 above.
Yes there are some folks who have the "idea", the business acumen, the location, and the luck to turn their love of food into a successful business. Go eat at their restaurants and enjoy their success. Imagine their debt, their stress, the difficulty they have hiring competent staff, the hours they work, their picky, whiny, bitchy, abrasive, impatient, and sometimes abusive customers, and the fact they have no life outside their business.
Then go home and cook what you like, and serve it to people you like.
Re: TN and the retirement idea. . . yah, I still might try it in retirement. By then it won't matter whether I "have a life" or not, and it might keep me from driving my wife crazy at home.
Haven't eaten there, but have been by the place. Looks cool, and I need to check it out.DamienC said:Ever been to Coppi's on U St. in DC? The whole restaurant is decorated in bicycling memorabelia and is a virtual shrine to the Italian racing legend Fausto Coppi. Their Italian menu uses mostly if not all organic ingredients. This is the restaurant I would have liked to have opened. Oh, and they serve a nutella calzone for dessert
SkaredShtles said:Owning a restaurant might be nice, but I'm averse to that much work.......
I'll stick to cooking in my kitchen for my family & friends.
-S.S.-
Oh - and I forgot to mention drinking.........narlus said:
-S.S.-
I got out of the rest. biz many years ago, even though I wanted to, and still want to, open my own restaurant. The hours and the substance abuse will kill you. Drinking all the time becomes too easy, not to mention the tempting allure of stimulant use.
Word. My ex-brother-in-law is an alcoholic speed freak who works 18 hour days as an executive chef at a resort in the poconos.Yossarian said:
When I was stationed in Hawaii, a couple of riding buddies wanted to start a bike shop/bar after they got out of the Marines.