You get $500K but you must use it to open your dream restaurant

A friend recently told me her horror story of marrying a man who wanted to open a restaurant. She tried to talk him out of it. He assured her that it would not consume all his time and money and that she would not be dragged into it..... He bought a restaurant, she wound up trying to help save it and it went bust anyway. She looked at me and says "you want your own restaurant too! Don't you? What is it with men? They have these fantasies of opening a great restaurant and just comp'ing meals for friends and family..."

So, just as a hypothetical, let's say someone will give you $500K on the condition that you must use it to open and run a restaurant for at least 1 year. What is your restaurant like? Where is it? What is on the menu? It can be a restaurant/bar or any other type of entity as long as part of it is a restaurant.

I'd do a little pizza place on Kauai or Maui. I'd get to live there, of course. I'd also close early and often....just like the other restaurants there.

Hangin' loose in shorts and flip flops.....

Welcome to DU, Sooner75 :hi: (from a fellow sooner :))

c'mon. Someone had to do it.

Why, I could use the $500,000 for food AND singing lessons!

Radio_Lady/Ellen in Oregon

somewhere on a lovely beach.

restaurant are! :shrug:

In order to be able to have an idea of what kind of restaurant one could reasonably shoot for for 500K.

it doesn't have to be profitable or sustainable, just fun for you and or the customers.

to buy a KFC franchise, but that was about ten years ago I heard it too.

I certainly would not want to open a restaurant - a bakery maybe, but never a restaurant. Food preparation and codes and inspectors and vermin and grease and decaying produce and underpaid employees. No way. Give me a shoe store or something any day. Restaurant? :scared: :scared: :hide:

cuz i'm from there, but in the NW cuz i live there.

my family recipe (better than skyline), with organic BUFFALO meat chili, kosher chili dogs, whole wheat pasta, and good cheddar. and a view of water & mountains.

and alcohol. lots of alcohol.

but no crap american lagers.

oh, and i would also sell sticky buds. its a dream, right? :smoke:

and fish in tanks.

Fresh fresh fresh!

And maybe put it in a place like Dallas that has a lot of Chinese people, but really doesn't have a restaurant of this type of the caliber you find in CA and NY, assuming the cost of shipping in the live and fresh seafood doesn't bankrupt you, you have a guaranteed source of good business.

After all what do they have there now? McDonalds, KFC...Burger King...Pizza Hut and you
know they love to try out those Amerikajin dishes...so you would have the exact same menu
including Apple pie ala mode.Yeah, I think it would have a shot... and if all went well
then move on to Hong Kong.

Big tables so people have to share and meet each other.
People selling fresh pretzels tableside from big baskets.
A band that plays almost non-stop.
People singing along.
Potato soup, lentil soup, wurst, schnitzel, spatzle, red kraut, german chocolate cake. Potato pancakes, fresh applesauce, sour cream and hofbrau beer (draft only)

Location: NYC - either the west end of 42nd street or near Columbia or NYU.

It's similar-ish to Hofbrau -- except it's mainly outdoors.

It's my favorite place to go drink in the summer here. $12 pitchers of Pilsner Urquel, a gigantic outdoor area (holds up to 1,000 people) filled with long, big tables, a couple grills selling everything from giant wursts to veggie burgers -- and, if you're lucky and go on the right time of the weekend, there's an oompah band with dancing outside.

http://www.bohemianhall.com/home.htm

a great asset to Queens! But walking into the Munich Hofbrau was like walking into a sphere or positive energy. The enclosed space, the noise, the mix of people, the warmth and all was just on a whole other level.

come back after wards for cheesecake, cheesecake is the one thing i can do really well.

I'd be on a lake, too.

And within the bar/restaurant, there'd be a place to play pool, ping pong, and darts. There'd be a big screen tv where people can watch their sports games or whatever.

For food I'd serve the usual burgers and pizza and stuff like that. There'd also be a huge assortment of appetizers, like buffalo wings or mozzarella sticks. I'd also have a salad bar and a dessert bar, both all-you-can-eat. I'd serve all types of alcoholic beverages and pop/soda.

I think that'd be something I'd like to do someday.

With lots of back areas and a stage and art gallery and stuff.

Yeah, that's right, as many ethnic-based restaurants as we have, why not an actualy mead hall, complete with a huge veat of mead ale in the dining hall, and various Nordic delicacies. Now, the only question is, do I name it Grendel's or Beowulf's?


"Valhalla, I am com-eeeeeeeeeee-ing....."

Not actual Swanson heat & serve crap, but homemade comfort food served in compartment trays. Say it's prix fixe at around 7 or 8 bucks, entrée choices would be stuff like meatloaf, roast chicken, salisbury steak, pot roast, stroganoff, fish fry on friday, whatever, served with choice of potato, veggie, and of course, cobbler. Since it'd be limited menu, it'd be quick to order & serve, and I'll bet that sort of thing would be a hit with lunchtime diners in a business district.

You'd have better food, but the concept is sound.

It would have all the various small bites from all over. Like tapas, dim sum, tea sandwiches, satay, etc. All the dishes would be truly a bit or two and diners would order several to make a meal.

BBQ joint that turns into a bar after 9 pm. Maybe I'll hire Dalton if the crowd gets too rambunctious...

On your dinner ticket, you get to pick which charity. Each month, most votes wins the pot. These "paper ballots" of course would be kept, just in case accusations of tampering (or a recount were needed). I'd make that the running joke in the restaurant.

The menu would likely change monthly, depending on what's available. All dishes would be marked with ingredients, in case folks have allergies (soy, wheat gluten, nuts, etc).

for the last couple of years but don't have the money to do it. I'm half Italian and make a great spaghetti sauce. You would have a choice of the type of pasta you want-rigatoni, angel hair, shells. You have a choice of tomato sauces-one with mushrooms for the vegan/veggies and one started with meat with your choice of either meatballs or Italian sausage. Dinner includes an Italian salad with vinegarette and a good crusty bread. A side of parm cheese. No subs, no pizza.

And all of it would be take-out. No dining in.

I have toyed with this idea for years.

As a vegetarian in SF it is hard to find a place that families can go and that has no fuss, traditionally non-veg foods. With that challenge, Elsie's Joint (in honor of Elsie the cow) was born.

The menu would include veggie/vegan versions of old favorites like like sloppy joes, philly cheesesteaks, grilled hot dogs and pigs in a blanket, burgers with all the trimmings, mac and cheese, tacos, po' boys, and such. There would be loads of veggie sides, some regular veg "adult" food like pastas, and fun desserts like pudding, "jello", s'mores, Rice Krispy Treats, as well as cakes and pies.

All of the above can be done veg/vegan, non-GMO, and much of it organic.

It's my dream restaurant. Sigh.

Definitely an under-served market. Have you tried to take your pants off while eating in a restaurant lately? Those police officers had NO appreciation for our freedom of expression.

/s


Seriously? I'd probably open either a modern grill and serve a fusion of styles (grilled portobello and foccacia burgers for the veggies, normal steaks and burgers for everyone else).

I actually almost did open a restaurant about 5 years ago. A great location opened up and I secured the funds and was getting the business plan together. Unfortunately somebody else got the spot first. It was going to be an open grill restaurant like I described above, only specializing in quick organic and veggie food. Healthy fast food (with an incredibly cool dining room and free internet access). The spot was next door to a university with NO real dining options around, so my idea was to capitalize on the problem by offering them something that was quick, tasty, AND healthy. There's a mexican joint in that spot today, serving your typical array of burritos and tacos.

Just what our county needs, nude dining! :rofl:

Hopefully get contacts with the Norweigans who can farm cod & other suitable fish then it'd be sustainable - and it'd be the best fish joint anywhere. It would be mainly appealing to the take-out crowd but to satisfy the "restaurant" condition I guess there'd have to be an eat-in menu and seating area. To keep to its roots there would be no drive through window. Plus these kind of locations are cheaper anyway and plentiful enough to lease for a year.

$500k for a restaurant for one year is easily doable... especially if all you're doing is leasing the property rather than purchasing it outright. Staffing costs would probably be the biggest expense (I'm no businessperson at this stage of life). Hopefully there'd be enough of a profit margin on the food to make up for this staffing cost and enough volume too.

Failing that if it's not appealing to my cultural roots (fish & chip restaurant, British-style pub, "greasy spoon" truckers cafe) then I guess some form of healthy fast-food at decent prices (with a major take-out and drive-through component involved).

Mark.

low lighting.

a gorgeous bar -- very plush -- with great banquettes.
lots of chrome.

a great dining room that serves everything from a wood fired pizza to
oysters on the half shell -- oh yeah -- oysters at the bar!

i'd love to have a fantastic champagne/sparkiling wine menu.

a very american nouvelle cuisine menu -- simple but very, very fresh.

i'd love to have a bunch of farmers that i worked with to get the best and freshest mushrooms, greens, veggies, pork, and i would love to have agood game connection: boar, buffalo, quail, wild turkey{not really wild just not those domesticated things}.

i'd love to have a famous chili.

and very important -- white table clothes -- and waiters in white apron that go to the floor.


you said sky was the limit -- anybody wanna do this with me?

Being in BC, it's a huge market.

I would open the place at around 2:30pm and stay open until about 5:00am.

Show episodes of the Prisoner, the Simpsons, and really easy game shows from the 70s and 80s.

Menu: Combos ($6.00), Oreos($1.25 ea), Kraft Dinner ($8.00/lb), pizza ($4.00/slice), Malomars($125.00/ea), Viva Puffs(more than the Malomars), Pretzels (first handful free, subsequent handfuls, $8.00/ea).

Those have got to be Canadian prices...man. We're poor, our income is smoked.

...

I've seen it. It ain't pretty. ;)

A traditional Korean yakimandu stand is a real simple affair. It's basically in the middle of the street. The guy has four oil drums. One of them has a huge wok full of boiling oil on top of it. The other three are full of ice, and there's little bowls of breaded items to cook in the oil--shrimp, yakimandu (kind of a cross between a crab rangoon and an egg roll--shape kinda like a rangoon, filling kinda like an egg roll), french fries, squid, all sorts of things. You tell the guy you want a hundred won worth of this, a hundred won worth of that...and he fries it up, puts it in a bag that's traditionally made out of waste paper from the nearest army base, and hands it to you.

An American yakimandu stand would need certified equipment--an ice cream case would do to display the uncooked foods, and regular deep fryers would suffice--but you could get pretty much the same feel as one in Korea. (If you wanted to get real authentic about it, have your deep fryers built into oil drums.) I think people would like it. It would work well at fairs, mall food courts and other walk-up places.

n/t

For stoners with munchies, diet crashers, pregnant women with cravings, etc. Open from 11PM to 10Am, serving nothing but pizza made fresh the day before, then stored in refrigeration. I've had this idea for years, and I think someone stole it.


Hey, you didn't say it had to be a GOOD idea... :shrug:

I have thought for a while that it's unfair to blame families for eating badly when our work situations and economic troubles make it so difficult to live and eat well. So my idea is to create a family-friendly restraunt with a pickup window for commuters to grab dinner on the way home and a casual dine-in area for people to eat with thier families, serving healthy food. All food would be vegan, but the emphasis would be on local seasonal ingredients and not on faux foods. On the slowest night of the week there would be a class for kids in preparing healthy tasty food, both as a way of generating business and as a service to the community.

If it did well I'd expand to a heat and eat dinner line and possibly offer delivery service if an ecological option for doing so could be found.

I'd have people lined up outside the door

The goof will be high quality classically inspired but modern interpretations, served elegantly in a small space with maybe 6 tables, seating 24 maximum. We will do one, three-hour sitting a night, maybe be open for lunch, and the menu to be dictated by me each day depending on my mood and what's available. Diners will be able to make some small choices in their food, but not many. It'll be a prix fixe, multi-coorse meal with quiet music in background, most likely jazz. The evening will begin at 7 pm with a cocktail hour and mingling of the 24 guests, led by the banter of the jazz band. Meal service begins at 8 pm, and hopefully the spirit and conviviality will continue with a lot of talk back and forth from table to table and good enjoyment and plenty fun.

Bit I'd have to insist that Fear's first album be played just below conversation level, all the time.

Actually, I'm not familiar with either band, so I'm talking out of my ass.

.

No fixed menu...whatever Mom feels like cooking.. everything from scratch..

a few likely items

home made white-meat chicken salad on home made bread
real chicken & dumplings
meatloaf
13" fritattas...potatoes, ham, bacon, cheese, onion...cooked to perfection 1" thick
pot roast
roast pork w/ braised carrots, cabbage & potatoes
scratch lasagna
scratch cakes...lemon chiffon w caramel icing, buttermilk chocolate
lemon/garlic marinated pork chops
beef & homemade egg noodles
baked chicken
steamed veggies
homemade egg rolls (pork/veggies)
Vegetable beef soup
chili

others too... but the menu would have to be a chalkboard depending on what Mom's in the mood to make :)

and generally play the big shot. I wouldn't care if I lost the money 'cause it wasn't mine to begin with.

are made of brick) and has a nice, trendy inside with lots of bold colors. There are a lot of plants, pieces of art (both copies of famous works and local art), and moderate lighting. There is a bar that serves both alcohol and coffee drinks to one side of the dinning area. Nothing is very formal. Some parts of the dinning area have couches with coffee tables in front of them for people to relax in, but there are also tables for people to eat at. There is always some music playing. In front of the restaurant there is a patio with string lights above for people to eat at so they can enjoy a nice summer night. The menu consists of comfort food and traditional dishes, but nothing extravagant. The waiters/waitresses are dresses very casual, with a tee shirt to identify who they are. The restaurant is meant to be very casual and relaxing.

Either TexMex or traditional Southern comfort food. :D