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> Like other commenters, also wondering how his elaborate business plans (made w/ experienced restaurateur's input) could be so wildly inaccurate. I think the
by csydas 9y ago
> Like other commenters, also wondering how his elaborate business plans (made w/ experienced restaurateur's input) could be so wildly inaccurate.
I think the author commented on this pretty clearly in the article when they described themselves as someone with "...more money than sense". I've had many friends who are pretty insistent they have what it takes to make a successful run with a restaurant business with some gimmick on the side to bring in audiences, and every time I hear their pitch I can't help but be let down by the lackidasical pitch. I think in general people just don't really understand what it takes to get a restaurant just to "stable", neverminding profitable.
I'm often reminded of the difference between producing something and production something at a production scale; my partner is a chemist, and she tells me how their applicants don't always understand why a 1% impurity in a product matters immensely when you're producing 1 metric tons of the stuff. It's the same with a restaurant, I imagine, and trying to produce the same quality dish rapidly and consistently without much waste or flubbing the process, and being able to also rapidly adjust the volume you produce on a day to day basis with no strong indicator as to which way the demand is going to swing.
But none of that really registers when you read advertisement pieces from cities about booming restaurant scenes and how largely demand can be overstated when a city just wants some fresh air in their night life, and it's really appealing to people to imagine themselves as successful restauranteurs when inundated with such material.